Google Drive is brilliant. You get over 15GB of free storage, a free online office suite, and it integrates with Gmail to enhance your email experience. But that means your Drive has a lot of files. How do you find the right one? With these Drive search tips and tricks.
For a long time, Drive offered only basic search tools, which is ironic considering it's a Google app. But recently, the search tools got an upgrade, and now it's easier than ever to find a file. Also, remember that Google Drive can view images and PDF files to "read" those and find content in them as well.
Do you want to browse all the spreadsheets in Google Drive? Click or tap the search bar and you will see a list of different file types.
Note: If you're using Google Drive on a desktop, you'll need to click the little dropdown arrow in the search bar or More search tools , and then click Type to see the last four options.
This method shows you all the file extensions in a given category. For example, you can't separate a PNG from a JPEG in photos, or an OGG from an MP4 in videos. However, Google Drive has a simple way to do it:an old command line classic.
Google Drive always allows you to sort and manage files. 7 Really Simple Tips to Manage Your Files and Folders in Google Drive. 7 Really Simple Tips to Manage Your Files and Folders in Google Drive. There's a lot you can do with 15GB of free storage. Ultimately, managing it well means knowing how to handle the files and folders you'll keep in Google Drive. These tips help. Read More For example, when you're doing your taxes, you may need to find certain files from a particular month or week.
In the More search tools In the desktop and mobile default search options, you'll find some default date ranges that you can use:
Note: This uses the time a file was last modified . You can't sort the files when they were created.
Desktop: To define a custom date range, click the last option Custom and use both calendars to find files between the two dates.
Mobile: You will have to use a text command as there is no Custom option here. Google Drive recognizes two self-explanatory commands for dates:before and after . The date itself must be put in the format. yyyy-mm-dd . And you can use both commands together to find a range between them.
For files modified before a specific date:
Before: 2015-10-18
For files modified after a specific date:
After: 2015-04-22
For files modified during a specific date range:
After: 2015-04-22 Before: 2015-10-18
Cloud-based office suites can easily share files, but manage shared files on Google Drive 10 Tips for Managing Shared Files on Google Drive 10 Tips for Managing Shared Files on Google Drive Take Google Drive beyond a file storage system with the many tips and tricks on offer for real-time collaboration. Here are ten tips to help manage your files on Google Drive. Read More At least now you can search with those parameters.
In themore search tools On desktop, you have two ways to filter based on people.
Strangely, in this method, Google Drive does not automatically fill in email addresses based on your address book. Google Contacts is a new feature of Gmail. What's new in Good Old Gmail? 5 Features You Must Check Out What's new in Good Old Gmail? 5 Features You Should Retire You may have missed out on some of the new features that Gmail has gradually added in the last year. So let's take a look at what deserves our attention. Read More However, using specific search commands instead of More search tools box, you can get those auto-suggestions and search by owner on your mobile.
Files received from another person: Use from: followed by an email address. For example, for all the files sent to me by my imaginary colleague Donald Duck, I'll use the command:
Files sent to someone else: Use to: followed by an email address. For example, for all files sent to Daisy, I'll use the command:
Files owned/created by someone else: Use owner: followed by an email address. For example, for all files owned by Donald, I'll use the command:
All of these commands can be used in the same search string as well. So if I want to find the files that Justin sent me and also shared with Tina, a find command would look like this:
By default, when you type any word in Google Drive, it looks for that word in file names as well as their content. While it's easy to do with text files, not many people know that Google Drive has built-in optical character recognition (OCR) to read text in images. Top 5 OCR Tools to Extract Text. Top 5 OCR Tools to Extract Text. Images When you have reams of paper, how do you turn all that printed text into something that a digital program will be able to recognize and index? Keep good OCR software close by. Read more . This property also allows you to search for text in PDF files 10 Tips to Do More with Your PDFs in Google Drive 10 Tips to Do More with Your PDFs in Google Drive From managing your files to collaborating in Docs, Drive is a suite fully functional office. . What many people don't realize is its ability to do much more than just view PDF files. Read more.
Not only that, but Google's smart algorithms can also identify the content of an image ! For example, when I search for "dog," it can identify photos of dogs in my Drive, even if the title, description, or tags don't say "dog" anywhere.
It is tremendously useful, but sometimes leads to confusing results. When you only want file titles that contain that word and not entire files, use the advanced search tools on the desktop to find the Article Name box and type your keyword. It will find all files that contain this word as part of the file name and not the content.
On mobile, you can use the title: I send. For example, to search for files with the word “dog” in the file name and not in the file content, the command would be:
In addition to the operators mentioned above, some of the best Google search commands and tricks The best Google search cheat sheet:tips, operators and commands to know The best Google search cheat sheet:tips, operators and commands Learn about these special Google search tips, operators, and commands to help you narrow down your search results and always get the exact results you're looking for. Read More You can use multiple operators or commands in a single search string to find the best possible result. Just separate them with a space.
Use quotes when you want to search for an exact phrase For example:
Use the word or to find matches with one of the multiple words used. For example:
Use the - Sign for files without a certain word. For example:
Use application to find files that can be opened with the built-in Google Drive apps Get the most out of Google Drive with the built-in apps Get the most out of Google Drive with the built-in apps Google Drive can be used to sync files between your computers, but that's just one of its many features. Google wants Google Drive to be its new hard drive in the cloud, accessible from any device. To… read more. For example:
You can find all Google Drive search operators here, under the “Advanced Drive Search” heading.
On Android, Google Drive can search by voice using Google Now OK, Google:20 Useful Things You Can Say to Your Android Phone OK, Google:20 Useful Things You Can Say to Your Android Phone Google Assistant can help you get a lot of things done on your phone. Here are a bunch of basic but useful Google OK commands to try. Read more . Turn on the default Google Now drive or search bar. Tap the microphone icon, then say Find Drive for and your keywords out loud. Drive will show you the results in a few seconds.
If you have the Google Drive app installed on your iPhone or iPad, you can use the iOS universal search bar.
If you have a new iPhone 6s or 6s Plus, then the killer feature 3D Touch. Why 3D Touch could make an iPhone change Why 3D Touch could change an iPhone We can no longer claim that we have the best smartphone. . Read More You can 3D Touch the drive icon on the home screen to access recent files or search.
I have almost completely switched to Google Drive. The only Google Drive guide you'll ever need to read. The only Google Drive guide you'll ever need to read. Google Drive is the perfect combination of online file storage and document management tools. We explain how to best use Google Drive online and offline, on your own and in collaboration with others. Read More
Have you changed? What do you like about Google Drive or what stops you? Tell us what you think in the comments below.
