Find files in Google Drive
You can find files in Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides by searching for:
- File title
- File contents
- Items featured in pictures, PDF files, or other files stored on your Drive.
You can also sort and filter search results.
Search for your files
- Sign into drive.google.com.
- At the top, type a word or phrase into the search box.
- On your keyboard, press Enter.
Filter your Drive results
To find files more easily in Drive, you can narrow search results by filtering them.
- Go to drive.google.com.
- At the top, type a word or phrase into the search box.
- To narrow your search, click the Down arrow
.
- 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.
- Located in: Whether the file is in "Trash," or "Starred," for example.
- At the bottom, click Search.
.More search options
Advanced search in Google Drive
You can refine a search in Drive with these advanced searches.
Note: Not all examples work on all devices.
Quotes
- Find documents that contain an exact word or phrase.
- Example: "match this phrase exactly"
OR
- Find files with at least one of the words.
- Example: tacos OR nachos
Minus sign
- Find documents that exclude a particular word. If you want "salsa," but not "dancing"...
- Example: salsa -dancing
owner:
- Find documents owned or shared by a specific person.
- Examples:
- owner:bob@gmail.com
- from:bob@gmail.com
to:
- Find documents you shared with someone.
- Example: to:bob@gmail.com
is:starred
- Find items marked with a star.
is:trashed
- Find items that are trashed.
type:
- Search by the type of document: folder, document, spreadsheet, presentation, PDF, image, video, drawing, form, script, or table.
- Example: type:spreadsheet
Before & after
- Find items that were edited before or after a certain day. Format the date as YYYY-MM-DD.
- Examples:
- before:2014-05-01
- after:2014-05-01
title:
- Search by title
- Example: title:Conference 2014
App:
- Search for items that can only be opened by a specific app.
- Example: app:"Google Docs"
Source:domain (Google for work or school)
- Search for items that have been shared across your organization’s entire domain, instead of items created by you or your group.
- Example: To search for files related to domain, use source:domain
Evan is a Docs & Drive expert and author of this help page. Leave him feedback below about the page.
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