rclone Google Drive client_id: Create Your Own OAuth App

Here is a short reference doc you can keep:

Google Drive client_id for rclone, headless server setup

Because the default rclone Google Drive client_id is shared by many users, it can hit Google rate limits more easily. For a more stable setup, create your own Google OAuth app and use its client_id and client_secret in rclone.

Why this matters

• Better reliability than the shared default rclone client
• Lower chance of quota and rate-limit issues
• Better for production and multiple services

What I had to create

When creating the Google OAuth app, I had to choose:

• Application type: Desktop app

This is correct for rclone authentication, even if the final usage is on a headless Ubuntu server.

Steps

1. Open the Google API Console and create or select a project.

2. Enable Google Drive API.

3. Open Credentials.

4. Configure the OAuth consent screen.

   • App name: anything, for example rclone
   • Audience: usually External
   • Add yourself as a test user

5. In Data Access, add these scopes:

   • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/docs
   • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive
   • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.metadata.readonly

6. Save the consent screen settings.

7. Create an OAuth client.

8. Choose Desktop app.

9. Copy the generated:

   • client_id
   • client_secret

10. Put them into your rclone Google Drive remote config.

11. Reconnect/authenticate the remote.

Notes

• Even on a headless server, the OAuth client type should still be Desktop app.
• Google may show an unverified app warning during login. That is expected for a personal setup.
• For External apps, adding yourself as a test user is important.

Useful rclone command

To reconnect the remote after adding your own credentials:

rclone config reconnect hetzner-dev:

Result

After reconnecting, I was able to download files from Google Drive directly to:

~/smow/db_dumps

If you want, I can turn this into a cleaner README.md version you can paste into your project.