Find files & folders with Google Drive shortcuts

Shortcuts make it easier for you or your team to find and organize files and folders in multiple Google Drives.

Learn about shortcuts

• A shortcut is a link that references another file or folder. 
• You can use shortcuts in your drive or a shared drive.
• Shortcuts are visible to everyone with access to the folder or drive. 
• Shortcuts point back to the original file so you always have the latest info. 
• You can make up to 500 shortcuts per file or folder yourself. Each item can have up to 5,000 total shortcuts made by anyone.

Important:

• Shortcut titles are visible to everyone with access to the folder or drive that the shortcuts are in.
• Not everyone who can access the file or drive can open the shortcut.
• The original file’s permissions don’t automatically update when you create a shortcut.
• To get access to the file or folder, request permissions to the original file through the shortcut. The owner of the original file then gets an email with the request to give permissions.

For a list of Google Drive hotkeys, go to keyboard shortcuts.

Create a shortcut

Important: You can create a copy of a shortcut in a Drive folder but you can’t create a shortcut to another shortcut file.

1. On your iPhone, open the Google Drive app .
2. Find the file or folder you want to make a shortcut for.
3. Tap More .
4. Scroll and tap Add shortcut to Drive.
5. Select the location where you want to place the shortcut and tap Add.
   • If you can’t save to a particular folder, you’ll get a “View Only” notification. Try to save your file in a deeper folder (subfolder) or in a different location.

Important:

• If you make a shortcut inside a Drive folder that’s owned by someone else, you can’t delete the shortcut.
• You can't create a shortcut to another shortcut file, but you can make a copy of it.
• You can also make a copy of a folder shortcut.

Delete a shortcut

Important: 

• You can delete a shortcut, but you can’t delete the original file, or a file you don’t own. The shortcut's owner can delete the shortcut, but the target file can only be deleted by the file's owner.
• If you don’t have permission, you may not be able to delete a file or folder.

1. On your iPhone, open the Google Drive app .
2. Find the shortcut you want to remove.
3. Tap More . 
4.  Scroll down and tap Remove  Remove.
5. To permanently remove the shortcut, delete it from your trash.
   1. On the left, tap Menu   Trash.
   2. ​Find the shortcut you want to delete  tap More   Delete forever.

Fix a broken shortcut

A shortcut will break if:

• You don’t have permission to open the original file.
• The original file is in the trash.
• The original file is deleted.

To fix the broken shortcut, try to restore the original file, or ask the owner for permission to open the file.