One of the principal outstanding benefits of using a cloud device, such as a Chromebook, is knowing all of your work is automatically in sync with your Google Drive business relationship. This syncing capability lends Chromebook users a level of security, knowing their data is always backed up.

A downside to many Chromebooks is the lack of local storage. It'due south an odd thing to be concerned about, given these are cloud-based devices, and nevertheless plenty of time has been devoted to extolling the woes of minimal infinite.

The saving grace for many users is that nigh Chromebooks include an SD carte expansion slot, and so yous tin slap in a 256GB SD card and have some serious space to use. Merely can you sync photos and videos on your SD card to your Google Bulldoze business relationship? Why, yes, you tin.

SEE: Best Chromebooks of 2017 (CNET)

How to sync photos and videos on your SD carte du jour to Google Drive

You have to fox Chrome Bone into thinking there'southward something worth syncing on that card–in other words, that it contains photos and videos. At the time of this writing, the feature but works for photo and video files. But, when yous're on the get and y'all need to do a quick dump of photos and videos from an SD bill of fare to Google Bulldoze, this is the manner to go. Here's how.

When you insert the SD card into your Chromebook, if the system discovers a binder named DCIM, information technology will automatically start scanning for images and videos. The SD card must have a binder named DCIM; if Chrome OS doesn't detect that particular folder, it will non browse the bill of fare. It is but within that DCIM folder that Chrome Bone will browse for acceptable files.

The expert news is that virtually DSLRs (and other camera types that use SD cards) automatically save images and videos into a folder named DCIM and will automatically create that binder. If your device doesn't automatically create a DCIM folder, yous'll have to practice that manually. The next trick would be ensuring that external device then saves files to that new folder (how/if you tin do this will depend upon the device).

When you insert an SD carte, open up the Files app, navigate to the DCIM binder, and you'll run across a new Cloud icon announced in the Files taskbar (Figure A).

Figure A

Once Chrome OS successfully scans all the files within the DCIM folder, the photos and videos volition automatically sync with your Google Bulldoze business relationship and can be found in your Google Photos folder. During the syncing, the cloud icon will change to a progress icon. If yous click the Cloud icon driblet-down (Effigy B), it will display how many photos it is currently backing up.

Effigy B

Google, allow more file types to be synced from an SD carte du jour

The ability to auto sync an SD card to your Google Bulldoze business relationship through Chrome Bone has been around since 2015, and it hasn't expanded much since its release. Google needs to allow for other file types to exist synced from the SD card (it makes perfect sense why Google would start with photos for the first iteration). Equally information technology is now, the characteristic is limiting. Even so, for those users that need to upload a lot of images from an external device (such every bit a DSLR), the power to do so from a Chromebook makes life simpler.

I'd dearest to be able to automobile sync any file type from an SD carte du jour on a Chromebook–that would make transferring work from one Google account to another (or from device to device) much easier. Pop in a coworker's SD card, open up Files, and let Chrome Os practice its thing.

Make this happen, Google.