Google Drive - Watch Folder Issues

I’m not sure if this should be in “Bugs” or a feature request. :thinking:

Currently, if users are utilizing Google Drive to hold their main Fontbase folder, we can not create Watched Folders which is a huge pain point.

If the FontBase root folder is on your local machine you CAN create a “Watch Folder” to Google Drive.

If your FontBase root folder is on your Google Drive (for working with teams to sync collections), you CAN NOT create Watch Folders. This means you can’t watch your System fonts, OR, if you have your fonts organized outside the FontBase root and want to “Watch” those folders for changes vs. making copies you can’t.

The only work-around is to move ALL folders into the FontBase root in Drive; which isn’t ideal or preferred. There’s no resolution for System fonts that we can find.

If we change the structure so that each team member has the FontBase folder installed locally they could use a “Watch Folder” to link to the shared fonts on Google Drive, however, then Collections can no longer be shared/synced. :cry:

Ideally it would be nice for teams that use Google Drive specifically to be able to use the “Watch Folder”.

Part of this issue might lie in the fact that Google Drive doesn’t allow you to create symlinks on it like you can in say One Drive; assuming “Watch Folders” are acting like symlinks. Google Drive has it’s own “Shortcut” feature to mimic symlinks within Drive itself so maybe some sort of compatibility with that needs to be added for Drive teams?

If not then some other way to synchronize collections? Such as either choosing the location of the collections (much like we can the root), or alternatively, a dedicated “Shared” collection that we can choose the default location for.

Edit:
Honestly, having a separate “Shared” or “Team” Collection area would make it possible to allow users to have FontBase installed locally, use “Watch Folders” for Shared team fonts stored in Drive, solve the System Font watch folder issue mentioned above, and give access to a set of “Shared” team collections. All the while keeping their own “local” private Folders/Collections.

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Hello @syrehn, thank you for such a detailed post and sorry for taking so long to reply.
After some consideration it looks like this is very likely to be implemented in one of the next FontBase updates, so please bear with us until then.
Thank you again,
Yuriy
FontBase Dev Team

@yuriy - Has any progress been made on this. It’s still a huge pain point for our team.

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Hello @syrehn, thank you for upping this topic and sorry for the delay.
Were you able to at least partially cover the needs you’ve described above with the collection auto-sync and separate export/import functions?

Is this available yet? I have my fontbase stored on a google drive as well, but I cannot add a google drive for a watched folder. It askes me to add one, asks for my password, but then nothing happens.

Hi, I’m afraid this hasn’t been completely resolved yet.
Sorry about that

What about now? This is a huge issue for us.

Hello @MoonlitMedia,
Unfortunately Google Drive still hasn’t changed their policy on allowing symlinks, and this is the main limiting factor on making Watched Folders work with GD.
Sorry again,
Yuriy