Where Does Google Drive for Desktop Keep Its Files?
Where Drive for Desktop keeps its virtual drive, mirrored files and local cache on Windows and macOS.
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Drive for Desktop streams files from a virtual drive by default, so most of your Drive is not stored locally at all. The local footprint is a cache plus anything pinned offline.
The cache lives in the DriveFS folder. The virtual drive letter (Windows) or mount point (macOS) is configurable, but the cache path below is where disk space actually goes.
Where Google Drive for Desktop stores this, by platform
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\DriveFS
This is the cache, not your files. The virtual drive defaults to G: and mirrored content follows your Mirror settings. Check Drive settings > Google Drive streaming location for the live mapping.
~/Library/Application Support/Google/DriveFS
Same cache role. The virtual volume mounts under /Volumes/GoogleDrive by default. Pinned offline files also occupy real disk here.
Frequently asked questions
Which Drive files are actually on my disk?
Files set to Available offline (or entire folders mirrored) live on disk. Streamed files are placeholders fetched on open. Check the file's Drive status icon to tell which is which.
Can I clear the DriveFS cache to free space?
Quit Drive for Desktop first, then relaunch after freeing space. The cache rebuilds itself. Do not delete the cache mid-sync or pending uploads can stall.
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