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The most important rclone settings depend on the operation. For Google Drive uploads, start with --drive-chunk-size and --transfers; for recursive scans containing many directories, evaluate --fast-list; and for an rclone mount, tune directory caching, VFS buffering and cache mode according to how applications open files. Every one of these settings exchanges speed for memory, API requests, local disk or compatibility, so there is no universal “fastest” profile.

The safest approach is to change one workload-specific setting at a time, measure the same command, and keep enough RAM and disk headroom for your actual concurrency. Defaults and backend behavior can change between rclone releases, so verify the current Google Drive backend documentation, global flags and mount documentation for your installed version.

The settings that matter most, by workload

Use this as a decision map rather than a preset. The right control is determined by whether your bottleneck is file data, API listings, metadata freshness or mount compatibility.

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Workload First settings to examine Main trade-off
Uploading files --drive-chunk-size, --transfers More throughput can require substantially more RAM.
Recursive copy, sync or inventory --fast-list, then --checkers Fewer listing transactions can consume more memory; checker changes are workload-dependent.
Browsing a mount --dir-cache-time, --poll-interval Longer caching reduces repeated listings but delays visibility of outside changes.
Applications reading mounted files --buffer-size, VFS cache mode and read-chunk options Memory and local disk usage rise with open files and caching; optimum read concurrency depends on the backend and network.

Do not confuse file-transfer concurrency with metadata-check concurrency. --transfers controls simultaneous file transfers, while the global --checkers setting controls parallel checking. A mount using VFS write caching follows different rules: the mount documentation says --transfers controls parallel uploads from cache, while --checkers has no effect on the VFS.

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Speeding up Google Drive uploads

Choose a Drive chunk size with RAM in mind

--drive-chunk-size controls the upload chunk used by the Drive backend. The documented default is 8 MiB. Rclone states that making the chunk larger can improve performance, but that one chunk is buffered in memory for each transfer. Valid values are powers of two and must be at least 256 KiB.

That means a larger chunk is not free. If four transfers are active and each uses an 8 MiB chunk, the chunk buffers alone can account for roughly 32 MiB, before rclone, the operating system, file-system cache and any other processes are counted. Increasing both chunk size and transfer concurrency multiplies the in-flight data requirement. The actual peak can be higher because other buffering and protocol overhead are also present.

Lowering the chunk size reduces the memory reserved per transfer and can keep a constrained machine stable, but rclone warns that it may reduce performance. Raising it can help when large files and a fast connection make per-request overhead significant. The documentation does not establish one best larger value for all Drive accounts, file sizes or networks, so treat any change as a measured experiment.

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Adjust transfer concurrency separately

The global --transfers flag sets the number of files transferred concurrently and defaults to 4. It is most useful when several files can keep the network busy at once. More transfers may improve utilization when individual files are small or latency is high, but they also create more simultaneous chunk buffers, API activity and local contention.

For a controlled test, keep the chunk size fixed while comparing two conservative transfer counts. Watch resident memory, swap activity, Drive errors and sustained throughput rather than the speed of a single short burst. If memory pressure appears, reduce concurrency or chunk size before increasing anything else. A machine that starts swapping can become slower than a lower-throughput configuration that stays in RAM.

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A repeatable upload test

  1. Run the same representative copy or sync command against the same set of files, recording elapsed time and any errors.
  2. Change only --drive-chunk-size, using a power-of-two value permitted by the Drive backend, and repeat the test.
  3. Restore the chunk value, change only --transfers, and repeat.
  4. Keep the combination that improves sustained completion time without exhausting RAM, triggering swap or increasing retries.

Test with the data shape you actually care about. A few very large files can benefit from different settings than thousands of small files, where API and file-open overhead dominate.

Making recursive listings, copy and sync operations faster

When --fast-list helps

Google Drive supports --fast-list. Rclone describes it as using fewer transactions in exchange for more memory. It combines directory-list requests rather than repeatedly listing each directory in the more incremental fashion.

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The current Drive documentation includes an undated workload example: 10,600 directories and 39,000 files took 22:05 without --fast-list and 58 seconds with it. That is an illustration of one documented workload, not a guarantee for every Drive tree. The result can differ with directory shape, account state, latency, API throttling and rclone version.

Use it when a recursive operation spends much of its time making listing calls and the host has sufficient RAM. Avoid it, or test carefully, when memory is tight or the tree is small enough that the extra in-memory representation brings no meaningful benefit.

Understand the role of --checkers

The global --checkers flag defaults to 8 and controls parallel checking. On the Drive backend, the fast recursive listing implementation uses the --checkers value to set parallel requests. Raising it can help a high-latency workload that has independent checks available, but it can also increase API pressure, memory use and throttling. Lowering it may be preferable when the account or network is already saturated.

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Change --checkers only after deciding that metadata checking, rather than file data transfer, is the limiting phase. It does not substitute for --transfers, and changing one does not automatically improve the other.

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Listing tuning checklist

  • Count directories and files, not just total bytes; a small-byte tree with many directories can still be listing-bound.
  • Compare the same recursive command with and without --fast-list.
  • Monitor peak RAM while the listing phase is active.
  • Try a modest checker change only if API requests, not data bandwidth, dominate the elapsed time.
  • Keep an eye on API errors or throttling; fewer transactions is useful only if the operation completes reliably.

Tuning an rclone mount: metadata freshness first

--dir-cache-time controls repeated directory work

The mount’s --dir-cache-time defaults to five minutes. It determines how long directory entries are treated as current before rclone needs to refresh them. A longer value can make repeated browsing feel faster because the mount avoids re-listing directories, but changes made outside the mount can remain invisible until the cache expires or another refresh mechanism notices them.

Pair cache time with polling

For remotes that support change polling, --poll-interval must be shorter than --dir-cache-time. Polling can discover external changes before the directory cache expires, subject to the remote’s support and the configured interval. If you need near-immediate visibility of edits made through another client, use a shorter cache and polling interval at the cost of more refresh activity. If the mount is mostly read-only and outside changes are infrequent, a longer cache may reduce repeated listing work.

These settings affect directory metadata, not the speed of reading file contents. Treat “folder opens quickly” and “large files stream quickly” as separate performance questions.

VFS buffering, cache modes and mounted-file reads

Calculate the cost of --buffer-size

--buffer-size is an upper bound for the read buffer of each open file. In the worst case, buffering memory can approach the configured buffer multiplied by the number of concurrently open files. A large value may help a sequential reader tolerate latency, but it can exhaust RAM when an application opens many files or when several users share a mount.

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Estimate the aggregate before increasing it: multiply the proposed buffer by a realistic peak open-file count, then leave room for rclone, the operating system and other services. If applications open hundreds of files, a moderate per-file buffer can be safer than a large one designed for a single stream.

Choose VFS cache mode for compatibility, not as a universal speed switch

VFS file-cache modes use local disk to provide filesystem behavior that a remote object store cannot provide directly. They can improve application compatibility, but consume disk space and add local I/O. The mount documentation notes that reading and writing a file simultaneously requires VFS caching.

Select a cache mode based on the application’s access pattern: applications that seek, reopen, modify and read the same file concurrently are stronger candidates than simple one-pass readers. Reserve enough local disk for the cache and understand its eviction behavior. Do not assume that enabling a cache automatically increases every transfer; it may instead trade network operations for local storage and consistency behavior.

Be cautious with concurrent VFS read chunks

Rclone can issue multiple VFS read chunks in parallel. This can help on high-latency or high-bandwidth connections when a single sequential request cannot fill the link. However, the documentation says the optimum depends on the backend and latency. Its illustrative scaling test is for S3, not Google Drive, so its values are not a validated Drive recommendation.

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For Drive, start from the documented defaults, measure a real application workload and change read-chunk concurrency only when network latency or single-request throughput is demonstrably limiting. More parallel chunks can increase memory, request volume and contention without improving a workload that is CPU-, disk- or API-bound.

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HTTP/2: leave the Drive default alone unless testing a specific issue

In the documented version, the Drive backend has HTTP/2 disabled by default because of an unresolved issue. The --drive-disable-http2 flag controls that behavior. This is a volatile implementation detail: check the current Drive documentation before drawing conclusions from a newer release.

Do not re-enable HTTP/2 as a generic speed tweak. If you have a reproducible reason to test the alternative, change it in an isolated comparison, record the rclone version and operation, and revert if reliability or throughput worsens.

A practical tuning workflow

  1. Identify the phase. Determine whether elapsed time is spent uploading bytes, listing directories, checking metadata, opening mount directories or reading file data.
  2. Record constraints. Note available RAM, local cache-disk capacity, approximate file and directory counts, concurrent open files, link latency and sustained bandwidth.
  3. Start with defaults. Capture elapsed time, peak memory, disk growth and errors using the rclone version you operate.
  4. Change one relevant control. Use chunk size and transfers for uploads; fast-list and checkers for recursive metadata work; directory cache and polling for mount freshness; buffering and VFS cache for application behavior.
  5. Repeat with representative data. Include the many-small-files case, few-large-files case or concurrent-open-file pattern that matters in production.
  6. Keep a safe rollback. Save the original command and configuration so a memory spike, stale directory view or compatibility regression can be reversed quickly.

Judge a setting by the complete operation, not a brief peak. A configuration that reports a faster first minute but swaps, throttles or fails later is not a performance improvement.

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Common symptoms and corrective actions

Symptom Likely area What to try
Uploads are slow and RAM is plentiful Chunking or insufficient transfer concurrency Test a larger permitted --drive-chunk-size and a measured --transfers increase separately.
Uploads trigger swapping or out-of-memory errors Too many per-transfer buffers Reduce --transfers, chunk size or both; retest sustained throughput.
Recursive sync spends most time enumerating folders Listing transactions Evaluate --fast-list if RAM allows; adjust --checkers cautiously.
Mount browsing repeats slow folder listings Directory cache too short Increase --dir-cache-time if delayed external changes are acceptable.
Changes made elsewhere do not appear promptly Cache or polling interval Use a shorter supported --poll-interval than --dir-cache-time, or wait for cache expiry.
Many applications open files and memory climbs Per-file VFS buffering Reduce --buffer-size or limit concurrent open files; calculate aggregate memory first.
An application needs simultaneous reads and writes Filesystem compatibility Use an appropriate VFS cache mode and provide sufficient local disk.
Parallel read tuning has no benefit Wrong bottleneck or backend mismatch Measure latency, bandwidth, CPU and disk; do not transfer S3 example values to Drive.

What not to change casually

  • Do not disable checksums, metadata checks or other safeguards merely to chase a benchmark number; state exactly which integrity or consistency behavior would be lost before considering such a trade.
  • Do not treat a setting tested on S3 as a Google Drive optimum.
  • Do not increase every concurrency flag at once. That hides which phase improved and can create API throttling or memory exhaustion.
  • Do not report a one-off listing result as a general speed guarantee; workload shape and rclone release matter.

Bottom line

For most users, tune in this order: identify the workload, then test Drive chunk size and transfer concurrency for uploads; use --fast-list for large recursive trees when RAM permits; and tune mount directory caching, per-file buffering and VFS cache mode around freshness, open-file count and compatibility. There is no documented, universally optimal Google Drive VFS read-chunk profile, so measurement under your own latency, bandwidth, data shape and resource limits is the deciding step.

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