Back in June, we covered an issue that restricted videos stored on Google Drive to sync back to local systems normally. Specifically, the old desktop client (there was no Backup and Sync at that time) displayed ‘Retrying‘ and eventually ended up saying ‘Can’t sync # files. An unknown issue has occurred‘ or ‘unsyncable files‘.

At that time Google said that they are looking into the issue and provided a temporary workaround that involved downloading content from the web, re-uploading it and then finally deleting the bad originals.

Unfortunately, the issue is still there, and now we have a more detailed take on the matter, with information extracted from more threads on the official Drive forum. Firstly, a user has shared a screenshot that clearly shows videos stored on cloud failing to sync locally through the Drive desktop client.

Many users have confirmed that copies stored on cloud play fine, while the desktop client gives download error while syncing. Some of those who got deep into checking the actual cause of sync failure revealed that error log shows checksum related errors, suggesting corruption of files during the download process.

Recent comments posted on the official Drive threads in question suggest that the problem persists even if you use the new Backup and Sync client.

On one of the threads, another Google employee updated users on April 17, saying that there is a fix for the problem, but can only be applied on affected accounts individually. Here’s what they said

My contact on the Photos team seems to have a way to fix this, but it’s for individual accounts rather than something easy like “everybody”

Following is the complete comment

The following screenshots reveal that the company is actually resolving reported use-cases on individual basis.

So, if you are also among the ones entangled, then shout out to the Google employees and let them know you are also in the long list of users waiting for a fix.

Note: Make sure that you post the problem on the official Drive forum with your report ID, which you will get after submitting a report . Also, keep in mind to post in the forum while being logged in with the same account for which you are facing the issue. Reason being, the email address attached to your forum account will be used by Google to fix the error in your case.

Meanwhile, the officially suggested workaround that you can try hands on is still the same.

So, to conclude, the issue was officially acknowledged long ago, and turns out, there is no general fix that can be globally rolled out to everyone at the same time . We have shared the way through which you can get the problem fixed for your account. So, do try it out. And rest assured, we’ll keep you updated about any related developments in future.

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