rclone/docs/content/drive.md

title	description	date
Google drive	Rclone docs for Google drive	2016-04-12

Google Drive

Paths are specified as drive:path

Drive paths may be as deep as required, eg drive:directory/subdirectory.

The initial setup for drive involves getting a token from Google drive
which you need to do in your browser. rclone config walks you
through it.

Here is an example of how to make a remote called remote. First run:

 rclone config

This will guide you through an interactive setup process:

No remotes found - make a new one
n) New remote
r) Rename remote
c) Copy remote
s) Set configuration password
q) Quit config
n/r/c/s/q> n
name> remote
Type of storage to configure.
Choose a number from below, or type in your own value
[snip]
10 / Google Drive
   \ "drive"
[snip]
Storage> drive
Google Application Client Id - leave blank normally.
client_id>
Google Application Client Secret - leave blank normally.
client_secret>
Scope that rclone should use when requesting access from drive.
Choose a number from below, or type in your own value
 1 / Full access all files, excluding Application Data Folder.
   \ "drive"
 2 / Read-only access to file metadata and file contents.
   \ "drive.readonly"
   / Access to files created by rclone only.
 3 | These are visible in the drive website.
   | File authorization is revoked when the user deauthorizes the app.
   \ "drive.file"
   / Allows read and write access to the Application Data folder.
 4 | This is not visible in the drive website.
   \ "drive.appfolder"
   / Allows read-only access to file metadata but
 5 | does not allow any access to read or download file content.
   \ "drive.metadata.readonly"
scope> 1
ID of the root folder - leave blank normally.  Fill in to access "Computers" folders. (see docs).
root_folder_id> 
Service Account Credentials JSON file path - needed only if you want use SA instead of interactive login.
service_account_file>
Remote config
Use auto config?
 * Say Y if not sure
 * Say N if you are working on a remote or headless machine or Y didn't work
y) Yes
n) No
y/n> y
If your browser doesn't open automatically go to the following link: http://127.0.0.1:53682/auth
Log in and authorize rclone for access
Waiting for code...
Got code
Configure this as a team drive?
y) Yes
n) No
y/n> n
--------------------
[remote]
client_id = 
client_secret = 
scope = drive
root_folder_id = 
service_account_file =
token = {"access_token":"XXX","token_type":"Bearer","refresh_token":"XXX","expiry":"2014-03-16T13:57:58.955387075Z"}
--------------------
y) Yes this is OK
e) Edit this remote
d) Delete this remote
y/e/d> y

Note that rclone runs a webserver on your local machine to collect the
token as returned from Google if you use auto config mode. This only
runs from the moment it opens your browser to the moment you get back
the verification code. This is on http://127.0.0.1:53682/ and this
it may require you to unblock it temporarily if you are running a host
firewall, or use manual mode.

You can then use it like this,

List directories in top level of your drive

rclone lsd remote:

List all the files in your drive

rclone ls remote:

To copy a local directory to a drive directory called backup

rclone copy /home/source remote:backup

Scopes

Rclone allows you to select which scope you would like for rclone to
use. This changes what type of token is granted to rclone. The
scopes are defined
here..

The scope are

drive

This is the default scope and allows full access to all files, except
for the Application Data Folder (see below).

Choose this one if you aren't sure.

drive.readonly

This allows read only access to all files. Files may be listed and
downloaded but not uploaded, renamed or deleted.

drive.file

With this scope rclone can read/view/modify only those files and
folders it creates.

So if you uploaded files to drive via the web interface (or any other
means) they will not be visible to rclone.

This can be useful if you are using rclone to backup data and you want
to be sure confidential data on your drive is not visible to rclone.

Files created with this scope are visible in the web interface.

drive.appfolder

This gives rclone its own private area to store files. Rclone will
not be able to see any other files on your drive and you won't be able
to see rclone's files from the web interface either.

drive.metadata.readonly

This allows read only access to file names only. It does not allow
rclone to download or upload data, or rename or delete files or
directories.

Root folder ID

You can set the root_folder_id for rclone. This is the directory
(identified by its Folder ID) that rclone considers to be the root
of your drive.

Normally you will leave this blank and rclone will determine the
correct root to use itself.

However you can set this to restrict rclone to a specific folder
hierarchy or to access data within the "Computers" tab on the drive
web interface (where files from Google's Backup and Sync desktop
program go).

In order to do this you will have to find the Folder ID of the
directory you wish rclone to display. This will be the last segment
of the URL when you open the relevant folder in the drive web
interface.

So if the folder you want rclone to use has a URL which looks like
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1XyfxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxKHCh
in the browser, then you use 1XyfxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxKHCh as
the root_folder_id in the config.

NB folders under the "Computers" tab seem to be read only (drive
gives a 500 error) when using rclone.

There doesn't appear to be an API to discover the folder IDs of the
"Computers" tab - please contact us if you know otherwise!

Note also that rclone can't access any data under the "Backups" tab on
the google drive web interface yet.

Service Account support

You can set up rclone with Google Drive in an unattended mode,
i.e. not tied to a specific end-user Google account. This is useful
when you want to synchronise files onto machines that don't have
actively logged-in users, for example build machines.

To use a Service Account instead of OAuth2 token flow, enter the path
to your Service Account credentials at the service_account_file
prompt during rclone config and rclone won't use the browser based
authentication flow. If you'd rather stuff the contents of the
credentials file into the rclone config file, you can set
service_account_credentials with the actual contents of the file
instead, or set the equivalent environment variable.

Use case - Google Apps/G-suite account and individual Drive

Let's say that you are the administrator of a Google Apps (old) or
G-suite account.
The goal is to store data on an individual's Drive account, who IS
a member of the domain.
We'll call the domain example.com, and the user
foo@example.com.

There's a few steps we need to go through to accomplish this:

1. Create a service account for example.com

• To create a service account and obtain its credentials, go to the
  Google Developer Console.
• You must have a project - create one if you don't.
• Then go to "IAM & admin" -> "Service Accounts".
• Use the "Create Credentials" button. Fill in "Service account name"
  with something that identifies your client. "Role" can be empty.
• Tick "Furnish a new private key" - select "Key type JSON".
• Tick "Enable G Suite Domain-wide Delegation". This option makes
  "impersonation" possible, as documented here:
  Delegating domain-wide authority to the service account
• These credentials are what rclone will use for authentication.
  If you ever need to remove access, press the "Delete service
  account key" button.

2. Allowing API access to example.com Google Drive

• Go to example.com's admin console
• Go into "Security" (or use the search bar)
• Select "Show more" and then "Advanced settings"
• Select "Manage API client access" in the "Authentication" section
• In the "Client Name" field enter the service account's
  "Client ID" - this can be found in the Developer Console under
  "IAM & Admin" -> "Service Accounts", then "View Client ID" for
  the newly created service account.
  It is a ~21 character numerical string.
• In the next field, "One or More API Scopes", enter
  https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive
  to grant access to Google Drive specifically.

3. Configure rclone, assuming a new install

rclone config

n/s/q> n         # New
name>gdrive      # Gdrive is an example name
Storage>         # Select the number shown for Google Drive
client_id>       # Can be left blank
client_secret>   # Can be left blank
scope>           # Select your scope, 1 for example
root_folder_id>  # Can be left blank
service_account_file> /home/foo/myJSONfile.json # This is where the JSON file goes!
y/n>             # Auto config, y

4. Verify that it's working

• rclone -v --drive-impersonate foo@example.com lsf gdrive:backup
• The arguments do:
  • -v - verbose logging
  • --drive-impersonate foo@example.com - this is what does
    the magic, pretending to be user foo.
  • lsf - list files in a parsing friendly way
  • gdrive:backup - use the remote called gdrive, work in
    the folder named backup.

Team drives

If you want to configure the remote to point to a Google Team Drive
then answer y to the question Configure this as a team drive?.

This will fetch the list of Team Drives from google and allow you to
configure which one you want to use. You can also type in a team
drive ID if you prefer.

For example:

Configure this as a team drive?
y) Yes
n) No
y/n> y
Fetching team drive list...
Choose a number from below, or type in your own value
 1 / Rclone Test
   \ "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
 2 / Rclone Test 2
   \ "yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy"
 3 / Rclone Test 3
   \ "zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz"
Enter a Team Drive ID> 1
--------------------
[remote]
client_id =
client_secret =
token = {"AccessToken":"xxxx.x.xxxxx_xxxxxxxxxxx_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx","RefreshToken":"1/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx","Expiry":"2014-03-16T13:57:58.955387075Z","Extra":null}
team_drive = xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
--------------------
y) Yes this is OK
e) Edit this remote
d) Delete this remote
y/e/d> y

--fast-list

This remote supports --fast-list which allows you to use fewer
transactions in exchange for more memory. See the rclone
docs for more details.

It does this by combining multiple list calls into a single API request.

This works by combining many '%s' in parents filters into one expression.
To list the contents of directories a, b and c, the following requests will be send by the regular List function:

trashed=false and 'a' in parents
trashed=false and 'b' in parents
trashed=false and 'c' in parents

These can now be combined into a single request:

trashed=false and ('a' in parents or 'b' in parents or 'c' in parents)

The implementation of ListR will put up to 50 parents filters into one request.
It will use the --checkers value to specify the number of requests to run in parallel.

In tests, these batch requests were up to 20x faster than the regular method.
Running the following command against different sized folders gives:

rclone lsjson -vv -R --checkers=6 gdrive:folder

small folder (220 directories, 700 files):

• without --fast-list: 38s
• with --fast-list: 10s

large folder (10600 directories, 39000 files):

• without --fast-list: 22:05 min
• with --fast-list: 58s

Modified time

Google drive stores modification times accurate to 1 ms.

Revisions

Google drive stores revisions of files. When you upload a change to
an existing file to google drive using rclone it will create a new
revision of that file.

Revisions follow the standard google policy which at time of writing
was

• They are deleted after 30 days or 100 revisions (whatever comes first).
• They do not count towards a user storage quota.

Deleting files

By default rclone will send all files to the trash when deleting
files. If deleting them permanently is required then use the
--drive-use-trash=false flag, or set the equivalent environment
variable.

Emptying trash

If you wish to empty your trash you can use the rclone cleanup remote:
command which will permanently delete all your trashed files. This command
does not take any path arguments.

Quota information

To view your current quota you can use the rclone about remote:
command which will display your usage limit (quota), the usage in Google
Drive, the size of all files in the Trash and the space used by other
Google services such as Gmail. This command does not take any path
arguments.

Import/Export of google documents

Google documents can be exported from and uploaded to Google Drive.

When rclone downloads a Google doc it chooses a format to download
depending upon the --drive-export-formats setting.
By default the export formats are docx,xlsx,pptx,svg which are a
sensible default for an editable document.

When choosing a format, rclone runs down the list provided in order
and chooses the first file format the doc can be exported as from the
list. If the file can't be exported to a format on the formats list,
then rclone will choose a format from the default list.

If you prefer an archive copy then you might use --drive-export-formats pdf, or if you prefer openoffice/libreoffice formats you might use
--drive-export-formats ods,odt,odp.

Note that rclone adds the extension to the google doc, so if it is
called My Spreadsheet on google docs, it will be exported as My Spreadsheet.xlsx or My Spreadsheet.pdf etc.

When importing files into Google Drive, rclone will convert all
files with an extension in --drive-import-formats to their
associated document type.
rclone will not convert any files by default, since the conversion
is lossy process.

The conversion must result in a file with the same extension when
the --drive-export-formats rules are applied to the uploaded document.

Here are some examples for allowed and prohibited conversions.

export-formats	import-formats	Upload Ext	Document Ext	Allowed
odt	odt	odt	odt	Yes
odt	docx,odt	odt	odt	Yes
	docx	docx	docx	Yes
	odt	odt	docx	No
odt,docx	docx,odt	docx	odt	No
docx,odt	docx,odt	docx	docx	Yes
docx,odt	docx,odt	odt	docx	No

This limitation can be disabled by specifying --drive-allow-import-name-change.
When using this flag, rclone can convert multiple files types resulting
in the same document type at once, eg with --drive-import-formats docx,odt,txt,
all files having these extension would result in a document represented as a docx file.
This brings the additional risk of overwriting a document, if multiple files
have the same stem. Many rclone operations will not handle this name change
in any way. They assume an equal name when copying files and might copy the
file again or delete them when the name changes.

Here are the possible export extensions with their corresponding mime types.
Most of these can also be used for importing, but there more that are not
listed here. Some of these additional ones might only be available when
the operating system provides the correct MIME type entries.

This list can be changed by Google Drive at any time and might not
represent the currently available conversions.

Extension	Mime Type	Description
csv	text/csv	Standard CSV format for Spreadsheets
docx	application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document	Microsoft Office Document
epub	application/epub+zip	E-book format
html	text/html	An HTML Document
jpg	image/jpeg	A JPEG Image File
json	application/vnd.google-apps.script+json	JSON Text Format
odp	application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.presentation	Openoffice Presentation
ods	application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.spreadsheet	Openoffice Spreadsheet
ods	application/x-vnd.oasis.opendocument.spreadsheet	Openoffice Spreadsheet
odt	application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text	Openoffice Document
pdf	application/pdf	Adobe PDF Format
png	image/png	PNG Image Format
pptx	application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.presentation	Microsoft Office Powerpoint
rtf	application/rtf	Rich Text Format
svg	image/svg+xml	Scalable Vector Graphics Format
tsv	text/tab-separated-values	Standard TSV format for spreadsheets
txt	text/plain	Plain Text
xlsx	application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet	Microsoft Office Spreadsheet
zip	application/zip	A ZIP file of HTML, Images CSS

Google documents can also be exported as link files. These files will
open a browser window for the Google Docs website of that document
when opened. The link file extension has to be specified as a
--drive-export-formats parameter. They will match all available
Google Documents.

Extension	Description	OS Support
desktop	freedesktop.org specified desktop entry	Linux
link.html	An HTML Document with a redirect	All
url	INI style link file	macOS, Windows
webloc	macOS specific XML format	macOS

Standard Options

Here are the standard options specific to drive (Google Drive).

--drive-client-id

Google Application Client Id
Setting your own is recommended.
See https://rclone.org/drive/#making-your-own-client-id for how to create your own.
If you leave this blank, it will use an internal key which is low performance.

• Config: client_id
• Env Var: RCLONE_DRIVE_CLIENT_ID
• Type: string
• Default: ""

--drive-client-secret

Google Application Client Secret
Setting your own is recommended.

• Config: client_secret
• Env Var: RCLONE_DRIVE_CLIENT_SECRET
• Type: string
• Default: ""

--drive-scope

Scope that rclone should use when requesting access from drive.

• Config: scope
• Env Var: RCLONE_DRIVE_SCOPE
• Type: string
• Default: ""
• Examples:
  • "drive"
    • Full access all files, excluding Application Data Folder.
  • "drive.readonly"
    • Read-only access to file metadata and file contents.
  • "drive.file"
    • Access to files created by rclone only.
    • These are visible in the drive website.
    • File authorization is revoked when the user deauthorizes the app.
  • "drive.appfolder"
    • Allows read and write access to the Application Data folder.
    • This is not visible in the drive website.
  • "drive.metadata.readonly"
    • Allows read-only access to file metadata but
    • does not allow any access to read or download file content.

--drive-root-folder-id

ID of the root folder
Leave blank normally.
Fill in to access "Computers" folders. (see docs).

• Config: root_folder_id
• Env Var: RCLONE_DRIVE_ROOT_FOLDER_ID
• Type: string
• Default: ""

--drive-service-account-file

Service Account Credentials JSON file path
Leave blank normally.
Needed only if you want use SA instead of interactive login.

• Config: service_account_file
• Env Var: RCLONE_DRIVE_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_FILE
• Type: string
• Default: ""

Advanced Options

Here are the advanced options specific to drive (Google Drive).

--drive-service-account-credentials

Service Account Credentials JSON blob
Leave blank normally.
Needed only if you want use SA instead of interactive login.

• Config: service_account_credentials
• Env Var: RCLONE_DRIVE_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_CREDENTIALS
• Type: string
• Default: ""

--drive-team-drive

ID of the Team Drive

• Config: team_drive
• Env Var: RCLONE_DRIVE_TEAM_DRIVE
• Type: string
• Default: ""

--drive-auth-owner-only

Only consider files owned by the authenticated user.

• Config: auth_owner_only
• Env Var: RCLONE_DRIVE_AUTH_OWNER_ONLY
• Type: bool
• Default: false

--drive-use-trash

Send files to the trash instead of deleting permanently.
Defaults to true, namely sending files to the trash.
Use --drive-use-trash=false to delete files permanently instead.

• Config: use_trash
• Env Var: RCLONE_DRIVE_USE_TRASH
• Type: bool
• Default: true

--drive-skip-gdocs

Skip google documents in all listings.
If given, gdocs practically become invisible to rclone.

• Config: skip_gdocs
• Env Var: RCLONE_DRIVE_SKIP_GDOCS
• Type: bool
• Default: false

--drive-skip-checksum-gphotos

Skip MD5 checksum on Google photos and videos only.

Use this if you get checksum errors when transferring Google photos or
videos.

Setting this flag will cause Google photos and videos to return a
blank MD5 checksum.

Google photos are identifed by being in the "photos" space.

Corrupted checksums are caused by Google modifying the image/video but
not updating the checksum.

• Config: skip_checksum_gphotos
• Env Var: RCLONE_DRIVE_SKIP_CHECKSUM_GPHOTOS
• Type: bool
• Default: false

--drive-shared-with-me

Only show files that are shared with me.

Instructs rclone to operate on your "Shared with me" folder (where
Google Drive lets you access the files and folders others have shared
with you).

This works both with the "list" (lsd, lsl, etc) and the "copy"
commands (copy, sync, etc), and with all other commands too.

• Config: shared_with_me
• Env Var: RCLONE_DRIVE_SHARED_WITH_ME
• Type: bool
• Default: false

--drive-trashed-only

Only show files that are in the trash.
This will show trashed files in their original directory structure.

• Config: trashed_only
• Env Var: RCLONE_DRIVE_TRASHED_ONLY
• Type: bool
• Default: false

--drive-formats

Deprecated: see export_formats

• Config: formats
• Env Var: RCLONE_DRIVE_FORMATS
• Type: string
• Default: ""

--drive-export-formats

Comma separated list of preferred formats for downloading Google docs.

• Config: export_formats
• Env Var: RCLONE_DRIVE_EXPORT_FORMATS
• Type: string
• Default: "docx,xlsx,pptx,svg"

--drive-import-formats

Comma separated list of preferred formats for uploading Google docs.

• Config: import_formats
• Env Var: RCLONE_DRIVE_IMPORT_FORMATS
• Type: string
• Default: ""

--drive-allow-import-name-change

Allow the filetype to change when uploading Google docs (e.g. file.doc to file.docx). This will confuse sync and reupload every time.

• Config: allow_import_name_change
• Env Var: RCLONE_DRIVE_ALLOW_IMPORT_NAME_CHANGE
• Type: bool
• Default: false

--drive-use-created-date

Use file created date instead of modified date.,

Useful when downloading data and you want the creation date used in
place of the last modified date.

WARNING: This flag may have some unexpected consequences.

When uploading to your drive all files will be overwritten unless they
haven't been modified since their creation. And the inverse will occur
while downloading. This side effect can be avoided by using the
"--checksum" flag.

This feature was implemented to retain photos capture date as recorded
by google photos. You will first need to check the "Create a Google
Photos folder" option in your google drive settings. You can then copy
or move the photos locally and use the date the image was taken
(created) set as the modification date.

• Config: use_created_date
• Env Var: RCLONE_DRIVE_USE_CREATED_DATE
• Type: bool
• Default: false

--drive-list-chunk

Size of listing chunk 100-1000. 0 to disable.

• Config: list_chunk
• Env Var: RCLONE_DRIVE_LIST_CHUNK
• Type: int
• Default: 1000

--drive-impersonate

Impersonate this user when using a service account.

• Config: impersonate
• Env Var: RCLONE_DRIVE_IMPERSONATE
• Type: string
• Default: ""

--drive-alternate-export

Use alternate export URLs for google documents export.,

If this option is set this instructs rclone to use an alternate set of
export URLs for drive documents. Users have reported that the
official export URLs can't export large documents, whereas these
unofficial ones can.

See rclone issue #2243 for background,
this google drive issue and
this helpful post.

• Config: alternate_export
• Env Var: RCLONE_DRIVE_ALTERNATE_EXPORT
• Type: bool
• Default: false

--drive-upload-cutoff

Cutoff for switching to chunked upload

• Config: upload_cutoff
• Env Var: RCLONE_DRIVE_UPLOAD_CUTOFF
• Type: SizeSuffix
• Default: 8M

--drive-chunk-size

Upload chunk size. Must a power of 2 >= 256k.

Making this larger will improve performance, but note that each chunk
is buffered in memory one per transfer.

Reducing this will reduce memory usage but decrease performance.

• Config: chunk_size
• Env Var: RCLONE_DRIVE_CHUNK_SIZE
• Type: SizeSuffix
• Default: 8M

--drive-acknowledge-abuse

Set to allow files which return cannotDownloadAbusiveFile to be downloaded.

If downloading a file returns the error "This file has been identified
as malware or spam and cannot be downloaded" with the error code
"cannotDownloadAbusiveFile" then supply this flag to rclone to
indicate you acknowledge the risks of downloading the file and rclone
will download it anyway.

• Config: acknowledge_abuse
• Env Var: RCLONE_DRIVE_ACKNOWLEDGE_ABUSE
• Type: bool
• Default: false

--drive-keep-revision-forever

Keep new head revision of each file forever.

• Config: keep_revision_forever
• Env Var: RCLONE_DRIVE_KEEP_REVISION_FOREVER
• Type: bool
• Default: false

--drive-v2-download-min-size

If Object's are greater, use drive v2 API to download.

• Config: v2_download_min_size
• Env Var: RCLONE_DRIVE_V2_DOWNLOAD_MIN_SIZE
• Type: SizeSuffix
• Default: off

--drive-pacer-min-sleep

Minimum time to sleep between API calls.

• Config: pacer_min_sleep
• Env Var: RCLONE_DRIVE_PACER_MIN_SLEEP
• Type: Duration
• Default: 100ms

--drive-pacer-burst

Number of API calls to allow without sleeping.

• Config: pacer_burst
• Env Var: RCLONE_DRIVE_PACER_BURST
• Type: int
• Default: 100

Limitations

Drive has quite a lot of rate limiting. This causes rclone to be
limited to transferring about 2 files per second only. Individual
files may be transferred much faster at 100s of MBytes/s but lots of
small files can take a long time.

Server side copies are also subject to a separate rate limit. If you
see User rate limit exceeded errors, wait at least 24 hours and retry.
You can disable server side copies with --disable copy to download
and upload the files if you prefer.

Limitations of Google Docs

Google docs will appear as size -1 in rclone ls and as size 0 in
anything which uses the VFS layer, eg rclone mount, rclone serve.

This is because rclone can't find out the size of the Google docs
without downloading them.

Google docs will transfer correctly with rclone sync, rclone copy
etc as rclone knows to ignore the size when doing the transfer.

However an unfortunate consequence of this is that you can't download
Google docs using rclone mount - you will get a 0 sized file. If
you try again the doc may gain its correct size and be downloadable.

Duplicated files

Sometimes, for no reason I've been able to track down, drive will
duplicate a file that rclone uploads. Drive unlike all the other
remotes can have duplicated files.

Duplicated files cause problems with the syncing and you will see
messages in the log about duplicates.

Use rclone dedupe to fix duplicated files.

Note that this isn't just a problem with rclone, even Google Photos on
Android duplicates files on drive sometimes.

Rclone appears to be re-copying files it shouldn't

The most likely cause of this is the duplicated file issue above - run
rclone dedupe and check your logs for duplicate object or directory
messages.

This can also be caused by a delay/caching on google drive's end when
comparing directory listings. Specifically with team drives used in
combination with --fast-list. Files that were uploaded recently may
not appear on the directory list sent to rclone when using --fast-list.

Waiting a moderate period of time between attempts (estimated to be
approximately 1 hour) and/or not using --fast-list both seem to be
effective in preventing the problem.

Making your own client_id

When you use rclone with Google drive in its default configuration you
are using rclone's client_id. This is shared between all the rclone
users. There is a global rate limit on the number of queries per
second that each client_id can do set by Google. rclone already has a
high quota and I will continue to make sure it is high enough by
contacting Google.

It is strongly recommended to use your own client ID as the default rclone ID is heavily used. If you have multiple services running, it is recommended to use an API key for each service. The default Google quota is 10 transactions per second so it is recommended to stay under that number as if you use more than that, it will cause rclone to rate limit and make things slower.

Here is how to create your own Google Drive client ID for rclone:

1. Log into the Google API
   Console with your Google
   account. It doesn't matter what Google account you use. (It need not
   be the same account as the Google Drive you want to access)

2. Select a project or create a new project.

3. Under "ENABLE APIS AND SERVICES" search for "Drive", and enable the
   then "Google Drive API".

4. Click "Credentials" in the left-side panel (not "Create
   credentials", which opens the wizard), then "Create credentials", then
   "OAuth client ID". It will prompt you to set the OAuth consent screen
   product name, if you haven't set one already.

5. Choose an application type of "other", and click "Create". (the
   default name is fine)

6. It will show you a client ID and client secret. Use these values
   in rclone config to add a new remote or edit an existing remote.

(Thanks to @balazer on github for these instructions.)