Google Drive is convenient enough when you work in a browser, but there are times when hopping between a web interface and Finder feels like an unnecessary detour. I tend to prefer the latter for everyday file management simply because that's where everything else on my Mac already lives. Dragging files around, renaming them, organizing folders, or using familiar Finder controls requires almost no second thought.
This is where the app called CloudMounter comes into play. Instead of creating yet another place where cloud files need to be managed, the app mounts Google Drive so that it becomes accessible directly from Finder. I tested this setup with two personal Google Drive accounts, partly to see how the basic workflow feels and partly to find out whether having several clouds mounted side by side actually makes a practical difference.
Spoiler: it does.
Adding my first Google Drive account to Finder
The initial setup is quite straightforward. It's worth noting from the get-go that I went for the Pro version of the app which, among other things, supports concurrent use of multiple Google accounts and offers encryption - something I really wanted to check out in a cloud scenario.
After installing and launching CloudMounter, I was presented with a selection of connection types. Google Drive was the obvious choice for this test, whereas the app supports a decent spectrum of popular and not-so-mainstream cloud services, namely:
- Google Drive
- Microsoft OneDrive
- Dropbox
- Box
- Amazon S3 and S3-compatible storage
- MEGA
- pCloud
- Backblaze B2
- OpenStack Swift
- WebDAV
- FTP / FTPS
- SFTP
I selected Google Drive and went through Google's account authorization process. This is the familiar part where you choose the account you want to connect and approve the requested access.
Once the connection was configured, I mounted it in CloudMounter. There was no elaborate synchronization phase to babysit.
The important change happened in Finder, where the Google Drive connection became available as a mounted location, as illustrated in the following screenshot.
This is the point where the whole idea starts making sense. Rather than treating Google Drive as a destination I have to visit, I can approach it much like another storage location attached to the Mac.
What working with Google Drive in Finder feels like
I spent some time doing the garden-variety file operations I normally perform in Finder: navigating folders, opening files, creating folders, renaming items, and copying regular files between local storage and Google Drive.
That distinction between regular files and native Google documents is worth keeping in mind. For a test like this, PDFs, images, archives, Office documents, and similar files give a much clearer picture of conventional Finder behavior. Google Docs and Sheets are a somewhat different beast because they are tied to Google's web-based document model.
For regular files, CloudMounter's biggest usability win is fairly simple: there isn't much new to learn. Finder remains Finder. That might sound like faint praise, but it's precisely the point. A cloud utility that constantly reminds you it exists would throw a spanner in the works rather than streamline anything.
During my test with the data back-and-forth, folders populated almost immediately, with larger files showing a short delay, which is something you would expect when it comes to local-to-cloud processes. The overall experience felt indistinguishable from navigating other network-mounted storage.
Using two Google Drive accounts side by side
A single Google Drive connection covers the most basic use case, but I was more interested in what happens when a second account joins the equation. I have another personal Google account, so I added it through CloudMounter using essentially the same authorization and mounting process.
Once mounted, both Drives were accessible from Finder at the same time. My screenshot below shows two Finder windows side by side, each opened to a separate Drive.
This turned out to be one of the more useful parts of the setup. Anyone who keeps different categories of files in separate Google accounts knows that the browser-based routine can get cumbersome surprisingly fast. You check which account is active, switch profiles, open another Drive, download something, and then upload it elsewhere. None of these steps is difficult. Together, though, they create friction.
With both connections available in Finder, I could work with them within the same familiar file management environment.
I then used a small batch of ordinary test files to check a direct account-to-account transfer.
In my test, the transfer behaved much like a conventional drag-and-drop Finder copy operation. The broader point is that I didn't need to manually download the files from one Google account and then upload them through another browser session.
That is the kind of Pro functionality I find more convincing in actual use than on a specifications page.
Trying CloudMounter encryption with Google Drive
Another feature I wanted to put through its paces was encryption. For this part, I created a dedicated test location rather than experimenting with anything important.
CloudMounter makes its encryption controls available through the mounted Drive in Finder. I invoked the encryption option and configured a password for the protected data.
I then added several disposable test files and checked how the folder behaved when accessed normally through CloudMounter and when viewed outside that workflow.
Through CloudMounter, unlocking and accessing files is hassle-free, as long as the password is close at hand.
Viewed directly through Google Drive outside the CloudMounter context, the files inside my encrypted folder appeared blank and returned a “No preview available” alert when opened. The original file format extension would be appended with a *.mountencr tail, so for a Word document you'd end up with the following pattern: [filename].docx.mountencr.
One warning deserves emphasis: an encryption password is not something to improvise and forget five minutes later. Treat it as you would any credential protecting important data and store it securely.
Does CloudMounter make Google Drive easier to use on Mac?
CloudMounter can connect to substantially more than Google Drive, including OneDrive, Dropbox, Box, Amazon S3, MEGA, pCloud, Backblaze B2, WebDAV, FTP, and SFTP. I deliberately didn't expand this test into those services because that would have turned a Google Drive walkthrough into a catch-all cloud-management review.
From where I stand, two Google Drive accounts already demonstrate the underlying idea well enough.
The single-account scenario is convenient because it brings cloud storage into Finder without making you change your file-management habits. The second account is where the arrangement becomes more interesting: both storage spaces can remain accessible at once, and transferring regular files between them becomes a Finder operation rather than a download-and-reupload exercise.
Encryption adds another layer for situations where you want additional control over selected cloud data, although I'd use it deliberately rather than encrypting folders left and right for the sake of it.
All things considered, CloudMounter's appeal here isn't that it reinvents Google Drive. Quite the opposite. It makes Google Drive behave more like something that already belongs on the Mac, and after working with the mounted accounts in Finder for a while, that's arguably its strongest advantage.