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By the end of this guide, you’ll have AutoBackupTool installed, connected to your Google Drive, and running your first encrypted backup. The whole process takes about ten minutes, most of which is spent in the Google Cloud Console setting up your OAuth credentials.
1

Clone the repository

Clone the AutoBackupTool repository and navigate into the project folder:
git clone https://github.com/Eraiyanbupeterfrancis/AutoBackupTool.git && cd AutoBackupTool
2

Install dependencies

Install the four required packages from requirements.txt:
pip install -r requirements.txt
This installs:
  • pydrive2 — Google Drive API wrapper
  • cryptography — Fernet symmetric encryption
  • schedule — job scheduling for daily/weekly backups
  • python-dotenv — loads configuration from backup.env
3

Set up credentials

AutoBackupTool needs two things before it can run: an encryption key and a Google OAuth client.Generate your encryption keyRun encrypt.py to generate a new Fernet key and print it to the terminal:
from cryptography.fernet import Fernet
print(Fernet.generate_key().decode())

python encrypt.py
Copy the output — you’ll need it in the next step.Create backup.envRename backup.env.example to backup.env and fill in your values:
# Rename this file to backup.env and fill in your own keys before running the project

ENCRYPTION_KEY=YOUR_ENCRYPTION_KEY_HERE
CLIENT_SECRETS_FILE=client_secrets.json
Replace YOUR_ENCRYPTION_KEY_HERE with the key you just generated.Add client_secrets.jsonDownload your OAuth client credentials from the Google Cloud Console and place client_secrets.json in the project root. See Google Drive setup for step-by-step instructions on creating the OAuth client.
4

Launch the app

Start AutoBackupTool with:
python backup_gui.py
In the GUI:
  1. Click Browse and select the folder you want to back up
  2. Choose a schedule — Backup Once Now, Daily (22:00), or Weekly (Sunday 22:00)
  3. Click Start Backup
The progress bar and log window show compression, encryption, and upload status in real time.
Never commit backup.env or client_secrets.json to git. Both files contain sensitive credentials. Add them to your .gitignore before your first commit.
The first time you run AutoBackupTool, it opens a browser window for Google OAuth authorization. Complete the sign-in flow and grant Drive access. Your credentials are saved to mycreds.txt in the project folder, so this browser step only happens once.
For a detailed walkthrough of the Google Cloud Console setup, including how to enable the Drive API and configure the OAuth consent screen, see Google Drive setup.

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