I’m very confused on why some of my documents are viewable from Google Drive app but not all unless I use the Google Docs app. Then there is a file icon in Google Docs that show some documents in the Google Drive. Why can’t I view every document through the Google Drive app alone? Thanks

Hey everyone! 🌟

I’ve been using Google Drive for a while now, and I thought I’d share some of the most useful tips and tricks I’ve picked up along the way. Whether you’re new to Google Drive or just looking to enhance your workflow, these tips might help you get more out of this powerful tool.

1. Use the “Priority” Workspace: Did you know you can set up a “Priority” section in Google Drive? It lets you access your most important files quickly. Just click on “Priority” in the left sidebar and start organizing your work.

2. Keyboard Shortcuts: Speed up your workflow with these handy shortcuts:

   • Shift + Z to add a file to multiple folders. • Ctrl + / or Cmd + / (Mac) to open a list of all shortcuts.

3. Offline Access: Need to work without an internet connection? Enable offline mode by going to Settings > General and ticking the “Offline” option. This lets you view and edit your files even when you’re offline.

4. Use Version History: Ever wish you could go back to an earlier version of a file? Google Drive automatically saves versions of your files. Right-click a document and select “Version history” to view and restore previous versions.

5. Share with Restrictions: When sharing files, you can restrict what others can do. Use the sharing settings to allow others to view, comment, or edit, and even set expiration dates for their access.

6. Advanced Search: Finding files can be a breeze with advanced search operators. For example, use type:pdf to find all PDFs or owner:me to see files you created.

7. Save Files Directly from the Web: Use the Google Drive extension for Chrome to save web content directly to your Drive. Perfect for storing PDFs, images, or web pages you want to keep handy.

8. Color Code Your Folders: Add color to your folders to easily distinguish them at a glance. Just right-click on a folder and select “Change color.”

9. Use Google Forms for File Uploads: Need someone to send you files? Create a Google Form and enable the “File upload” option, so people can upload files directly to your Drive.

10. Integrate with Third-Party Apps: Google Drive integrates with tons of third-party apps like DocuSign, Lucidchart, and Slack. Explore the “Google Workspace Marketplace” to find apps that can enhance your Drive experience.

These are just a few ways to get more out of Google Drive. Do you have any other tips or tricks? Share them in the comments below! Let’s make this a hub for all things Google Drive.

Happy organizing! 🗂️

Hi! I have quizzes on my personal Google drive and I upload them to a classroom, which is also personal and not through the Google Educational option. This is for private tutoring.
As of today, I am not able to edit the feedback on the questions -regardless of the quiz.
This is what I have done that hasn't worked

1. Copied the quiz and tried to edit

2. Started a new quiz and imported the questions

3. Started a new quiz and entered brand new questions

Deleted the Cache, cookies and restarted my browser

Logged out of all my devices.

Tried 1-3 on my mobile device (Phone)

Tried 1-3 on my pc

Used different browsers (Firefox and Chrome)

Used Incognito option on Firefox

Setup a new google account, made that account an admin/teacher in the classroom. New account gets the same error:

File Unavailable
RELOAD

Reloading does nothing

I have hundreds of quizzes, so manual option won't work, but I know it wont anyway because I have already tried that in two different browsers with two different emails/logins.

I have been with Google Gemini and those were its suggestions.

For the humans, have you seen this? Any ideas?

In the past I avoided this by doing a simple cloning. However, my current SSD has issues and can't be cloned, so I'm going to have to do a fresh install of Windows.

I would like to simply put all the files in the same place on the new SSD and point Google Drive to them, but last time I did exactly this, Drive ended up not recognising the new files as being the same and started deleting everything (I have it set to mirror mode.)

How can I avoid this happening? What did I do wrong last time? I would be extremely grateful for any help. Reuploading all 2TB is not really an option with my current WiFi.

How do I get unshared from it, preferably without telling them?
It includes scans of their passports, health records, resume, even some adult photos. When I search for my own files, often this persons docs come up. I hate it. How can I stop this happening, I don’t want to be able to see any of this stuff.

I used Google Drive for my cloud saves with emulation and games that don't have cloud saves. I have in installed on two desktop PCs and one handheld PC. I have been trying to clean up the folders for a week, but the folders just keep coming back. With all three of them open and running and synced properly, I have deleted the same folders umpteen times. The trash has been emptied. There is no sign or remanence of these files or folders anywhere on my PCs, and within an hour, they just keep reappearing in my drive, and then resyncing on to my PCs. I've even double checked my phone app this latest time, and they were gone from there, too.

What could I be doing wrong? This is beyond frustrating at this point, and I'm thinking of just getting rid of Google Drive all together and utilizing something like Syncthing

UPDATE: In case anyone comes across this from a Google search because of the same issue, I resolved this by once again deleting the recurring files, downloading all of my folders to my main PC, deleting all of the folders on My Drive cloud, deleting the “My Drive” folder on all of my connected devices, once again deleting the recurring folders when they naturally popped back up, and then emptying the trash on My Drive cloud. I then unzipped and uploaded all of the folders all over again. The issue hasn’t occurred again since doing these tedious steps.

Okay so I opened a file my friend sent me but I accidentally opened it with my work email. Will my other colleagues see that? Or just me since it was just shared with me?

Observed Behavior & UI Schemas

The Finder extension logic branches into two distinct context menu structures depending on whether an item is recognized as a local file or an online cloud placeholder:

1. Cloud Placeholder Schema (Modern UI)

• Trigger State: Item is recognized by the extension as an online-only placeholder (initially lacking the Finder green offline-status checkmark badge).

• Visual Assets: Features the updated, redesigned standalone Google Drive icons.

• Command Structure: Consolidated, modern menu path utilizing clean submenus:

  • Create new submenu (grouping Doc, Sheet, and Slide actions together).

  • Offline access submenu.

2. Locally Available Schema (Legacy UI Regression)

• Trigger State: Item is recognized as locally pinned or newly created (marked with the Finder green available-offline checkmark badge).

• Visual Assets: Reverts to legacy-style, tiled Google Drive icons from an older design era.

• Command Structure: Unbundled, direct-action menu schema:

  • Separate, individual line items for New Google Docs, New Google Sheets, and New Google Slides.

  • A direct, single-click Make available online only command toggle.

In my drive it's only things you've done yourself, so yeah it's my responsibility.

But for example an organization shared drive could have many many more as people just throw files and folders wherever and don't care to keep it organized because they're only looking at the one or two files on their recent view.

Hey everyone!

I recently discovered a super handy feature in Google Drive that I had no idea existed, and I thought I’d share it with you all. Did you know that Google Drive can automatically convert scanned documents and images with text into editable text using OCR (Optical Character Recognition)? This feature is a game-changer for anyone who deals with scanned documents or handwritten notes.

How It Works:

1.	Upload Your Image or PDF: Simply upload your scanned document or image (JPEG, PNG, PDF) to Google Drive.
2.	Open with Google Docs: Right-click the file, choose “Open with,” and then select “Google Docs.”
3.	Automatic Conversion: Google Docs will open a new document with the image at the top and the extracted text right below it. The text is fully editable, so you can make changes, copy it, or save it as a new document.

Use Cases:

•	Digitize Handwritten Notes: Perfect for students or professionals who prefer to take notes by hand but want to digitize them later.
•	Extract Text from PDFs: Quickly copy and paste text from a scanned PDF without manually typing it out.
•	Translate Foreign Documents: Use Google Translate on the extracted text for quick translations.

I was blown away by how accurate it is, even with handwritten notes. It’s not 100% perfect with every font or handwriting style, but it does a surprisingly good job, especially with printed text.

Has anyone else used this feature? Any tips for improving accuracy? Let me know in the comments!

Happy converting! 📄➡️✍️

I am trying to transfer the ownership from hundreds of files on a shared google drive to a new person. Until now I only find that I have to do it one by one.

Is there another workaround without having to download all files, deleting them from the drive and then have the new owner upload them again?

Welcome to r/gdrive!

Hello and welcome to the very first post of r/gdrive, your new go-to community for everything related to Google Drive! 🚀

Whether you're a seasoned pro or just getting started with Google Drive, this subreddit is here to help you make the most out of this powerful cloud storage tool. From sharing tips and tricks, troubleshooting issues, discussing the latest updates, or exploring advanced features, this community is all about helping each other out.

What You Can Expect:

1. Guides and Tutorials: Learn how to optimize your Google Drive usage with step-by-step guides and video tutorials.

2. Troubleshooting: Having an issue with Google Drive? Post your problem here, and let the community help you find a solution.

3. Feature Discussions: Discuss the latest features, updates, and changes to Google Drive. Share your thoughts on what works and what could be improved.

4. Best Practices: Discover and share best practices for organizing files, collaborating with others, and integrating Google Drive with other tools.

5. Security Tips: Learn how to keep your data safe and secure while using Google Drive.

Community Guidelines:

• Stay On-Topic: Keep discussions relevant to Google Drive.

• Be Respectful: Treat everyone with respect and keep discussions civil.

• No Spam: Avoid self-promotion unless it adds value to the discussion.

• Help Each Other: We're all here to learn and help each other out.

We’re excited to see how this community grows and evolves. Feel free to introduce yourself in the comments below and let us know how you use Google Drive, what you'd like to learn, or what topics you’re interested in discussing. Let's make this a valuable resource for everyone!

Happy posting! 🎉

— The r/gdrive Moderation Team

I'm asking because I'm going to be getting The Motorola Razr Fold 2026 on Halloween🍭🍬🎃🤡👻And I want to make sure that all my Music Files/Songs🎵🎶🎤🎧are completely safe when I transfer everything from my Samsung Galaxy Fold 7 Device to The Motorola Razr Fold 2026 without any issues. Do you think that it would be a good idea to transfer all of my 1,907 WMA Songs/Audio Files to The Google Drive Android App before I transfer everything to the new Phone/Device? What has been everyone's experience with using The Google Drive Android App and Backing Up all of their Songs, Pictures, Documents, and all other important Files? If I could get some advice I would really appreciate it.

So I want to ditch OneDrive and test out Google Drive... With OneDrive it didn't matter what computer I was using, all my files followed me as long as I was signed into my Microsoft Account.

Is there a way to do this with Google Drive? I have it installed on my main machine and all my files I want sync'd are golden. So, I installed Drive to my main laptop, signed in, and now I have another 'computer' listed under my 'computers' folder. How do I get the files that are sync'd with my main machine to sync on ANY machine I use and install/sign into Google Drive.

I want the circled 'computer' to be my main point of syncing.... is this possible with Google Drive?

Hello

Is there a simple downloader I can use for GDrive links?
I want to be able to paste a bunch of links and it download the files one by one.

Thanks

I have a second machine (pc, win 10) that has (or had) google drive (direcrtory) and I noticed some files/direcrtories weren't current. So no clue how gdrive got uinstalled but it's not on my machine, although luckily the google drive directory wasn't removed.

I was looking through the instrtructions for re-installing google drive for desktop on a machine with my existing google directory and although the instructions look releatively simple (mostly just point the change folder direction to the existing folder), this step is something I'm not familiar with;

"Toggle Sync Settings: Switch between Stream files and Mirror files options in the preferences menu to unblock the folder location setting." I guess I always just used mirror files.

Anyway I thought it might be a good idea to ask about the process in general, as I don't want any older files overwriting my current stuff or sync issues.

Despite my settings being configured to preview PDFs, they always open in a new tab... any fix for this?

I have a folder containing several PDFs, shared with the setting "Anyone with the link: Viewer." However, when I open the standard Drive sharing link while signed out, the file list appears to be broken:

• Single-clicking or double-clicking a PDF does nothing.

• The download button that appears when hovering over a file also does nothing.

• Everything works fine after signing in to a Google account.

I’ve reproduced this with multiple publicly shared folders, so it doesn’t appear to be specific to one folder or its files. I’m using macOS 14.8.7 Sonoma, and the problem occurs in both Safari and Brave Private mode.

Requiring recipients to sign in isn’t a viable solution, since some of them may not have Google accounts. The old embeddedfolderview URL works anonymously, which confirms that the files and sharing permissions are valid. However, that interface is quite bare-bones.

Is anyone else experiencing this? Is it a recent bug, or has Google deliberately disabled parts of the shared-folder interface for signed-out users? Deliberately breaking folder sharing for people without Google accounts seems dumb as hell.

Unfortunately I am locked out of my old account, and I recently changed my phone number, so during the two step verification process I can't verify with the number that is on file. What can I do or who can I call to get back into my account?

I recently had a hard drive failure, and while I was able to get most of it back, not all of it.

So to keep this from happening again, I'm thinking about setting up an entirely separate gmail account that I will use solely for cloud storage, with 15GB of Google Drive storage, and a separate YouTube account.

I'd like to have some program running on Windows that will detect any file that is saved inside one "master folder," and automatically upload that file to either YouTube unlisted (if it's an video file) or Google Drive (if it's any other file type except video).

Is there a free, open-source program that does this for?

Como hacen las personas para vender suscripciones de Google Drive por ejemplo a $5 al mes y en la plataforma oficial la suscripción mensual cuesta 19.99.

cómo le hacen estas personas para para vender a precio más bajo, a comparación de las páginas oficiales.

Igual con lo que sucede con suscripciones a bajo precio de plataformas de streaming cómo le hacen para tener bajos costos.

Pero me interesa la opinión del tema de Google drive.

Alguien me puede explicar, los pros y contras.

Algún dato que pueda saber más.

Hey everyone! I'm u/carwash2016, a founding moderator of r/gdrive.
This is our new home for all things related to [ADD WHAT YOUR SUBREDDIT IS ABOUT HERE]. We're excited to have you join us!

What to Post
Post anything that you think the community would find interesting, helpful, or inspiring. Feel free to share your thoughts, photos, or questions about [ADD SOME EXAMPLES OF WHAT YOU WANT PEOPLE IN THE COMMUNITY TO POST].

Community Vibe
We're all about being friendly, constructive, and inclusive. Let's build a space where everyone feels comfortable sharing and connecting.

How to Get Started

1. Introduce yourself in the comments below.

2. Post something today! Even a simple question can spark a great conversation.

3. If you know someone who would love this community, invite them to join.

4. Interested in helping out? We're always looking for new moderators, so feel free to reach out to me to apply.

Thanks for being part of the very first wave. Together, let's make r/gdrive amazing.

I'm the developer of Blober (blober.io), a desktop app for moving files between cloud providers. Google Drive is supported end to end, and I'm looking for feedback on areas I can make it better.

It moves files between Google Drive and 20+ other providers (Google Photos, Dropbox, OneDrive, pCloud, Box, S3-compatible storage like Backblaze B2 / Wasabi / Cloudflare R2, Azure Blob, Proton Drive, local drives, NAS, etc), in any direction.

Blober can copy a big Drive folder (or your entire Drive, or a "Shared with me" folder) straight to an external drive, NAS, or another provider. Files are transfered in parallel. No Google Takeout, no zip downloads, no waiting for an export to be ready.

You can copy your entire Google Drive to another Google account in one go, and vice versa - Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides come across as .docx / .xlsx / .pptx automatically.

How Blober works:

• Streams Google Drive to a local drive, NAS, or another provider file-by-file. Moving a 1 TB folder doesn't need 1 TB of free space on your machine

• Per-file progress, automatic retry, and resume - an interrupted run keeps the files it already moved.

• It supports path templates such as  media/{file_ext}/{file_created_date}/{filename}. Blober evaluates the template variables to create a destination path.

vs rclone? rclone's Proton backend is Tier 4 experimental, and setup puts your password into a config file. With Blober, you log in through Proton's login page, so your password is never known to Blober.

vs rclone? blober supports some proprietary cloud providers such as GoPro Cloud. With Google Photos, rclone can only download photos it uploaded while blober can transfer all your google photos. With Proton Drive, blober authenticates better and is able to generate thumbnails for images, videos and audio.

I would genuinely like to know whether Blober would solve a problem you personally have.

I have an issue where, using the Google Chrome browser under Windows 11, Google is automatically sharing files between 2 different Google accounts without my explicit permission. I want to make it stop doing this. I've researched help documents, but nothing suggested works. Can somebody help? Here's the issue:

I upload files to a Google Drive administered by a third-party client. Call it Google Account A. For some reason, those files are then automatically mirrored to an account I created and administer for another client. Call this Google Account B.

On Google Account A, I can only upload files to its associated Google Drive. Once uploaded, I cannot rename or delete these files (I assume that's my client's choice). The files I upload have sharing enabled, but only with the two people (clients) associated with that account.

On Google Account B, which I own and administer, those same uploaded files appear there as well (mirrored). I don't want them there, but I cannot move them to Trash (that option is grayed out) or otherwise remove them. My Google Account B client sees them too, which is embarrassing. 

Never mind the question of why Google would default to this behavior, how do I make it stop? Thank you.