When installing Google Drive File Stream for macOS for the first time, you should see Loading your files within the app – along with the sudden realization that your fans spin up and something is running one core of your CPU at 100% load.
Aside from Google constantly fixing bugs and pushing updates to improve Google Drive File Stream, what did the trick for me was to disable Spotlight indexing for the Google Drive File Stream folder, namely adding it to the list of excluded apps. Here’s how:
- Open System Preferences
- Go to Spotlight
- Select the Privacy tab
- Click on the plus ‘+’ sign
- Select the Google Drive File Stream folder
- Done!
It should look like this:
Note that I also added my personal drive and the shared drive as well, just for good measure.