Google Drive Deployment

[tylerherbst]

I know there are older threads on this, but it's a new year and macOS Monterey has been released so let's start fresh...

I'm looking for a much better way to deploy Google Drive. Currently, I just deploy the pkg and then work with the users to grant the various permissions and reboot if necessary (Intel Macs only I think), but I would love to automate most of this.

Ideal solution would be - Google Drive installs the latest version with all necessary permissions and default settings and all the user has to do is sign in.

I'm assuming I can use PPPC Utility to give Google Drive access to various folders (maybe full disk access) as I've used that for other apps and I've already taken care of notifications, but I'm not sure how to deal with the blocked system extension or the annoying amount of alerts and errors that occur (especially on Intel Macs). I believe there's a network drive access alert that needs to be approved as well.

Thanks in advance!

[aparten]

You could check out Installomator for installing Google Drive to start with. It's very handy for many apps and always grabs the latest version.

I agree using PPPC would likely be your best bet for the permissions. Just give the app everything it typically requests when you do a standard setup. You may also be able to use the System Extensions payload in a config profile to accomplish the rest, but I've not done that for Drive before so it may need to be tested. All you need is to grab the Team ID of the app to allow it.

[tylerherbst]

Thank you! I'll check out Installomator and will take a crack at the System Extensions payload.

[Pisano1]

Google announced this month that it will end support for the Google Drive desktop apps for Windows and Mac computers on Dec. 11 and that the software will be shut down for good on March 12.

[Jalves]

Do you have a link to that info?

[junjishimazaki]

I think Pisano1 was referring to an old article posted in 2017 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/21/technology/personaltech/retiring-the-google-drive-desktop-app.htm...

But I do not see anything else on their support page. https://support.google.com/a/answer/7577057?hl=en

[Jalves]

That's what I was thinking too. I kind of remember those dates as the ones from the previous switch.

[junjishimazaki]

The only thing they would end support for are obsolete operating systems.