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Google Drive Backup Setup

This project supports automatic database and S3-compatible storage backups to Google Drive using the Google Drive API.

The backup process includes:

  • MySQL database dump
  • Files stored on S3-compatible storage (such as AWS S3 or Cloudflare R2)
  • Archive creation
  • Upload to Google Drive

Prerequisites

Install the Google API PHP Client:

composer require google/apiclient:^2.15

Make sure your Laravel application has a configured S3 disk:

FILESYSTEM_DISK=s3

AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=
AWS_DEFAULT_REGION=
AWS_BUCKET=
AWS_ENDPOINT=

For Cloudflare R2, configure the S3-compatible endpoint:

AWS_ENDPOINT=https://<account-id>.r2.cloudflarestorage.com

1. Create a Google Cloud Project

  1. Go to Google Cloud Console.
  2. Create a new project (for example: hsc-stack-backups).
  3. Open APIs & Services → Library.
  4. Search for Google Drive API.
  5. Click Enable.

2. Configure the OAuth Consent Screen

  1. Navigate to:
APIs & Services → OAuth consent screen
  1. Choose:
External
  1. Fill in the required information:
  • App name
  • User support email
  • Developer contact email
  1. Save and continue.

Add the Drive Scope

Add:

https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.file

This allows the application to create and manage files created by the backup application without granting access to the entire Google Drive.

Add Test Users

While the application is in Testing mode:

  1. Open OAuth consent screen → Test users
  2. Add the Google account that will store backups.

Publishing the application is not required for personal backup usage.

3. Create OAuth Credentials

  1. Open:
APIs & Services → Credentials
  1. Click:
Create Credentials → OAuth client ID
  1. Select:
Application type: Desktop app
  1. Give it a name:

Example:

hsc-stack-backup-cli
  1. Create the credentials.

Copy:

  • Client ID
  • Client Secret

4. Configure Environment Variables

Add these values to your .env file:

GOOGLE_DRIVE_CLIENT_ID=
GOOGLE_DRIVE_CLIENT_SECRET=
GOOGLE_DRIVE_REFRESH_TOKEN=
GOOGLE_DRIVE_FOLDER_NAME=backup

The configuration is loaded from:

'google_drive' => [
    'client_id' => env('GOOGLE_DRIVE_CLIENT_ID'),
    'client_secret' => env('GOOGLE_DRIVE_CLIENT_SECRET'),
    'refresh_token' => env('GOOGLE_DRIVE_REFRESH_TOKEN'),
    'folder_name' => env('GOOGLE_DRIVE_FOLDER_NAME', 'backup'),
],

5. One-Time Authorization

Run:

php artisan backup:drive-authorize

The command will:

  1. Generate a Google authorization URL.
  2. Ask you to open it in your browser.
  3. Sign in with the Google account added as a test user.
  4. Grant access.
  5. Copy the authorization code.
  6. Paste the code back into the terminal.

The command will output a refresh token:

GOOGLE_DRIVE_REFRESH_TOKEN=1//xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Add this value to .env.

The authorization process only needs to be completed once. The refresh token is reused automatically for future scheduled backups.

6. Run a Backup

Create and upload a backup:

php artisan backup:drive

The command performs these steps:

1. Dump MySQL database
2. Download files from S3 storage temporarily
3. Create S3 archive
4. Combine database + storage archive
5. Upload final archive to Google Drive
6. Remove temporary local backup files

If the configured Google Drive folder does not exist, it will be created automatically.

Automation

After the refresh token is configured, backups can run automatically using Laravel Scheduler or cron.

Example scheduler:

Schedule::command('backup:drive')
    ->daily();

Example cron entry:

0 0 * * * cd /path/to/project && php artisan schedule:run

Backup Storage Notes

The backup command does not directly backup storage/app/public.

Instead, it backs up the configured S3 disk:

S3 Bucket
   |
   ├── images
   ├── documents
   ├── PDFs
   └── other uploaded files

This keeps the backup process aligned with the application's production storage system.

For S3-compatible providers such as Cloudflare R2, ensure the Laravel S3 filesystem configuration is correct before running backups.