FTP client Transmit for Mac: End of Google Drive support approaching
Panic Software announces that the popular FTP client Transmit, which also handles cloud services, will lose access to Google Drive. This is due to Google.
Google Drive on a smartphone.
(Image: Mongta Studio/Shutterstock.com)
The popular data transfer manager Transmit for the Mac has been around since 1998. In addition to standard protocols such as FTP, SFTP and WebDAV, it has also supported numerous cloud providers for years, including OneDrive, Dropbox, Backblaze, AWS and Box. But one popular service will soon no longer exist: Google Drive. The developer, Panic Software, announced this in its blog this week.
Google requires annual certifications
"We don't like removing features from our applications. We are particularly reluctant to do so when it is due to circumstances beyond our control," explains Panic. Google will disable Transmit's access to Google Drive "at an unknown time in the future". From then on, it will no longer be possible to connect the storage. In addition to Transmit, Panic's code editor Nova, which contains integrated upload and sync functions, is also affected.
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The reason given by Panic for the end of support is that Google requires new certifications from providers who want to provide access to Google Drive with their apps and services. "[These are] expensive, lengthy annual reviews that make it extremely difficult to maintain access (...) reasonably well."
KPMG should take a look
Incidentally, this request from Google is not new: such reviews were already introduced in 2019 for security reasons. Back then, it took until 2020 for access to be restored, according to Panic. Later on, it went through the certification process every year without any problems. From 2023, Transmit lost access again because a Cloud Application Security Assessment (CASA) was required.
This also went through, but took a very long time – including vulnerability scanning of Transmit's source code. Transmit has been able to use Google Drive again since March 2024, but this "check" is now required annually. Independent scanning of the code has also been banned in the meantime; instead, expensive service providers (such as KPMG, apparently) must be used. All in all, it's not worth it, says Panic. Incidentally, the company is not the only victim of Google's drive policy: the creators of iA Writer froze their Android app because they no longer wanted to comply with the constantly changing security regulations and review requirements.
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