How-to · Other machines
Sync a folder with Google Drive
Connect Google Drive, then keep any folder the same on every computer and phone, and share it with other people.
You want a folder on this computer to stay the same as a folder in Google Drive. A change made on another computer, a phone or the Drive website then arrives here, and a change made here arrives there.
- Open Settings, go to the Accounts tab and choose Google Drive.
- Press Connect Google Drive. Your browser opens Google's sign-in.
- Choose your Google account, and leave See, edit, create and delete all of your Google Drive files ticked. Return to Turret. The section shows your address.
- Go to the Google Drive tab and press Add a folder….
- Choose the folder, and change its name in Google Drive if you want to. It goes in a folder called Turret in your My Drive.
- Press Next. Turret shows how many files go to Google Drive, what it leaves out and why, and how much room Google Drive has.
- Press Start syncing. The folder's row shows its progress, then Synced.
From then on Turret syncs the folder within a few seconds of a change here, and about once a minute for a change made elsewhere. A session working in the folder is never synced mid-turn; the sync runs when the turn ends.
Share it with someone
- On the Google Drive tab, open the folder's row and press Share….
- Type their email address and press Share. Google emails them a link.
- If they use Turret, the folder shows up under Shared with you on their Google Drive tab.
- They press Sync…, choose where it goes on their computer, and press Start syncing.
Everyone the folder is shared with through Turret can edit it. A folder someone shared with you for viewing only cannot be synced; ask them to make you an editor.
When a file changed in two places
If a file changed here and somewhere else before the two met, Turret keeps both versions. Yours
keeps its name, and the other version sits beside it, named after whoever changed it:
Lasagne (Sam Rivera's version, 26 Sep).md.
The folder's row, and the chip at the top of a session in the folder, say changed in two places. Choose which version to keep, or keep both. Renaming or deleting either file yourself counts as keeping both.
When Turret asks before removing files
If a single sync would remove more than twenty files, or more than half the folder, Turret stops and asks. Nothing Turret removes is deleted for good: it goes to this computer's trash, and to Drive's trash.
Press Put them back if the removal was a mistake. Choose to remove them if it was meant.
On a phone
On an Android phone, open Settings, then Google Drive, and press Connect Google Drive. Google's own account sheet opens on the phone; nothing opens in a browser.
Then press Add a folder and pick a folder in the workspace. A folder someone shared with you is listed under Shared with you, with a Sync button beside it.
A conversation in a synced folder shows the folder's glyph in its header. Press it to see how the folder is doing. Turret syncs about every fifteen minutes while it is closed, and within a few minutes while it is open. It does not sync at all after Stop in its notification.
Stop syncing
Open the folder's row and press Stop syncing…. The folder stays on this computer as it is. If you own the Drive folder, you can also move it to Drive's trash.
The folder then sits under Not syncing on this computer, where Sync again starts it again.
Google Docs, Sheets and Slides in a synced folder come to this computer as small link files that open in your browser. See Settings.