Don't let the big hoo-haa that is going around scare you. Google Drive, the desktop (pc/mac) app is going away, but the service itself is basically intact and not going anywhere. So if you use the service via your web browser, then you won't notice much difference. But if you rely on the desktop app, you might want to download the Backup and Sync and start familiarizing with the app before GD app goes completely offline.

Google Drive for Mac/PC will no longer be supported starting on December 11th, 2017, and it will shut down completely on March 12th, 2018.


The real motivator behind the Drive app’s deprecation is a push to move enterprise users over to the new Drive File Stream app. Launching on September 26th, File Stream is intended to be used as a sort of collective hard drive for teams and organizations. All files are kept in the cloud and can be edited from anywhere. Say, for example, you’re a designer—you wouldn’t be downloading that PSD file, opening it in Photoshop, making some changes, saving it on your hard drive, and then re-uploading it to the cloud. Instead you’ll just open it straight out of File Stream and save it in the same place.

A few important things to note:

In October, Drive for Mac/PC users may start seeing messages in the product notifying them that Drive for Mac/PC is going away.

• If a user is running both Drive File Stream and Backup and Sync on the same machine, they’ll be prompted to stop syncing My Drive with Backup and Sync in order to save disk space.
• Team Drive editors won’t be able to edit their Team Drive files when they’re opened in Drive File Stream; they’ll only be able to view them. 
• To edit these files, they’ll need to open them in Drive on the web.