[Q] Google App Security - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

This post is primarily pertaining to Gmail and Google Drive. Currently when I open a document (pdf, docx, xlsx, etc) from Gmail or Google Drive the files open in Quickoffice as expected. If I choose to make a file available offline in Google Drive it is available in ./sdcard/Android/<something docs>. I do enable encryption, so the contents of the file are scrambled. With Gmail if I save locally it creates the file in ./Downloads/.
All of this is fine and expected. My concern is for the first situation, when the Gmail attachment or Google Drive document opens in Quickoffice. I cannot find where this is cached locally. I am hoping it is /data/.
The reason I am asking is for security purposes. The inherent design of Android is open due to the /sdcard/ directory. Obviously any app on my phone can see any file there. Sometimes I have sensitive attachments I don't want exposed in these public directories. Are Gmail attachments and Google Drive documents cached securely in /data/ where other apps cannot access them when all I do is "preview" and not explicitly download a local copy?

Related

[Q] Automated sync from phone to cloud with Encryption

Hi there
I have been using the app FolderSync to sync all the files from my phone's internal storage to Google Drive on a daily basis just in case if I lose my phone, there will still be a copy of my files in the cloud which I can retrieve. However, I am not comfortable with leaving my files unprotected in the cloud.
I have done a fair bit of research but have not been able to find an app that can automatically encrypt all the files before syncing with my Google Drive. Apps like Boxcryptor require me to manually upload the files for it to encrypt my files but does not offer any kind of automatic syncing like FolderSync does.
It does not seem possible for me to link Boxcryptor with FolderSync to get the desired result of having my files encrypted then automatically synced with a folder in my cloud storage.
Has anyone encountered a similar issue and found a solution? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[Q] Make Google Drive appear as local storage to app

Is there a way to make a folder on Google Drive appear to be local storage? I realize that I can access files in Google Drive through the Google Drive app (and through ES Explorer). However, I don't know how to make files on Google Drive appear as though they are local, so that any app can use a file stored on GD as though the file was local (without the app "knowing" that the file is really stored on GD.
Is there a way to do this?

[Q] Connect Google Drive to Android

Google Drive for PC has a fantastic feature that allows you to keep a folder on your desktop that automatically syncs whether you're saving files directly to that folder from your PC or downloading files that have been uploaded to google drive from another device. So even if I have no internet connection I can access the files I have on google drive.
Is there no ability to do this from android? I have a note 3 and I would very much like to have a similar folder on my phone that would automatically download/upload the latest version of any file I have on my google drive. But alas, I have to download anything I wish to edit locally on my phone and then manually navigate back to the folder to save it there when I am done. And if I have no internet connection, I'm screwed. I'm adding dozens of files every week so making each of them "available offline" is not something that is feasible for me.
If there is no way to do this with google drive, does anybody know of any alternatives?
Thanks!

[Q] New google photo

I can't get my head around the new google photo.
I have always used quickpic so I have always organized pic locally by folder.
In google photo I can choose which folder to sync but in the app pics are organized by date, no way to organise them by folder.
If I delete a pic from the google photo app, it is also deleted from the synced local folder (I check with solid explorer), but if I delete a pic from the synced local folder (with solid explorer) it is not delete from the google photo app. I understand this pic (the one I deleted from local folder) is still stored only online, so if I am not online (on the plane, for example) can I view this photo? I'd say no, since it is online only.
If it is so, when I open the google photo app, how do I know which pics are also phisically present on which synced local folders?
If instead of deleting the pic from the synced local folder I move them to a non synced local folder, does it mean I will have a copy online and a copy offline not in sync?
Thanks
thegios said:
I can't get my head around the new google photo.
I have always used quickpic so I have always organized pic locally by folder.
In google photo I can choose which folder to sync but in the app pics are organized by date, no way to organise them by folder.
If you organize by "album", it pretty much puts in in standard view like the gallery where they are grouped by location (DCIM, Download, etc)
If I delete a pic from the google photo app, it is also deleted from the synced local folder (I check with solid explorer), but if I delete a pic from the synced local folder (with solid explorer) it is not delete from the google photo app. I understand this pic (the one I deleted from local folder) is still stored only online, so if I am not online (on the plane, for example) can I view this photo? I'd say no, since it is online only.
You may be able to if it is cached on the device. That one I'm not to sure about that one.
If it is so, when I open the google photo app, how do I know which pics are also phisically present on which synced local folders?
Try testing by viewing a photo and seeing if you can download it. If you can, then it probably isn't on the phone, or at least not in the original backup location
If instead of deleting the pic from the synced local folder I move them to a non synced local folder, does it mean I will have a copy online and a copy offline not in sync?
Good Question! If you get a result from experimentation, please post it. I'm curuios to know.
Thanks
Click to expand...
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Also, does anyone know how the 'unlimited storage" thing will work with photos already backed up? It still shows my library as taking up 10 GB on drive when they were backed up to G+. They are definitely all 16 MP or less, so do I have to do anything to change this over to the "new" setting? Or will it automatically apply after Google works the kinks out?

Using Google Drive and MS Office files/One Drive and Google Photos

Hello, everyone.
My girlfriend is a teacher and she is trying to use her Galaxy Tab S6 to check students homework. They send her docx, pdf and jpg files. She is mainly concerned about docx and jpg files, but having some issues with it.
If she uses Google Drive to sync the files between her notebook and Google's cloud, she can open the jpg files using Google Photos and she has the option to edit it, using the pen. But when she opens docx files on Office for Android she does not have the option to save and and have it synced automatically. She has to save locally and then sync with Google Drive. I know she can use Google Docs to edit it, but she prefers Word.
So I sugested using OneDrive, cause she would probably not have that issue. And indeed she doesn't. She can edit the docx files and it automatically saves to OneDrive storage. But she can't open the jpg files with Google Photos like before. When opening the jpg files from OneDrive, using Google Photos, she does not have the option to edit it using the pen.
We are trying to find a way to have the best of both worlds. Any ideas?
Thanx.

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