Hey Woodpig,
To confirm, the Google Drive app has a check in System Settings, correct.
Are you logged in as an Administrator? If not, test in an Administrator account. If you continue to have that issue, set up a new test Administrator account.
If issue doesn't occur in the test account, the issue is more than likely related to a setting or software in the original one. To set up that new Administrator user account, follow the steps below or the steps in this article: Add a user or group on Mac.
1. On your Mac, choose Apple menu
> System Settings, then click Users & Groups
in the sidebar. (You may need to scroll down.)
2. Click the Add Account button below the list of users on the right (you may be asked to enter your password.)
3. Click the New Account pop-up menu, then choose a type of user.
• Administrator: An administrator can add and manage other users, install apps, and change settings. The new user you create when you first set up your Mac is an administrator. Your Mac can have multiple administrators. You can create new ones, and convert standard users to administrators. Don’t set up automatic login for an administrator. If you do, someone could simply restart your Mac and gain access with administrator privileges. To keep your Mac secure, don’t share administrator names and passwords.
4. Enter a full name for the new user. An account name is generated automatically. To use a different account name, enter it now—you can’t change it later.
5. Enter a password for the user, then enter it again to verify. Enter a password hint to help the user remember their password.
6. Click Create User.
7. Depending on the type of user you create, you can also do any of the following:
• For an administrator, select “Allow user to administer this computer.”
• Select “Allow user to reset password using Apple ID.” To use this option, the user must have set up iCloud on this Mac. However, this option isn’t available if is FileVault is turned on and set to allow the user to reset their password at startup using their Apple ID.
• Use Sharing settings to specify whether the user can share your files and share your screen.
If the information above doesn't help, and Google Drive is the only app experiencing the issue, we recommend contacting Google Support. For information on locating an app developer's contact information, review this article: How to contact an app developer.
Hope this helps. Take care.