Google Drive + AudioBox integration.
Google Drive is the cloud storage solution from Google™.
AudioBox score:
5/10
The score is calculated taking into consideration how many features the remote platform has to work with media files, including streaming/sync speed, reliability, API and how well it integrates with AudioBox.
Requirements.
- A valid Google Drive account.
- An AudioBox account with a valid subscription.
- Media Files on your Google Drive account in the /Media folder.
First steps.
- Get a Google Drive account. Make sure the Google Drive account is confirmed and that is working.
- Purchase any paid plan from AudioBox.
- Link your Google Drive account through the Dashboard.
Preparing the sync.
The first time you run the sync, AudioBox will create, if it doesn't already exists, a
Media
folder in the root of your Google Drive account. For performance and security reasons this is the only folder AudioBox will look in.
Make sure to copy or move all the media files you want to sync in this folder, otherwise the synchronization will come up empty and no files will be imported.
If the folder does not exists the sync will be performed, but it will only create the initial folder and send you an email with few instructions.
Gotchas.
- It is not recommended to perform file/folder operations on your Google Drive account Media folder while a sync with AudioBox is in progress.
- The AudioBox Google Drive sync has been tweaked to be very fast but it may take a while. Do not attempt to resubmit the same job if you know one is already running.
- If something is not working check your notifications or your e-mail inbox. Make sure your email is working and up to date.
Metadata Support.
Google Drive does not extract metadata out of your media files and thus this information is not returned to us.
In other cases AudioBox works around this limitation by examining the file path: if it follows the iTunes convention AudioBox is able to write metatags during the sync.
This is not technically possibile with Google Drive, therefore all your imported media files will have unknown metadata and you need to fix them up yourself.
| AudioBox Tag |
Google Drive |
Workaround available* |
| Artist |
NO |
NO |
| Album |
NO |
NO |
| Genre |
NO |
NO |
| Title |
NO |
NO |
| Duration (seconds) |
NO |
NO |
| Duration (formatted) |
NO |
NO |
| Year |
NO |
NO |
| Position |
NO |
NO |
| Disc Number |
NO |
NO |
| Loved |
NO |
NO |
| Album Artist |
NO |
NO |
| Composer |
NO |
NO |
* If you are interested in automatic tagging use AudioBox Cloud.
Artworks.
Automatic artworks are not supported on Google Drive because of missing metadata.
You can however upload custom artworks.
About further synchronizations.
AudioBox will not attempt to overwrite the already existing data in your AudioBox account if you change a file on Google Drive. The policy is to preserve the custom edited metadata between syncs.
However it is entirely possible to delete and replace a file if Google Drive flags the file as completely changed (moved to another folder, etc.).
Deep integration.
AudioBox + Google Drive integration supports other actions beside the sync. If you love/unlove a media file the change will be reflected also on the same file in your Google Drive account in real time.
Opening a file from Google Drive with AudioBox.
From the Google Drive web interface you can choose to open a file with AudioBox. What will happen is that, if you have the Cloud Web Player open, our system automatically switches to the Google Drive playlist and start playing the selected file.
What kind of files will be imported.
- aac (audio/aac)
- mp3 (audio/mpeg)
- m4a (audio/mp4)
- flac (audio/flac)
- mp4 (video/mp4)
- flv (video/x-flv)
- webm (video/webm)
This list will be expanded as we can reliably support other formats. Hidden/garbage and other files types will be discarded silently.
For more information about Apple Lossless encoded files check out the FAQ.
Common Special Operations
Removing all the synced media files.
Sign in your Dashboard and find the Actions button for this cloud drive. You will find the Empty button in the Actions dropdown.
This operation will not cause any harm to the files stored on the remote platform. It is recommended for the operation to finish before attempting another sync.
Unlinking accounts.
In order to unlink your remote account from AudioBox you need to visit the related permission page of the service.
Sign in your Dashboard and find the Actions button for this cloud drive. You will find an Unlink Account button in the Actions dropdown.
This will bring you to the dedicated server page where you can un-authorize the AudioBox app.
Once done, further operations (stream/sync) that interacts with this cloud drive from within AudioBox will fail and your authentication token will be deleted.
Re-Authenticating accounts.
You may need to re-authenticate your account with AudioBox in case of problems. For example when the service tells AudioBox your credentials are expired and re-authentication is required.
Sign in your Dashboard and find the Actions button for this cloud drive. You will find a Re-Authenticate Account button in the Actions dropdown.
Using the same remote account for multiple AudioBox accounts.
Multiple AudioBox account are against the Terms of Service. In any case AudioBox won't allow to link an already in-use service account into another AudioBox account.
