If you edit the rclone configuration file to add a different Google Drive Client ID

If you edit the rclone configuration file to add a different Google Drive client ID and client secret, you should stop the currently running rclone copy job and then restart it.

The good news is that rclone copy will pick up where it left off.

Here’s what happens:

Files that were already copied successfully will be skipped on the next run because rclone copy compares the source and destination.

Files that had not yet been copied will continue to be transferred.

If a large file was only partially transferred when you stopped the job, Google Drive does not support resuming an interrupted upload from the middle of the file. That particular file will generally be uploaded again from the beginning.

The new run will use the updated client ID and client secret from the modified configuration.

A typical sequence would be:

1. Press Ctrl+C to stop the running rclone copy.

2. Edit the rclone config (usually with rclone config or by editing rclone.conf) and add the new Google API client ID and secret.

3. Save the changes.

4. Run the exact same rclone copy command again.

For example:

rclone copy gdrive1:folder gdrive2:folder

When restarted, rclone will skip files that are already present and only transfer what remains.

One thing to be aware of: if you are changing the client ID and secret for remotes that are already authenticated, it is often a good idea to run:

rclone config reconnect

for each affected Google Drive remote. This refreshes the OAuth token so that the remote definitely uses the new client credentials. If you only edit the client ID and secret but don’t reconnect, the existing access token may continue to work until it expires, and the new client credentials won’t fully take effect until the token is refreshed.