How to Stop Google Drive Upload for PC and Smartphones

Do you want to know how to stop Google Drive upload for any reason? The good news is, there are plenty of ways that you can follow to do that, and in this article, I am going to talk about the best methods that you can follow to stop Google Drive from uploading media files.

So, without any further ado, let’s get started-

How to stop Google Drive Upload?

Without a doubt, Google Drive is one of the most famous and commonly used synchronization and cloud storage services on the internet, especially for smartphone devices. The free service offers you 15 GB of free cloud storage which seems more than sufficient for a basic user.

But recently, a weird incident happened to me. I was away from my Wi-Fi, and a video file of around 2 GB started uploading to my Google Drive. I didn’t care initially, but that upload made my internet connection very slow. The biggest problem was that I couldn’t find any option to either pause or completely cancel that upload.

As a result, it becomes very tough for me to use my phone’s internet to visit websites and even to read emails. It took around 40-45 minutes to get that file uploaded completely, and then I started searching about this issue on the internet.

I was shocked because I was not the only person who faced this issue, but the more shocking thing was that there is no clear explanation to deal with this issue.

So, as I always do, I decided to troubleshoot this issue and find possible ways to deal with it. Do note that none of the methods mentioned here is official. These are just hit and try techniques that could help you to prevent yourself from this scenario.

So, with that said, here are the best ways on how to stop Google Drive upload in progress –

How to stop Google Drive upload on Android?

1. Disconnect your device from the network connection

I know you might be thinking about what sort of advice this is but let’s accept it, disconnecting your device’s network connection is by far the easiest way to tackle this Google Drive upload problem. When you disconnect your smartphone’s internet connection, the file uploading process will also be suspended automatically.

Disconnecting mobile internet connections is fairly simple, and I don’t think I’ve to demonstrate how to do that. You can simply put your smartphone on “Airplane Mode,” or you can manually turn off the “Wi-Fi” and “Mobile Internet” connection.

But doing so would also make you entirely offline, and what if you want to send an important email to a client or maybe, just don’t want to get offline? In such a case, if you own an Android device with Android OS 9 or above, that can be a lifesaver for you.

Android 9 comes with a pretty amazing feature that lets you disable internet connections for specific apps. For that, you have to follow these simple steps-

• Open app info of Google Drive. You can do that by long pressing on the app icon and then selecting the “App info” option, or you can manually go to Settings> App Management> App List> and then select Google Drive.
• Here, you will see the “Data usage details” option. Tap on it.

• Here, you will see options to “Disable mobile data” and “Disable Wi-Fi.” Enable them.

That is it. Doing this will disconnect the internet connection for Google Drive, and you can still use the internet connection for other apps.

Note – I am not 100% sure if this feature is available for all Android smartphones running Android 9 or above, but I got it on all my Android devices. If this option is not available for you, you can use the following method mentioned below.

Read How To Share Google Drive Folders With Non-Gmail Users

2. Disable Auto-sync

If you haven’t accidentally added a file to upload to your Google Drive and the files are uploading automatically due to auto-backup or sync settings, then you can follow this solution to solve the issue.

Google Drive on smartphones automatically backups images and other media files, and there is an easy way to disable it.

To disable auto-sync, you have to follow these simple steps-

• Go to the Settings on your smartphone.
• Locate the Google settings option and tap on it.

• It will take you to the page where you can see a bunch of different settings—select the “Backup” option from here.

• On the following page, you have to disable the “Back up to Google Drive” option to stop uploading files to Google Drive. You can also enable the “Use Wi-Fi only” option to backup media files only when you will be connected to a Wi-Fi network.
• After that, restart your phone.

This method will definitely stop Google Drive upload if it was happening due to auto-backup and sync settings. But if you accidentally put that file to upload, then the next method will fix the problem for you very easily.

Read How to Unshare a Folder in Google Drive

3. Uninstall and reinstall Google Drive App

Another great way to stop Google Drive upload on Android is by uninstalling the Google Drive app from your smartphone. This technique is very easy to execute and works almost every single time. Therefore, you can rely on it completely.

To do that, simply follow these simple steps-

• Press and hold the Google Drive icon and tap on the “App info” option.
• From here, you have to choose the uninstall option.
• After that, restart your device and install Google Drive again from the Play Store.
• Set up your Gmail account.

That’s it. The pending upload notification will disappear, and the uploading process will be terminated permanently. However, the biggest issue with this technique is that it doesn’t work with devices in which the Google Drive app comes by default.

For those devices, you have to manually clear the cache and other data of the Google Drive app.

Read Google Drive Upload Failure 38

4. Clear Cache and other app data

Alternatively, you can use this method to deal with the problem if your device comes with Google Drive by default.

Follow these steps-

• Press and hold the Google Drive icon and tap on the “App info” option.
• Now, tap on the “Storage Usage” option.
• Here, you have to clear all the data stored by Google Drive.
• Now, come back and tap on the “Force Stop” option.
• Restart your smartphone.
• Open the Google Drive app.

And this will definitely stop the Google Drive upload issue for you.

Note – You don’t have to worry about your data because once you reopen the app, the app will start collecting all the data from Google Drive cloud servers. You will not lose any data.

Read How to Share Videos on Google Drive

How to stop Google Drive upload on Windows PC

If you are facing this issue on Windows PC, then you can follow the below-mentioned methods to deal with it.

1. Freeze Google Drive app

The easiest way to tackle this issue on a Windows PC is by pausing the Google Drive app. The good thing is that it is very easy to perform and works most of the time.

To pause the Google Drive app on Windows PC, follow these simple steps-

• Open Google Drive app on Windows PC. You can either manually open the app or click directly on the “White cloud with an arrow” icon from the taskbar.
• A window will appear where you have to click on the three-dot menu, positioned at the top right corner of your screen.
• An options menu will appear, and here you have to click on the “Pause” option.

Doing this will pause uploading files to Google Drive immediately, and whenever you want to resume uploading, you can follow the same process, but you will see the “Resume” option instead of the “Pause” option.

2. Forcefully Close Google Drive App

The guide mentioned above will fix the issue for you, but if by any chance the problem still persists, then you can follow this method. This method will forcefully close the Google Drive app from your PC for the time until you reopen it manually.

To do this, follow these steps-

• Click on Google Drive’s “White cloud with an arrow” icon.
• A window will appear, and here you have to click on the three-dot menu, located at the top right corner.
• From the options menu, click on the “Quit Backup and Sync” option.

• Open Task Manager and see if any app opened with the name “Backup & Sync” or “Google Drive.” If there is, close the app.

That’s it. This will close the Google Drive app from your PC, and the uploading process will get temporarily terminated.

Read How to Link a Folder To Google Drive

3. Disconnect your account from the Google Drive app

The next technique to stop Google Drive from uploading media files from your PC requires you to Sign out from the Backup & Sync app, aka Google Drive for PC.

For that, you have to follow these steps-

• Click on the “Backup and Sync” icon on your PC.
• Click on the three-dot menu and select the “Preferences” option.

• Now, click on the Settings option.
• You have to select the “Disconnect account” option and then click on the “Disconnect” option.

Doing this will log you out from the Backup and Sync application. As a result, the uploading process will be terminated permanently. This is also an easy way to stop Google Drive from uploading media files from your PC.

4. Cancel upload task manually

Lastly, you can try this method to prevent Google Drive from uploading files from your PC.

To do that, you have to follow these simple steps-

• Open the “Backup and Sync” app on your PC.
• Here, you will see a list of files that are in progress to upload to your Google Drive.
• On the top right corner, you will see a Cancel button. Click on it.

It will cancel all the uploading tasks very quickly.

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Closing Comments

There you have it – a list of different methods to stop Google Drive from uploading files.

It is a very common Google Drive problem that primarily occurs because of Backup and Sync settings. The good news is that tackling this issue is not a big deal. You just have to follow a few simple steps, and this problem will get solved within no time.

With that said, here I am wrapping up this article. If you have any questions, feel free to shoot them in the comment section below. Our team will try to respond ASAP.