There are many ways to search for your files in Drive. To quickly narrow your search by file type, people, date modified and more, use filter chips. You can use filter chips on their own or in combination with other search terms, like file names or text within the file.
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.
To narrow the list of files in Drive, you can use filter chips, conventional search or both. If you start with filter chips, you can search and filter by:
- Type
- People
- Modified
These search filters also appear inside the search bar and will filter results directly within the search drop-down box. You can select from the same filters listed above, or start typing the desired filter to see a suggestion. For example, if you type 'doc', a suggested filter chip appears that lets you filter by Documents within the search drop-down box.
After you select the desired filter chip, select:
- Your file from the newly filtered list in the search box.
- To get more results, hit 'Enter'.
You can layer these filters with additional text as well. For example, if you select 'Type=Presentations' and then type 'Client' in the search box, your results are filtered to all presentations with the word 'Client'.
- To remove a filter chip: On the right of the chip, click Remove
.
- To remove all filter chips: At the end of the chips, click Clear filters.
Tip: Your search results are automatically sorted by relevance. Click any of the column headers to sort by that column. To sort by relevance again, click More sorting options 
Important: 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.
Consider these special cases if the steps above don't work
Find files that you created
If you created a file in Drive and can't find it, it may be an orphan that lost its parent folders. The file still exists but is harder to find.
Learn how files lose their folder
A file may lose its folder if:
- You create a file in someone else's folder and they delete that folder. The file isn't deleted. It moved automatically to your 'My Drive'.
Tip: No one but you can delete files that you own. - You share a folder with someone and they delete your file from the folder. The file isn't deleted. It moved automatically to your 'My Drive'.
Find your orphaned files
- In the Drive search field, enter:
is:unorganised owner:me. - When you find the file, move it to a folder in 'My Drive' so that it's easier to find next time.
Find a file that someone else created
When someone creates a file, they can:
- Delete it
- Rename it
- Restore it
- Contact the person who created the file and ask them to restore it or share it with you again.
Find a file in a folder that someone else created
If someone has deleted that folder, you won't find that folder in your Drive any more.
Find files you created that are in deleted folders
Find all files that are in deleted folders
To make the file easier to find in the future, drag the file into a folder in 'My Drive'.
