Search for your files

1. On your computer, sign in to drive.google.com.

2. At the top, type a word or phrase into the search box.

3. On your keyboard, press Enter.

Search tips

• Search results will appear as you type.

• Google Drive searches the titles and content of all files you have permission to see.

• To see all results, press Enter on your keyboard.

Filter your Drive results

To find files more easily in Drive, you can narrow search results by filtering them.

1. On your computer, go to drive.google.com.

2. At the top, type a word or phrase into the search box.

3. To narrow your search, click the Down arrow.

4. Fill out any of the following sections:

   • Type: File types such as documents, images, or PDFs.

   • Date modified: The date a file was last edited.

   • Item name: Searches only for the title of the file.

   • Has the words: Searches for words and phrases within documents.

   • Owner: The person the file belongs to.

   • Shared with: Who can view, comment, or edit the file.

   • Location: Whether the file is in a specific folder, "Trash," or "Starred." You can also search for files available to people in your organization.

   • Follow up: If the file has action items assigned to you, or suggestions in files you own.

5. At the bottom, click Search.

Hide a shared drive

1. In Drive, on the left, click Shared drives.

2. Right-click the shared drive that you want no longer want to see and select Hide shared drive.

Unhide a shared drive

1. In Drive, on the left, click Shared drives.

2. At the top right, click Hidden shared drives.

3. Right-click the shared drive that you want to want to see again and select Unhide shared drive.

Note: Shared drives are automatically hidden for group members once they reach a certain number of members. This is to avoid spamming large groups with shared drive content. This occurs in two ways:

• If a shared drive is shared directly with a group that has more than 1000 people in it. For example, if a shared drive is shared with a group that has 1200 users, for 200 of them, the shared drive will be hidden by default.

• If a shared drive is shared indirectly with over 2500 people. For example, if the shared drive is shared with 6 groups containing 500 people each, the behavior is that the first 2500 users added (from the first 5 groups of 500 people), will see the shared drive, but then the shared drive will be hidden for the final group of 500 people because they were added beyond the 2500 limit.

To keep important or frequently used files at your fingertips, add them to a workspace in Drive Priority.

Adding the files to a workspace does not remove them from anywhere else or change permissions, it just puts them in one place so you can quickly find them.

On the web

Create a workspace:

1. Open Drive.

2. On the left, click Priority.

3. Under Workspaces, click Create Workspace.

4. Enter a name for the workspace and click Create.

5. (Optional) To add files now, click Add files and follow the steps in Add multiple files to a workspace (details below).

6. Click Done.

Add a file to a workspace:

1. Open Drive.

2. Right-click a file and click Add to workspacethe workspace name.

Add multiple files to a workspace:

1. Open Drive.

2. On the left, click Priority.

3. Below the workspace you want to add files to, click View workspace.

4. Click Add files.

5. On the right, under Add to Workspace, choose where you want to add files from (Recent, My Drive, Shared Drives, and so on).

6. Find the files you want to add and select them.

7. Click Insert.

8. Click Done.

Now you can access important files from Drive Priority. You can also set Drive Priority to be your homepage. For details, see Use Priority to quickly access files.

Remove a file from a workspace:

1. Open Drive.

2. Right-click a file in a workspace and click Remove from workspace.

Rename, hide, or delete a workspace:

1. Open Drive and on the left, click Priority.

2. Next to the workspace name, click the Down arrow Rename, Hide workspace, or Remove workspace.

3. (Optional) To show a hidden workspace:

   • At the bottom of the Priority page, click Hidden workspaces.

   • Next to the workspace that you want to see, click the Down arrow Unhide workspace.

Star important files and folders

On the web

Flag important files or folders to quickly find them later.

1. Right-click a file or folder and select Add to Starred.

2. (Optional) To see all your starred files and folders, on the left, click Starred.

Search and sort your files and folders

On the web

It can be difficult to browse through hundreds of files just to find the one you need. So, try searching Drive instead.

When you put your cursor in the Drive search box, you see a list of file types that Drive suggests to filter your search. These are files that you use frequently or that might increase your productivity. You also see people you frequently collaborate with.

Search for files or folders in Drive:

1. In the Drive search box, enter a word or phrase.
   To help you search faster, Drive suggests search terms as you enter text.

2. Click a suggestion to open it or click Search to see a list of results.

Tip: To find orphaned files (files that have lost their parent folders), in the Drive search box, enter: is:unorganized owner:<username>. Move your orphaned files to a folder in My Drive so you can find them easier next time.

Use advanced search options:

1. On the right of the search box, click the Down arrow .
   Choose any option or combination of options to filter your results further.

   • Type—Search by file type.

   • Owner—Search by file owner.

   • Location—Search by location (including items in the Trash or Starred). You can only search for folders that are in My Drive or in shared drives.

   • Date modified—See items that were recently modified by anyone (not just you).

   • Item name—Search for a term in the file name.

   • Has the words—Search for files that contain certain words.

   • Shared with—Search for someone that has access to the file.

   • Follow up—Search for files you own with suggestions, or files with action items assigned to you.

2. Click Search.

Clicking on the Info button will pull up the details pane, this can be helpful in discovering the owners/managers/and viewers of a certain subfolder or file on the AltaNet.