Google Drive: Multiple Accounts via GNOME Online Accounts

What This Guide Achieves

Goal	Status
Access multiple Google Drive accounts on Linux	Done
Mount Google Drive as local folders (like Windows)	Done
GUI file browser for Google Drive	Done
Read and write access to all accounts	Done

Prerequisites

Any Ubuntu 24.04-based distro
Internet connection
A working web browser for Google OAuth authentication
rclone package (installed in the steps below)

The Problem (Windows User Perspective)

On Windows, you install “Google Drive for Desktop” and it mounts your Drive as a local drive letter. You can add multiple Google accounts and they all show up in File Explorer. On Linux, Google does not provide a native Drive client. There are several alternatives, each with trade-offs.

Your Options — Compared

Method	Cost	Offline Access	Multiple Accounts	GUI	Difficulty
GNOME Online Accounts (built-in)	Free	No (streams only)	Yes	Yes	Easy
rclone + RcloneBrowser	Free	Yes (with cache)	Yes	Yes	Intermediate
Insync	$30/account	Yes	Yes	Yes	Easy

Option 1: GNOME Online Accounts (Quick Browse — No Sync)

This is already built into many GNOME-based Ubuntu distros, including the tested Zorin setup. Good for occasional file browsing, but files are not downloaded locally — you lose access when offline.

Open Settings → Online Accounts
Click Google → sign in with your first Gmail account
Repeat to add a second/third Google account
Open Files (Nautilus) → your Drives appear in the left sidebar

Limitation: This is basically a “read and browse” connection. Files are streamed, not synced locally. You can’t reliably open Drive files in apps like LibreOffice.

Option 2: rclone + RcloneBrowser (Recommended — Free, Full Access)

This gives you the closest experience to Windows Google Drive: local folders, full read/write, multiple accounts, with a GUI.

Step 1 — Install rclone

sudo apt update && sudo apt install rclone -y
rclone version  # verify installation

Step 2 — Create mount point folders

Decide where you want your Google Drive folders. For example, to put them at /mmh/GoogleDrive/:

mkdir -p /mmh/GoogleDrive/Main
mkdir -p /mmh/GoogleDrive/Secondary
mkdir -p /mmh/GoogleDrive/Third

Set ownership:

sudo chown -R $(whoami):$(whoami) /mmh/GoogleDrive

Step 3 — Configure your first Google account

rclone config

Follow the interactive prompts:

n                  ← New remote
gdrive_main        ← Name (use something descriptive)
drive              ← Type: Google Drive
                   ← Client ID: leave blank (press Enter)
                   ← Client Secret: leave blank (press Enter)
1                  ← Scope: full access (read/write)
                   ← Root folder: leave blank (press Enter)
                   ← Service account: leave blank (press Enter)
n                  ← Advanced config? No
y                  ← Auto config? Yes

Your browser will open to Google’s login page. No password is stored by rclone — it uses OAuth2 (the same “Sign in with Google” mechanism websites use). Google gives rclone a secure token, not your password.

After signing in:

n                  ← Shared drive? No
y                  ← Confirm configuration
q                  ← Quit config

Step 4 — Repeat for additional accounts

Run rclone config again for each account:

rclone config
# Name: gdrive_secondary → sign into second Gmail
rclone config
# Name: gdrive_third → sign into third Gmail

Step 5 — Test mount manually

rclone mount gdrive_main: /mmh/GoogleDrive/Main --daemon --vfs-cache-mode full
rclone mount gdrive_secondary: /mmh/GoogleDrive/Secondary --daemon --vfs-cache-mode full
rclone mount gdrive_third: /mmh/GoogleDrive/Third --daemon --vfs-cache-mode full

Open your file manager — navigate to /mmh/GoogleDrive/ and you should see all three accounts with your files.

The --vfs-cache-mode full flag enables local caching, so files are downloaded for offline access (similar to Windows Google Drive behavior).

Step 6 — Install RcloneBrowser (GUI)

For a visual interface instead of the terminal:

# Install build dependencies
sudo apt update && sudo apt -y install git g++ cmake make qtdeclarative5-dev

# Clone and build RcloneBrowser
cd ~ && git clone https://github.com/kapitainsky/RcloneBrowser.git
cd RcloneBrowser
mkdir build && cd build
cmake ..
make
sudo make install

After installation, search for “Rclone Browser” in your app menu. It provides:

Visual file browser for all your Google accounts
Click-to-mount drives
Upload/download with progress
Sync job management

Note: rclone (the CLI engine) must stay installed — RcloneBrowser is just a GUI frontend that calls rclone behind the scenes.

Create a startup script:

mkdir -p ~/.config/autostart
nano ~/.config/autostart/rclone-mount.desktop

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=Mount Google Drive
Exec=/bin/bash -c "sleep 10 && rclone mount gdrive_main: /mmh/GoogleDrive/Main --daemon --vfs-cache-mode full && rclone mount gdrive_secondary: /mmh/GoogleDrive/Secondary --daemon --vfs-cache-mode full && rclone mount gdrive_third: /mmh/GoogleDrive/Third --daemon --vfs-cache-mode full"
Hidden=false
NoDisplay=true
X-GNOME-Autostart-enabled=true

The sleep 10 delay ensures the network is ready before mounting.

Option 3: Insync (Paid — Easiest)

If you want a Windows-like experience without any terminal work:

Go to https://www.insynchq.com/downloads
Download the .deb file for Ubuntu-based
Install: sudo dpkg -i ~/Downloads/insync*.deb
Open Insync from your app menu
Sign into each Google account through the GUI

Insync costs ~$30 per account (one-time purchase). It sits in your system tray, shows sync status on files, and supports drag-and-drop — the closest thing to Windows Google Drive on Linux.

What Didn’t Work (and Why)

Approach Tried	Why It Failed
GNOME Online Accounts for full sync	Only streams files — no offline access, can’t open in apps reliably
AppImage download of RcloneBrowser	Download link was broken (404). The maintained fork at `holazt/RcloneBrowser` has updated releases, but building from source is most reliable
Running rclone config from a non-bash shell	Some prompts behave differently in non-bash shells

Authentication — How It Works

rclone uses OAuth2 for Google Drive authentication:

Question	Answer
Does rclone see your password?	No, never
Where do you log in?	Google’s own website in your browser
What gets saved?	A secure token (like a key card), stored in `~/.config/rclone/rclone.conf`
Does the token expire?	Rarely — Google refreshes it automatically

Verification

# List configured remotes
rclone listremotes
# Expected: gdrive_main: gdrive_secondary: gdrive_third:

# Check a remote is accessible
rclone ls gdrive_main: --max-depth 1

# Verify mount points
ls /mmh/GoogleDrive/Main
ls /mmh/GoogleDrive/Secondary
ls /mmh/GoogleDrive/Third

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Cause	Fix
Browser doesn’t open during `rclone config`	No default browser set	Run `xdg-settings set default-web-browser firefox.desktop`
Mount fails with FUSE error	libfuse2 not installed	`sudo apt install libfuse2`
Files not appearing after mount	Cache needs time to populate	Wait a minute, then check again
”Transport endpoint is not connected”	rclone mount crashed	`fusermount -u /mmh/GoogleDrive/Main` then remount
RcloneBrowser build fails	Missing Qt5 dependencies	`sudo apt install qtdeclarative5-dev`

Unmounting and Complete Removal

# Unmount all drives
fusermount -u /mmh/GoogleDrive/Main
fusermount -u /mmh/GoogleDrive/Secondary
fusermount -u /mmh/GoogleDrive/Third

# Remove rclone config (deletes all saved tokens)
rm ~/.config/rclone/rclone.conf

# Remove rclone
sudo apt remove rclone

# Remove RcloneBrowser (if built from source)
cd ~/RcloneBrowser/build && sudo make uninstall
rm -rf ~/RcloneBrowser

# Remove mount directories
rm -rf /mmh/GoogleDrive

# Remove autostart entry
rm ~/.config/autostart/rclone-mount.desktop

Dropbox: Custom Install Directory — Headless Dropbox with custom location
Filesystem Hierarchy — Understanding mount points and file locations
Common Issues — FAQ for common problems