Get more out of Google Drive with these 5 tips

Google Drive: 5 tips to get more out of it

Google Drive is Google’s well-known storage service, where you can store everything: files, photos and more. Files can be neatly sorted into folders, you can synchronize with any device and they are always and everywhere available. Google Drive is useful if you want to store a lot of files online. But as with all Google services, you can get much more out of it than you see at first glance.

#1 Work offline with Google Drive

On the road, you may not always have the best internet connection, which means it is not always possible to work on your documents. Or so you would think. Google has a feature that allows you to work offline. It works in three ways:

1. Before you leave, open the file you want. You can now simply edit it and as soon as you have an internet connection again, the changes will be reflected in the online version.
2. Use the Google Chrome browser.
3. Use the Google Drive app for Mac, which syncs files automatically.

If you choose the Google Chrome browser, you do not need to install any separate software or plug-ins. However, you will have to enable it manually:

1. On the Google Chrome browser home screen, click on the area with dots in the top right corner to view the various Google services.
2. Click on Google Drive.
3. Click on the gear at the top right and select Settings.
4. On the General tab, go to the Offline option.
5. Check the box.

Drive will now cache all your recent Documents, Spreadsheets, Presentations, and Drawings locally on your computer. This means that a local version of them will be stored, so you can continue working even without internet.

As nice as the feature is, it does have some limitations. For example, you can’t watch videos and photos when you don’t have internet. But you can view, edit, and even create new files while you’re offline. This only applies to Google Drive’s native files, so Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drawings. As soon as you have an internet connection again, Drive will sync everything again and you’ll have the same documents everywhere.

This feature is also available on the iPhone, but it works a bit more complicated there. Here you can’t turn on offline working in general, but you have to indicate per file that it should be available offline. You do that as follows:

1. In the Google Drive app, select the file you want to make available offline.
2. Click on the three gray dots at the top of the file.
3. Scroll down until you see Available Offline and move the slider.

The main reason why you can’t make all your files available offline at once is that your iPhone storage will fill up pretty quickly. In addition, all those files have to be cached first, which can eat up a lot of your internet bundle. Our tip is: only make files on your iPhone or iPad available offline when you’re on the Wi-Fi network.

#2 Quickly find files in Google Drive

Google started out as a search engine, and that shows in its excellent search function, also in Google Drive. If you tap the icon with the sliders next to the search box, you will get a number of options for more advanced searches. For example, you can search by file type, date the file was modified, owners of the file and specific words.

You can also use those specific search functions in the search bar, without tapping anything in the menu. Looking for a file that a colleague created and shared with you? Then type: owner:someone@gmail.com.

You can also use search terms, which only search the names of documents, instead of the entire document. To do this, type: title: followed by the search term. These search terms also work on your iPhone and iPad, in exactly the same way.

Was a file created before a certain date? Then you type for example: before:2023-08-13, where you can of course also use “after”. But be careful: if you move files to Google Drive, the date of the file will be replaced by ‘today’. With special software you can prevent this. If you place the files in Google Drive via the website, this will not happen.

#3 Restore files to an older version

Do you work a lot with others on documents? Then it is good to know that Google keeps older versions of your files for thirty days, in case you want to use them again. Handy, because if something went wrong somewhere, you can go back to the last version that was good. However, this feature only works on your Mac, not on mobile devices.

When recovering, a distinction is made between file types. If it is a file in Google format, i.e. a Doc, Sheet, Slide, Drawing or Form, then take the following steps:

1. Open the file.
2. Click File.
3. Click on Version History.

If it is a different type of file, right-click on the document and then click Manage versions. You will then get a pop-up menu with all versions. You can download, delete and also permanently save these versions. If no versions are visible, the changes were made more than 30 days ago.

#4 Find the largest file in Google Drive

Drive gives you 15GB of free storage by default. If you want more, you’ll have to pay. But of course you can also clean up your Drive and free up more space. Curious about which file is taking up so much space? You can easily find it by opening Drive on your Mac.

1. Click on the text at the bottom left that tells you how much space you’re using within Drive, or go directly via this link.
2. At the top you will see the largest files.
3. Click on the file and then on the trash can to delete it.

#5 Linking between Google Drive documents

Handy: In Google Docs, you can link not only to external URLs, but also to other documents you have in Drive. This way, you can easily link documents together, which can be useful if you are writing research papers, for example.

1. Open a file from Google Drive
2. Select the text you want to link
3. Click Insert on the menu bar, then click Link.
4. Enter a few words in the search field to find the document you want to link to.
5. Click Apply.