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Dropbox being added as a supported cloud provider has given me some hope that Retrospect might support some other less than enterprise class cloud storage solutions. While Dropbox offers 5GB for free, I have three times that sitting unused in my Google account under Drive. 

 

I know Google supports API access as I have seen other third party utilities that can mount a Google Drive on the desktop. While I could probably chose the mounted drive path as a source for a Disk Media Set, I suspect it would be better for Retrospect to handle that "natively", as it now does for the other "certified" providers.

 

Has any thought gone into adding support for Google Drive? Or has anyone figured out how to use Google Drive with the existing cloud setup options?

 

And since I mentioned it, has anyone used a non-certified cloud service mounted to the desktop as the location of a Disk Media Set (which by definition does not include the catalog itself, I would keep that local). If so, how has your experience been? Of course speed is a factor of your internet connection. But does it otherwise appear stable? Which utility did you choose to mount the disk? (I'm looking at Mountain Duck.) How does Retropsect fair in handling an unexpected disconnect in the middle of a backup or restore? Is this all worth my consideration?

 

Thanks  :)

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Having read DovidBenAvraham's augmented Wikipedia article on Retrospect, I regret to inform brian163 that Retrospect can currently do cloud backup natively only to provider services that are either AWS-S3-compatible (as of Retrospect Mac 13) or WebDAV-compatible (as of Retrospect Mac 9).  According to the WP article on Google Drive, it is not compatible with either of these protocols.  Those incompatibilities are also likely to be true for any 15GB of cloud storage brian163's hypothetical cat—who may be named Larry Page or Sergey Brin—may have dragged in 🤣.

 

However lovable Larry Ellison may have come to brian163's rescue for a paltry US$1/TB/month for uploading onto Oracle Archive Cloud, as mentioned in an Ars Technica thread starting with this post.  Oracle Archive Cloud is apparently AWS-S3-compatible, but it is not certified by Retrospect Inc..  I'm not sure whether certification of a cloud backup provider is dependent on Retrospect Inc.'s having run actual tests, or whether it is dependent on Retrospect Inc.'s having reached some kind of deal with the provider, or whether it is dependent on both.  In any case, as pointed out by the poster of the linked-to post further down that thread, the expense of a Oracle Archive Cloud recovery is such that it is only appropriate in "Fireman, fireman, save my photos/videos/artwork!" situations.

 

Another alternative would be, as brian163 says above, to try to use Mountain Duck to mount Google Drive as a WebDAV-compatible drive on the desktop.  In this case brian163 would not be paying attention to anything in the Retrospect Mac 13 User's Guide "What's New" chapter, but instead to mentions of "network shares" at various places in the UG.  The primary starting point would be "Adding network shares" on page 85, but brian163 should search for mentions in later pages of the UG.  Having done so, he might do well to adapt the procedure shown in this post, since he would have to cut down his Google Drive-stored Media Set to 15GB.  In step C3), brian163 would replace "setup your cloud account" with "use Mountain Duck to mount the Google Drive storage as a network share on the desktop".  In steps C4) through C7), he would replace "new Cloud Media Set" with "new WebDAV Media Set".  In steps C1) and C7), brian163 would replace the "months" mentions with whatever it would take to restrict his new WebDAV Media Set to 15GB—which in my experience is a laughably small amount of storage (my MacBook Pro's Macintosh HD started out at 29GB backed up in a Recycle Media Set script once a week, and has since grown to 50GB).

P.S.: So that this post can serve as a reference for anyone asking about possible Retrospect compatibility with Google Drive and "other less than enterprise class cloud storage solutions", here is a blog post comparing Google Drive with Google Cloud Storage.  Google Cloud Storage is AWS-S3-compatible; Google Drive is not.  With the exception of Backblaze B2—which was cheaper than any other suitable cloud provider at the time Retrospect was enhanced to interface with it , every cloud provider Retrospect Inc. has since certified for Cloud Media Set backup is AWS-S3-compatible.  

Edited by DavidHertzberg
P.S. adds link to blog post comparing Google Drive to Google Cloud Storage, and stresses "no AWS-S3-compatibility = no Cloud Media Set "
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