If you can't find files in Google Drive, you can use search chips or conventional search to find files. You can also sort and filter search results.
If you think that someone accessed your Google Drive without your permission, we recommend that you take steps to make your account more secure.
If someone else created the file, they can delete, rename and restore it. Contact the person who created the file and ask them to restore it or share it with you again.
Use search chips
To narrow down the list of files in Drive, you can use search chips. You can search and filter:
- Type
- People
- Modified
These chips appear below the search bar and search all files, folders and subfolders within that view, like My Drive, Recent or Bin.
- To remove a search chip: On the right of the chip, click
.
- To remove all search chips: At the end of the chips, click Clear filters.
Search for your files
To search for your files:
- On your computer, go to drive.google.com.
- At the top, enter a word or phrase into the search box.
- On your keyboard, press Enter.
Drive search categories
In Drive, you can search by:
- File title
- File contents
- File type
- Other metadata, like:
- Description field
- Shared labels
- File location
- Owner
- Creator
- Last modified date
- Approvals
- Follow-ups
- Items or words featured in pictures, PDF files or other files that are stored on your Drive
Filter your Drive results
To find files more easily in Drive, you can narrow down search results by filtering them.
Filter using chips:
- On your computer, go to drive.google.com.
- At the top, type a word or phrase into the search box.
- Press Enter.
- To narrow your search, use the filter chips below the search box to filter on these criteria:
- Location: Searches in a specific folder, for example: 'My Drive', 'Bin' or 'Starred'.
- Type: File types such as documents, images or PDFs.
- People: Searches for people associated with the file (all, owned or shared by.)
- Modified: The date on which a file was last edited.
- Title only: Searches only for the title or name of a file.
- Labels: Searches for labels applied to your file.
- To do: Items that may require your attention, including approvals, follow-ups and ownership transfers.
- To remove a search chip: On the right of the chip, click
- To remove all search chips: At the end of the chips, click Clear filters.
Filter using search options:
- On your computer, go to drive.google.com.
- At the top, type a word or phrase into the search box.
- Press Enter.
- To narrow your search, click search options
.
- Fill in any of the following sections:
- Type: File types such as documents, images or PDFs.
- Owner: Searches for the owner or creator of a file.
- Has the words: Searches for words and phrases within docs.
- Item name: Searches only for the title or name of a file.
- Location: Searches in a specific folder, for example: 'Bin', 'Starred' or 'Encrypted'.
- Date modified: The date on which a file was last edited.
- Labels: Searches for labels applied to your file.
- Approvals: A status, whether a file awaits your approval or another person's approval.
- Shared to: Who you have shared the file with.
- Follow-ups: A status, whether a file has action items assigned to you or if there are suggestions in files that you own.
- At the bottom, click Search.
.
.Use advanced search
Tip: Not all examples work on all devices.
|
Advance search type |
Definition |
Example |
|---|---|---|
|
Quotes |
Find documents that contain an exact word or phrase. |
Example:
|
|
Minus sign |
Find documents that exclude a particular word. If you want 'salsa' but not 'dancing'. |
Example:
|
|
owner |
Find documents owned by a specific person. |
Example:
|
|
pendingowner |
Find files of which you're a pending owner. Important: You can only search for files of which you're the pending owner of. |
Example:
|
|
creator |
Find documents in shared drives created by a specific person. |
Example:
|
|
to |
Find documents that you shared with a specific person or group, or documents shared with you. |
Examples:
|
|
from |
Find documents that a specific person shared with you or you shared |
Examples:
|
|
app |
Search by app name. This includes any app connected to your Google Drive account |
Examples:
|
|
sharedwith |
Find documents that a specific Workspace account or group has access to. Exclude files that the account owns. |
Examples:
|
|
is:starred |
Find items that you have starred. |
is:starred |
|
is:binned |
Find items moved to bin. |
is:binned |
|
type |
Search by document type:
|
Examples:
|
|
before and after |
Find items modified before or after a certain date. Format the date as YYYY-MM-DD. |
Examples:
|
|
createdbefore and createdafter |
Find items created before or after a certain date. Format the date as YYYY-MM-DD. |
Examples:
|
|
title |
Search for items by title. |
Example:
|
|
followup |
Find files that have any action items or suggestions assigned to you. |
Examples:
|
| unorganised |
Find a file that you created in someone else's folder if they delete that folder. Your file isn't deleted. It's automatically moved to your My Drive. Important: Only you can delete the files that you own. |
Example:
|
Find files by size
To find files by size:
- On your computer, go to drive.google.com.
- On the left, click Storage.
- To sort by file size: on the right, click Storage used.
- To reverse the sort order: on the right, click Storage used.
