5.56 FAQ-897 Saving Origin Files to a Folder Synced to Google Drive via Backup and Sync

Last Update: 4/18/2018

There is a conflict with how Origin saves files and how the Google Backup and Sync app synchronizes files. This conflict can result in data loss and even Origin file invalidation.

If you work with Origin files in a folder setup to synchronize via Backup and Sync, you are strongly urged to pause syncing prior to opening and or saving files to that folder. Once you have completely finished working with those files in Origin, you can resume syncing. See Figure 1 below for steps to pause the Backup and Sync app.

If you have not paused the syncing and experience that an Origin file has lost data or is invalid, look for a temporary file in the same folder with the same name as your Origin file but has ~TMP~ prepended to it. If this file exists, first pause the syncing, then open the file and re-save it with the desired name. Note: you may see that this file has actually been synced to your Google Drive!


New for Origin 2018: The file saving mechanism in Origin 2018 has been altered to mitigate the potential for issues when syncing has not been paused. First, the temporary file mentioned is now always saved to C:\Users\<user>\Documents\OriginLab\TempSave\ rather than the folder the Origin file is being saved to. Second, the saved file will no longer have data loss or become invalid. Even with these improvements, you are still strongly urged to pause syncing as previously discussed..


Figure 1
Figure1: Steps to pause sync with the Google Backup and Sync app. Resuming essentially involves the same steps.

You may also want to review Origin's options for autosaving and file backup.

Keywords:Save project, Google Drive, Backup and Sync, ~TMP~ file, Cloud
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