Manage Two or Multiple Google Drive Accounts on One Mac Manage 2 or multiple Google Drive accounts on one mac computer such as sync files among accounts and transfer files from one account to another.
Disclaimer: I have been searching this and other sites for previous answers, and always find questions/answers related to syncing multiple accounts to a PC via the Google Drive software. My concern is simply about sharing files between different accounts without bringing the PC into consideration - only as a form of cloud backup. The closest post I have found is, but while it formulates my question pretty well, the answers given still revolve around syncing to a PC and the use of the Drive software, and how it can be abusive to have simultaneous Google accounts syncing at once from one PC. Problem: What I would like to know is whether I can own several google accounts which all share their storage Drives with one central account, and whether this is considered 'abusing' the system. After all, shared folders only use up the storage quota of the original folder owner.
Namely, any personal experiences from anyone with a similar setup would be very useful. I'm not asking just out of nitpickery, I'm legitimately interested (read 'paranoid') about a secondary form of backing up a large-ish amount of information - say around 150 GB, 10 times the quota for free accounts - other than physical drives (which would be my primary form of backup).
As for why bother having multiple Google accounts instead of just paying for upgraded storage for one account, consider the remote possibility of losing access to said account - by spreading the ownership of data among several accounts, there would be a marginally lower chance of losing everything. Plus, if all accounts share data among themselves, any particular one can access everything at once. Note how this method does not require simultaneous logins, nor does it put a strain on file syncing, therefore in theory it should not be considered abusive.
Often times questions like this one are very opinionated and open to subjectivity; albeit, it can be approached objectively through pragmatism. Your question focuses on Google Drive, so I shall not bother with other online backup alternatives. I am not responsible for your loss of data or security issues if you follow my suggestion, it is up to you to make up your mind on what is best to you, this is entirely a suggestion. I'm not affiliated with Google and as such unfamiliar with their terms and policies to a perfect extent, it is up to you the consumer to know their terms and policies, even if I portray them badly. I believe dealing with multiple accounts by divvying up the storage load, is too much of hassle in managing a filesystem to direct multiple storage allocations to different accounts, which would actually be against Gmail's Terms of Use (see below) as abuse - this may cross apply to any and all Google Accounts.
It's also a hassle managing different accounts and passwords, so I don't believe that would be very fun at all and would not be very practical. Perhaps you can do the upgraded storage for a single account, but share all files and folders with secondary accounts of yours (perhaps 1 or 3 accounts max), such that if you lose the primary account you can at least access all your files and download them.
However, if you choose this you have more doorways into your file folders which creates a security risk (so perhaps on non-primary accounts you would set it to read or view only so they can still be downloaded but kept unchanged and non-deleted). In my opinion, the chances of losing access to a Google account is very minimal, if you have sufficient security precautions. For your Google account with an upgraded, you should have two-step authentication (for security purposes) and you should link the account with multiple backup emails (ones you trust) and multiple phone numbers (again ones you trust). As long as you have access, you should be able to change these phone numbers and email addresses; so whenever, you expect a change to these, change them before they become unavailable to regain access. With such precautions, I doubt that your account will become unrecoverable or inaccessible.
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Since you claim it is most or about 150GB, it may be wise to have another local backup - just as another safety step, because that is relatively small. From If you use Gmail and the auto-renewal fails, your storage plan will be extended for seven days and you'll have seven days to update your payment information. You can use those extra seven days to clear space in your account or buy a new storage plan. If your storage plan is canceled or expires If you cancel your storage plan or when your storage plan expires, your storage limits will reset to the free levels for each product at the end of your billing cycle. Everything in Google Drive, Google Photos, and Gmail will still be accessible, but you won't be able to create or add anything new over the free storage limit.