Google Drive Setup

Configure Google Drive mount on Linux via rclone + gog OAuth. Use when user wants to mount Google Drive as local filesystem, set up auto-mount on boot, or configure rclone with Google OAuth. Covers OAuth setup with gog, rclone configuration, and systemd auto-mount.

Mount Google Drive as a local filesystem using rclone, with OAuth via gog CLI.

Prerequisites

• gog CLI installed and authenticated (see gog skill)
• rclone installed
• fuse / fusermount available

Step 1: Get OAuth Credentials from gog

gog already has a valid refresh token. Export it:

export GOG_KEYRING_PASSWORD=<your-password>
gog auth tokens export <[e-mail]> --out /tmp/gog_token.json --overwrite

Extract the refresh_token, client_id, and client_secret from:

• /tmp/gog_token.json → refresh_token
• ~/.config/gogcli/credentials.json → client_id, client_secret

Step 2: Configure rclone

Write ~/.config/rclone/rclone.conf:

[GoogleDrive]
type = drive
client_id = <client_id>
client_secret = <client_secret>
scope = drive
token = {"access_token":"","token_type":"Bearer","refresh_token":"<refresh_token>","expiry":"2026-01-01T00:00:00Z"}
team_drive =

Manually refresh the access token (rclone will auto-refresh thereafter):

curl -s -X POST https://oauth2.googleapis.com/token \
  -d client_id=<client_id> \
  -d client_secret=<client_secret> \
  -d refresh_token=<refresh_token> \
  -d grant_type=refresh_token

Update rclone.conf with the returned access_token and real expiry time.

Verify: rclone lsd GoogleDrive:

Step 3: Mount to Filesystem

mkdir -p /mnt/gdrive
rclone mount GoogleDrive: /mnt/gdrive \
  --daemon \
  --vfs-cache-mode full \
  --vfs-cache-max-size 2G \
  --dir-cache-time 72h \
  --allow-other

Step 4: Auto-mount on Boot (systemd)

Create /etc/systemd/system/rclone-gdrive.service:

[Unit]
Description=rclone mount Google Drive
After=network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target

[Service]
Type=notify
ExecStart=/usr/bin/rclone mount GoogleDrive: /mnt/gdrive --vfs-cache-mode full --vfs-cache-max-size 2G --dir-cache-time 72h --allow-other
ExecStop=/bin/fusermount -u /mnt/gdrive
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=10

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Enable:

systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl enable rclone-gdrive
systemctl start rclone-gdrive

Troubleshooting

• "empty token found": rclone config has no valid token. Re-do Step 2.
• "token expired and no refresh token": refresh_token missing from rclone.conf.
• "Object does not exist at path /": gog keyring backend issue. Switch to file: gog auth keyring file and set GOG_KEYRING_PASSWORD.
• "access_denied" / "developer hasn't given you access": Add user as test user in Google Cloud Console → OAuth consent screen.
• OAuth app type must be "Desktop app": Web-type credentials redirect_uri won't work for remote servers. Use Desktop type.