Private beta: October–NovemberOct–Nov 2026
Ambifold is a background app for Linux that keeps the folders you choose in two‑way sync with Google Drive™. It shows you what it will do before the first sync, stops before mass deletes, and keeps a backup of the files it replaces or deletes on your computer.
The settings page runs on your own computer and opens in your usual browser. Screenshot of the current pre-release.
Why now
Google has never made a Drive app for Linux. For years the desktop filled the gap: sign in once, and your Drive showed up in the file manager. That is going away.
GNOME 50, the desktop of Ubuntu 26.04 LTS, no longer opens Google Drive in Files: the library behind it went unmaintained, and GVfs, the layer that file managers use for online storage, stopped using it. Linux Mint 27 “Adrien”, planned for Christmas 2026, is built on Ubuntu 26.04, and Mint's project lead has written that GNOME Online Accounts, which brought Drive into Mint's file manager, “no longer supports Google Drive”.
What changed on Ubuntu 26.04 and Linux Mint, and what still works. Step by step: Google Drive on Linux Mint 22 and 27 and syncing Google Drive on Ubuntu.
Ambifold is a different approach. Instead of browsing Drive over the network, it keeps real copies of your chosen folders on your disk, so files open instantly, work offline, and sync both ways in the background.
How it works
Ambifold lives in your tray and keeps working in the background. Its settings page opens in your browser whenever you need it.
The app guides you step by step through creating your own Google sign-in client, a one-time setup. With Pro, add more accounts the same way, personal and work side by side (if your organisation allows it).
Choose a folder on your computer and a folder in your Drive. The free edition syncs up to three pairs, for example Documents, Photos and Work. Pro has no limit, and you can try it free for 14 days.
Ambifold shows what the first sync will copy in each direction. Nothing happens until you confirm. From then on, both sides stay in sync on their own.
Features
Edits on your computer are picked up within seconds and synced in the next pass; with a very large Drive folder, a pass can take a minute or two. Changes made in Drive, on the web or on your phone, usually arrive within a minute while you are working, and within a few minutes when things are quiet.
Not a network mount: your synced files are ordinary local files. They open instantly, work offline, and every app can use them.
Connect personal and work accounts at the same time, each with its own folder pairs. Work and school accounts need their administrator to allow apps like this one.
See the status at a glance, open any synced folder, sync everything now, or pause and resume, straight from the tray icon.
If a file changed on both sides, the newer version wins by default and the other is kept next to it with “conflict” and a number in its name.
Your files go straight between your computer and Google, never through us. There is no account with us and no analytics in the app, and the free edition never contacts us, unless you send us a problem report or turn on health reports. The settings page is reachable only from your own computer.
Safety
Two-way sync is powerful, and a mistake travels fast. Ambifold checks with you before big changes and leaves you a way to get files back.
Whichever sync tool you use, our two-way sync safety checklist shows how to start safely.
Status and limits
Ambifold works end to end on the developer's own computer and has a large automated test suite, but it has not been in other people's hands yet. That is what the beta is for.
A private beta for Linux Mint and Ubuntu users is planned for October and November 2026. Please keep your usual backups while you try it.
Linux Mint and Ubuntu come first (Cinnamon and GNOME); other distributions may work but are not tested yet. There is no Windows or macOS version, and none is planned: on those systems, Google's own Drive for desktop does this job.
Ambifold asks Google Drive for its list of changes on a schedule, not the moment they happen: every 30 seconds after recent activity, every 2 minutes when things are quiet and every 5 minutes after a few quiet hours, and not while the computer sleeps. So while you're active, a change made in Drive usually arrives within a minute; when things are quiet, within a few minutes, and after a long quiet spell within about five. Changes on your computer are picked up within seconds.
By default these stay in Drive and are skipped: they are not regular files, and Google only offers converted copies (such as .docx) without version history, sharing or live editing together. You can turn on those copies in the settings, but changes to them never go back into the Google document. If you edit a copy, Ambifold leaves it out, keeps syncing the rest of the folder, and asks whether to keep your changes as a new file or discard them. Renaming, moving or deleting a copy moves the document to the Drive trash. Everything else, such as PDFs, photos and office files, syncs normally.
Folders in your own Drive can be synced. Shared drives and “Shared with me” are not supported yet.
If your organisation's Google Workspace administrator restricts third-party apps, or your account uses Advanced Protection, Google may block the sign-in.
The free edition and the Pro trial need your own Google sign-in client, and so does Pro when one-click sign-in isn't available to you. The app walks you through creating it step by step, once. Because the client is yours and unverified, Google shows a warning screen during sign-in, which the guide explains. To see the steps first, read Create your own Google Drive client ID.
The tray icon needs a panel that shows app indicators: Cinnamon does, and so does Ubuntu's GNOME. Without one, Ambifold opens its settings page instead.
FAQ
No. Google's own Drive for desktop is made for Windows and macOS only. On Linux you can use Drive in the browser, the file manager's Online Accounts where it still works (Linux Mint 22 and Ubuntu 24.04; it is gone from Ubuntu 26.04 and expected to go in Linux Mint 27), rclone, or a sync app such as Insync, overGrive or Ambifold. Our guides compare them: Google Drive clients for Linux, and step by step for Linux Mint and Ubuntu.
There is a free edition, forever: one Google account and up to three folders, with every sync and safety feature. Pro syncs as many accounts and folders as you like, on up to three computers. One-click Google sign-in: early access, limited places, depends on Google (how the places work). The Google Drive folder comes to Pro when it arrives. Try it free for 14 days in the app, no card needed.
Subscribe before version 1.0 and Pro costs you $15 a year for as long as you stay subscribed, also after 1.0; only people who subscribe after 1.0 pay $19 a year. Until then there is also a Founder licence for the first 100 buyers: $59 once, for as long as Ambifold is offered. Prices include tax. The beta is free. See prices
To sync any folder you choose, Ambifold needs full access to your Google Drive. Google lets a public app ask for that only after a lengthy security review. Ambifold avoids that by connecting through a client that you create in your own Google Cloud project, which Google allows for personal use. The client and its keys stay with you, on your computer. Pro may skip this, while places last: one-click sign-in connects through Ambifold's own client. Until Google verifies Ambifold, Google allows that for only 100 Google accounts in total, shared by all users, and shows a warning that it hasn't verified the app yet; Google decides whether and when it verifies Ambifold. The free edition, the trial and the beta testers' free Pro use your own client.
Ambifold asks Google for access to your Google Drive files (Google's sign-in screen calls it “See, edit, create, and delete all of your Google Drive files”), and it reads your account's name and email address to label the account in the app. That is the same whether you connect through your own Google client or, with Pro, through one-click sign-in.
It uses that access only for what you set up: to show your Drive folders when you pick one, and to download, upload, update and delete files so that each folder pair stays the same on both sides. When a sync deletes a file in your Drive, the file goes to Drive's trash. All of this happens on your computer; none of it is sent to us. The privacy policy has the details.
No. Your files and your Google sign-in go directly between your computer and Google, never through us. The app has no analytics and no crash reports, and the free edition sends nothing to us at all, unless you send us a problem report or turn on health reports. Only if you choose Report a problem… and press Send does it send us what you wrote and, if you agree, a diagnostics text without file or folder names (privacy policy). And only if you turn on health reports does it send us an anonymous report of counts once a week, such as the app's version and how syncing went, with nothing that identifies you (privacy policy). With Pro, the app checks its licence with our server now and then: it sends a licence code, a code made from your computer's ID, the app's version and your Linux version's name, never files, folder names or Google data. You do not need an account with us.
The settings page runs on your computer at 127.0.0.1. It needs a one-time key that the tray icon hands to your browser, and it refuses requests from other websites and from other users of the same computer. Read the privacy policy for the details.
No, and none is planned. On Windows and macOS, Google's own Drive for desktop does this job well, and we recommend it. Ambifold exists for Linux, where Google offers no Drive app.
No, the code is private. Your files go straight between your computer and Google, never through us, and the privacy policy says exactly what the app sends, and where. We may publish the code later.
All three are good tools, and one of them is inside Ambifold. The difference is focus:
Compared with mounting Drive as a network folder (as the file manager did, or rclone mount), Ambifold keeps real local copies, so your files work offline and open instantly. Mount or sync? explains the difference.
Our guide to Google Drive clients for Linux in 2026 compares these and other options, including what each one does better.
Ambifold is designed for exactly that, with a preview before the first sync, a stop before mass deletes, backups of replaced files on your computer, and Drive's own trash on the other side. It is still pre-release software, though, so start with one folder and keep your usual backups during the beta.
The beta targets Linux Mint and Ubuntu, with the Cinnamon and GNOME desktops, including encrypted home folders. Other distributions may well work, but they are not tested yet. Tell us yours in the signup form: it helps us decide what to test next.
The download page explains what you need, and how installing, updates and removing work.
Private beta
Get the beta: leave your email and get your download link in a minute. It's free, for Linux Mint and Ubuntu. We let in a limited number of new testers each week: if this week is full, we tell you when your turn comes, and email you your link then.