rclone - Google Drive CLI

Tool: rclone (open source, MIT license, 50k+ GitHub stars) Traffic: Direct PC ↔ Google API, no third-party middleman Config: ~\AppData\Roaming\rclone\rclone.conf Remote name: gdrive:

🚨 Critical Limitation

rclone is READ-ONLY for native Google formats:

• ✅ Download/export (Sheets→xlsx, Docs→docx, Slides→pptx)
• ✅ List, search, navigate folders
• ✅ Upload/create regular files (pdf, xlsx, images)
• ❌ CANNOT create native Google Sheets/Docs/Slides
• ❌ CANNOT duplicate files preserving native format
• ❌ CANNOT edit Google Sheets in place

For creating Google Sheets: Use Chrome automation to create/duplicate, then MCP for cell manipulation.

When to Use

• Reading/fetching Google Sheets data → download as xlsx, parse locally
• Searching for files on Drive
• Downloading any Drive files
• Uploading regular files (NOT native Google formats)

Common Commands

# List folders at root
rclone lsd gdrive:

# List files in a folder
rclone ls gdrive:"YourCompany (Root)"

# Upload file
rclone copy file.txt gdrive:folder/

# Download file
rclone copy gdrive:file.txt ./

# Create folder
rclone mkdir gdrive:"New Folder"

# Move file
rclone move gdrive:file.txt gdrive:dest/

# Download Google Sheet as Excel
rclone copy gdrive:"path/to/sheet.xlsx" ./

# Sync local folder to Drive
rclone sync ./local-folder gdrive:remote-folder

# List with details (size, date)
rclone lsl gdrive:folder/

# Check what would be copied (dry run)
rclone copy --dry-run source dest

Google Sheets Specifics

Clarification: Google Sheets ARE Google Drive files (native format). rclone handles them by exporting on download:

• Sheets → .xlsx
• Docs → .docx
• Slides → .pptx

Use case: Reading Sheet data without browser automation. Download as xlsx, then parse locally.

# Download sheet and search contents
rclone copy gdrive:"path/to/MySheet" /tmp/
unzip -p /tmp/MySheet.xlsx xl/sharedStrings.xml | tr '<' '\n' | grep -i "searchterm"

This is faster and more reliable than browser automation for data extraction.

Troubleshooting

Auth expired: Re-run rclone config and re-authenticate the gdrive remote.

Quota errors: Google Drive API has rate limits. Add --drive-pacer-min-sleep 100ms for heavy operations.

Path with spaces: Always quote paths containing spaces: gdrive:"Folder Name/file.txt"