GNOME 50 has removed support for Google Drive after the underlying library went unmaintained for years. Developers cited security vulnerabilities and a lack of contributors as key reasons. The change ensures the desktop environment avoids outdated dependencies.
GNOME developers have confirmed that Google Drive integration is no longer available in GNOME 50. Nearly two weeks ago, a user on GNOME's Discourse forum inquired if the missing feature was a bug or intentional. Emmanuele Bassi, a GNOME developer, replied that it was deliberate, as the libgdata library—responsible for communication with Google's APIs—has lacked a maintainer for almost four years. GVFS dropped its dependency on libgdata about ten months ago, and GNOME Online Accounts now omits the Files toggle for Google settings as a result. Bassi suggested interested parties contact the GVFS maintainer to restore the feature. Michael Catanzaro, another developer, noted that libgdata has been archived on GitLab, leaving no active codebase for contributions. He had publicly called for a maintainer in December 2022—over three years ago—with no response. The library's persistence also kept libsoup2 in the GNOME stack, despite its phase-out before GNOME 44. Debian's security tracker lists multiple open CVEs for libsoup2, including HTTP request smuggling and authentication flaws.