In this guide, we will discuss “Google Drive Broken on Windows: Fix and Prevent it from happening again”. Google Drive for desktop can occasionally stop working correctly due to numerous reasons in Windows 11. In some cases, Google Drive may not appear in File Explorer, and the Google Drive icon may also not be visible via the system tray. Please see How to fix Error 202: AMD Software Installer Fails to install Update, Resolve Veeam ONE “The specified property cannot be found” and License Mismatch Errors During upgrade, and How to fix Update Error 0x800f0831 in Windows or Windows Server.
Fix Google Drive disappearing from File Explorer
If Google Drive does not appear to be running as shown below. You can manually launch it from the Windows Start menu. If this is not the case, you may have to re-install Google Drive.
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Relaunch Google Drive
The he fastest fix is often simply relaunching the app. I could fix this by relaunching Google Drive with the steps below. To do this,
- Press the Windows Key or click the Start Menu.
- Type Google Drive.
- If it shows up in the search results, click on Open.
To pin Google Drive to the Quick access sidebar in File Explorer, right-click Google Drive under Devices and drives and select Pin to Quick access.
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Root Cause Analysis
Simply launching Google Drive from the Start menu fixed the issue for me. This indicates that the Google Drive for desktop application was not running properly in the background. There are several possible reasons why this can happen:
- Google Drive did not start with Windows: Google Drive normally starts automatically when you sign in to Windows. If its startup entry becomes disabled, fails to launch, or is delayed during system startup, Google Drive may not start in the background. Launching it manually from the Start menu starts the Google Drive for desktop process (
GoogleDriveFS.exe), which restores the virtual drive and resumes synchronization.
- The Google Drive app stopped or closed: Google Drive for desktop may have crashed, been terminated, or stopped running during a Windows update or another system event. When the application is no longer running, its virtual drive may disappear from File Explorer, and synchronization stops.
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How to Prevent Recurrence
For me, this was already set to enabled automatically. To make sure you don’t have to manually launch it after every reboot:
- Open Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc) or type Task manager
- Go to the Startup apps tab.
- Find Google Drive and ensure its status is set to Enabled.
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Reinstall Google Drive (If the App is Missing)
This was not my case. But, if searching for Google Drive in the Start Menu returns no app, or clicking it does nothing, the client needs a fresh install. To do this, please follow the steps below;
- Download the installer directly from Google Drive for Desktop.
- Run GoogleDriveSetup.exe.
- Sign in with your Google account when prompted.
- Once logged in, it will recreate the G: virtual drive automatically and pin the new, working shortcut to your File Explorer.
I hope you found this post on “Google Drive Broken on Windows: Fix and Prevent it from happening again” very useful. Please feel free to leave a comment below.
