# stewartmcgown/uds

📀 Unlimited Google Drive Storage by splitting binary files into base64

Repository: https://github.com/stewartmcgown/uds
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/uds
Language: Python
License: AGPL-3.0
License Family: copyleft
Topics: google-drive, unlimited
Last push: 2021-11-02T07:51:47+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 32/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2968, "days_push": 1765, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 4376, forks 274 (observed 2026-08-28T04:08:46.883849+00:00)

## What it is
A Python CLI tool that stores arbitrary binary files in Google Drive as base64-encoded text inside Google Docs, which historically did not count against storage quota. It supports uploading, listing, searching, downloading, and deleting these encoded file archives.

## Use cases
- store large files in google drive without using quota
- back up iso files to google docs
- split binary files into base64 chunks for cloud storage
- retrieve files stored as google docs back to disk
- list and search files hidden in drive docs

## When to choose
- you want to exploit the legacy Google Docs zero-quota behavior
- you need a free, scriptable way to stash large binaries in Drive
- you are comfortable with Python CLI tools and Google API setup

## When to avoid
- you need reliable, supported storage - Google now counts Docs against quota since June 2021
- you need fast uploads or downloads (base64 encoding adds ~33% overhead and chunked docs are slow)
- you need a maintained tool - the project has had no releases since late 2021

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: abandoned
- function: file-system, compression, developer-tools
- domain: files, cloud-computing, developer-tools
- platform: python, cli, cross-platform
- tags: google-drive, base64, storage-workaround, file-encoding

## Member repositories
- stewartmcgown/uds (main) score 32

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:46.883849+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T18:21:20.228329+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/stewartmcgown/uds (fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:46.883849+00:00, sha 0eb618cbebe0)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.