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I lost years’ worth of Google Docs files because of a poor user interface

googledrivesucks.com

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Re: I lost years’ worth of Google Docs files because of a poor user interface

#141

Post by zaroth »

They try to warn you, but the warning message doesn't make any sense, unless you already know what it's trying to say.

   "An item you recently removed from your Google Drive folder has been moved
   to your trash on drive.google.com.

   This item is just a link. If you empty your trash on
   drive.google.com, this item will be permanently deleted."
See how the meaning of the phrase "this item" actually changes from one sentence to the next?

You can't actually write a decent warning message, because if you did, it would sound so ridiculous, you would never actually be able to live with it.

   We noticed some files have been removed from your Google
   Drive folder.

   We can't tell the difference between you moving files
   from your Google Drive folder to another folder on your
   hard drive, and you simply deleting files from your
   Google Drive folder.

   We're going to guess that you performed a delete, and so
   we've also moved the actual document, which is stored in
   the cloud, to your Trash folder on drive.google.com.

   If you actually moved files out of your Google Drive
   folder to another folder on your hard drive, you might
   think that file you have on your computer is a copy of
   the source material. Alas, it is not.

   Please understand that file you may have on your
   computer right now is just a link to the item in the
   cloud, which is currently sitting in the Trash. You
   DO NOT actually have a copy of item itself on your hard
   drive.

   If you empty your trash in the cloud, you will be
   permanently deleting the only copy in existence of this
   item.
LOL...

Make it as as simple as possible, but no simpler.

Conflating hyperlinks with the actual content to the point where deleting the hyperlink causes the content to move to the trash is nonsensical.

Re: I lost years’ worth of Google Docs files because of a poor user interface

#142

Post by atoponce »

FigBug wrote: post #137
atoponce wrote: post #130

So, let me get this straight. You moved everything to Google Drive, not keeping a local copy. Then you emptied the trash. And you didn't have a backup of your documents, but instead decided to leave everything in the cloud. Then, when something goes wrong, you blame Google. Am I understanding correctly?

Nope, not understanding it at all. He moved files out of his google drive, but the files aren't files, just links to the cloud. So even though he still has the files, they have no data in them.

But, still no backup? Files only exist in Google Drive, and no where else?

Re: I lost years’ worth of Google Docs files because of a poor user interface

#143

Post by candydance »

cldr wrote: post #68
jchung wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good question. Seems a pretty simple solution: the browser is the editor, even if the files are local. We use browsers to interact with local files all the time, for example during local web app development.

Only that's impossible as it is now (and will be for the forseeable future) because it wouldn't be very wise to give browser apps write access to the local filesystem.

The google drive already has access to the local filesystem, so that is a not a good reason to not have a local copy of the data.

Re: I lost years’ worth of Google Docs files because of a poor user interface

#144

Post by candydance »

tytso wrote: post #53

If files weren't completely deleted when the trash was emptied, then people would be kvetching about the horrible security implications and the only way to be sure was to keep files on the local disk so that when you emptied the trash, the files would be really gone....

Ehhh, no. That's how dropbox works. If you delete a file it stays in the cloud for a month before it's fully deleted. You can use the web interface to do a proper delete, but the interface makes it clear what you are doing.

Not only that but dropbox keeps a few revisions for you if you happen to overwrite the file.

I've NEVER heard anyone complain about these features before.

Re: I lost years’ worth of Google Docs files because of a poor user interface

#145

Post by Oletros »

sp332 wrote: post #114
Oletros wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, the OP emptied the Google Drive trash can that it is the same than permanent deleting files on Dropbox.

The complaint is that Google Drive's UI is confusing, and can lead to unintentional data loss. Dropbox has a much better UI, and it's harder to lose data by accident.

Ah, yes, it is confusing for Google Docs files

Re: I lost years’ worth of Google Docs files because of a poor user interface

#146

Post by scholia »

was_hellbanned wrote: post #110
jamesaguilar wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, the files in your drive "look like" they are files, but they are actually just links. So him moving them to the local disk did not actually copy the files to local disk. The real failure here is that you shouldn't be able to move the drive links out of the drive folder, since semantically that does not actually move the files. (Filed a bug, but I'm not on the Drive team so I can't really take responsibility for t…

> The real failure here is that you shouldn't be able to move the drive links out of the drive folder, since semantically that does not actually move the files. Or stop trying to force a connection between Google Drive's file view and Google Docs. Move the links out of GDrive all you want, it should have no effect whatsoever on the hosted GDocs. They're just links, after all. Since when does moving or deleting a link…

Well said...

Re: I lost years’ worth of Google Docs files because of a poor user interface

#147

Post by vernie »

Oletros wrote: post #118
vernie wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but you have a copy of the actual file, not a hollow reference to the the deleted version on Dropbox's servers. You can also recover the file via Dropbox's version interface.

Yap, like Google Drive or Skydrive. The problem is just with Google Docs files

The problem is that Drive and Docs are no longer different products and what used to be Docs appear as "files" in your Drive.
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