Search Google Drive

Since Google Drive is made by Google, it of course allows you to search your files! At the top of Google Drive is a search box. The search box searches the entire file not just the file title. You can filter Google Drive to more quickly find your files.

Filter Google Drive

In the search box is a dropdown arrow. Clicking on this allows you to filter your search.

Types of Files

The default is Google Drive will find ANY file type. If you know you want a spreadsheet, filter your results to only return these.

Date Range

I usually do not want student work from last year to show up in my search results. Filter the results to a date range to find work from this semester.

It’s in the Title

If I know the title of my document, or a keyword from the title such as “Chapter 5” I will filter my Google Drive search by title. This means Google Drive does NOT search the entire document, only the title of the document. In the filter use “Item name” instead of “Has the words” to search file titles.

Shared With

I am surprised how often I want to know what I’ve shared with a particular person. In the filter use “Shared with” to enter the email address of a collaborator. This is super handy when you’re sitting down with someone to work on something. Filter by their email to instantly pull up all your documents you’re working on together.