Google File Not Linking to WordPress Website

It’s bad enough that your files aren’t displaying up on the web the way you want them to; it’s even worse when they don’t seem to be connecting to the right places. For example, if you’ve changed the name of a file or folder on your computer, but haven’t updated its location in Google Drive, your files could become inaccessible. That’s what happened to me, and it took me a while to figure out what was going on, so I hope this post will help others who are experiencing the same issue.

The Problem

I use both Google Drive and WordPress for most of my life’s work, and I rely on the two of them heavily. I rely on WordPress in particular for my blog content and for my store, Rickshaw Sales, as well as for other projects I’m working on. I rely on Google Drive for everything else: spreadsheets, forms, and I suppose you could say, random bits of text that I might want to keep for reference.

At some point, I decided it would be a good idea to consolidate my various Google and WordPress accounts, and I created a Google Account for my blog, bloggger.com. I then linked all of my existing blog content, from both this site and my previous blog, over to the new blog. This is when things started to break down.

The problem was that, for the most part, my blog content was displaying as expected; it just hadn’t been uploaded to the right places in Google Drive. When I looked at the contents of my old blog, I noticed a lot of the files were located in My Drive, rather than their intended destinations, which were usually either a page or a post on my WordPress site.

This was a real pain. Not only was it making it difficult to access some of my content, but I also began to doubt the validity of all of my old blog posts, wondering if maybe I’d accidentally deleted or renamed files and didn’t realize it. I was starting to feel a little insecure about my work, which isn’t something to feel when you’re already feeling a little cramped for space.

With all of that said, there seemed to be no question that the problem was my fault. I’d moved files around on my computer, changed their names, and sometimes I’d accidentally deleted files instead of moving them to the trash. Sometimes I wouldn’t realize that I’d changed something until much later, when I tried to access a file and it wouldn’t open.

My Research

After some time passed and I still couldn’t figure out what was going on, I did some research. I stumbled upon a few articles that seemed helpful, and I began reading relevant posts on the WordPress Support Forums. I also subscribed to a few email newsletters from Google, mostly focused on backups and security. From what I gathered, there were a few different issues that might be causing my problem. Google was the first to point out that there were some compatibility problems between certain types of files and the Google Drive platform (mostly images and videos, which is strange because I mostly use text-based files). So, it seemed like a stretch, but it might be that my files were just too different from what Google wants them to be and that was causing the issue. It’s also possible that there was some malicious software lurking on my computer, silently modifying files without my knowledge.

The Solution

After going through all of this, I finally figured out a solution. There were a few things that had to be done, and it wasn’t necessarily an easy fix. The first thing that had to be done was to get rid of any unneeded Google apps from my computer. In order to do this, I logged into my Google account and searched for “app settings”. When the results came up, I clicked “Manage apps” and eventually ended up on a page that let me remove things like Google Keep, Hangouts, and Sheets. I think the last one I tried to remove didn’t show up until later, when I tried to access a Google spreadsheet and was presented with a “This resource is only available to you if you have a Google account.” message.

Once I had removed these apps, I decided to try and re-download them from Google’s website. Some people had suggested, based on my description of the issue, that there could be a problem with my network settings. So, I decided to double check by going into my network settings on my phone and making sure that everything was set correctly: IP address, DNS, and gateway. As it turned out, I had used Google’s “Reset Settings” button, which had changed all of my network settings for the worse. Since I needed to use my phone’s network settings to log into my computer, I had to go into my phone’s settings and change them back. It was a pain, but I think it was worth it.

Once I got rid of all of these apps and made sure that my network settings were correct, I decided to re-download my important files from Google Drive and move them to their correct locations in WordPress. In order to do this, I had to use a tool called “File Rescue” from Macrium Software. When I originally tried to move my files to their correct locations, I messed up somewhere along the way, so this process was actually more like recovering files than it was like moving them. Using File Rescue, I was able to find most of my important files and move them where they needed to be. I spent a good deal of time with this process, but in the end, it was all worth it. I was finally able to get all of my files in their intended locations and ensure that they could all be accessed from anywhere.

The Takeaway

I hope that this post helped you understand what was going on. I’d definitely recommend using a tool like File Rescue to recover lost files from Google Drive rather than just trying to manually move them to their correct locations in WordPress (which can be time-consuming, especially if you’re not exactly sure where you messed up). Not to mention the possibility of missing something due to excessive manual labor. As I said, it was a pain, but it was all worth it in the end.