How to Speed up Slow Google Drive

Introduction

Cloud storage facilities are proving their worth day in and out of being easily accessible throughout the world. There are a quite a few Cloud storage platforms in the market and Google Drive is one of the more popular ones. Google Drive is very quick to respond to user commands and can be accessed from a variety of platforms including Android, Windows, Browser. It has an outstanding download and upload speed with the lowest possible lag period a user might suffer. This is because its CDNs (content delivery networks) are placed at multiple locations around the world. However, sometimes Google Drive might buckle down for a while due to certain issues. This article provides various solutions to increase the speed of Google Drive.

Symptoms

1. The desktop client of Google Drive is not very responsive (Desktop Version)
2. Google Drive syncs the files very slowly (Browser Version + the Desktop Version)
3. Google Drive stutters constantly (Browser Version)

Solution 1: The Desktop Client Of Google Drive is Not Very Responsive (Desktop Version)

This problem is not usually caused by Google Drive app. The actual reason behind the problem might be inadequate hardware of the system being used. This issue can be rectified by either upgrading the existing hardware of the system or turning the windows into performance mode.

1. Press Windows Key + E simultaneously.
2. Find “This PC” -> Right Click on it -> Properties.
   
3. Open the Advanced tab. Locate the “Advanced System Settings” and then “Settings” and open it.
4. Check the “Adjust for best performance” in the Visual Effects tab and then click Apply | OK to make the changes take effect.
   

 

Solution 2: Google Drive Syncs The Files Very Slowly (Both the Browser Version + the Desktop Version)

Again, it’s very unlikely for either Google servers or networks to have a very slow speed or a high latency rate. If the files sync very slowly with local files or remote files, there has to be an issue with the connectivity of the user.

Desktop Client

1. Find the Google Drive icon in the Taskbar.
2. Right-click -> Three vertical dotted lines symbol -> Preferences.
   
3. Switch to the “Advanced” tab and then check the “Direct connection”, “Don’t limit” and the “Don’t limit” options.
   

 

Google Chrome

People usually take the longer route to clean up the cache and temporary files of the browser, but there is a really short way to do it without messing up with the settings.

1. Open Google Chrome.
2. Press the F12 key.
3. Find the “Refresh” button in the browser.
   
4. Right click on it -> Empty Cache and Hard Reload.

 

Solution 3: Google Drive Stutters Constantly (Browser Version)

Google Drive’s web interface is extremely friendly for today’s web browsers, therefore it’s very unlikely that the fault lies with Google. If Google Drive stutters a lot on your end, you can follow these simple steps to fix the issue:

1. Make sure the system has enough system memory. Modern browsers nowadays need at least 2GB of memory in Windows 7 and above, Google Chrome needs 8GB though. If it’s not possible to add more RAM, close all other tabs except Google drive.
2. Clear the browser cache (as explained in Solution 2).
3. Turn the “Hardware Accelerator” on and install the graphics driver

Intel: http://support.amd.com/en-us/download
AMD: http://support.amd.com/en-us/download
Nvidia: http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx

 

To Enable the Hardware Accelerator, follow these steps:

1. Click the three-dotted line again and select Settings.
   
2. Scroll down and click Show advanced settings.
   
3. Now select the checkbox for Use hardware acceleration when available.