What is Google Drive?
Google Drive is Google's cloud storage. Every Google account gets 15 GB of free space, shared between Drive, Gmail and Google Photos. You can store any kind of file, open it on any device, share it with a link and work on it with other people at the same time. Drive is also where Google Docs, Sheets and Slides files live.
If you run out of space, Google One plans add 100 GB, 2 TB or more for a monthly fee, and the storage can be shared with up to five family members.
Drive on your phone
Install Google Drive from Google Play or the App Store. On Android it's usually preinstalled. The app lets you view and upload files, make files available offline, and scan paper documents: tap the + button and choose Scan, and Drive crops and straightens the pages and saves them as a PDF.
Drive for desktop
Drive for desktop, for Windows and Mac, adds Google Drive to File Explorer or Finder like a regular drive. You can choose to stream files, which keeps them in the cloud and downloads them only when opened, saving disk space, or mirror them, which keeps a full copy on your computer. It can also back up folders like Desktop and Documents automatically.
If you'd rather not install anything, drive.google.com in any browser has all the main features.
Sharing files safely
Drive's sharing is powerful, so it's worth using carefully:
- Share with specific people by email when a file is private, instead of “Anyone with the link”.
- Give people Viewer or Commenter access unless they really need to edit.
- For large files, a Drive link avoids email attachment limits. Gmail turns big attachments into Drive links automatically.
- Review shared files now and then in Drive's “Shared with me” and each file's sharing settings, and remove access you no longer need.
How do I free up Google Drive space?
Open Google One's storage manager (one.google.com/storage) to see what's using your space. Large videos in Google Photos and old email attachments in Gmail are the usual culprits. Deleted files stay in Drive's Bin for 30 days and still count until you empty it.
To make PDFs and photos smaller before uploading them, use Image Compressor, or merge many small PDFs into one with Merge PDF.
Working offline
On a phone, open a file's menu and choose Make available offline to keep a copy you can open without a connection. On a computer, turn on offline access in Drive's settings in Chrome, and Google Docs, Sheets and Slides files you've opened recently stay editable offline; your changes sync when you reconnect. Drive for desktop in mirror mode keeps everything offline automatically.
Moving files out of Drive
To download a whole folder, right-click it on drive.google.com and choose Download; Drive zips it for you, splitting very large folders into several ZIP files. To export everything in your account, including Docs converted to Word and Excel files, use Google Takeout (takeout.google.com). That's the way to switch to another cloud service or keep an offline archive.
Drive vs. Google Photos
Drive and Google Photos share the same storage, but they're for different things. Photos is for your camera roll: it backs up automatically, organises by faces, places and dates, and makes it easy to share albums. Drive is for documents and files you want in folders. If you only want your phone's photos backed up, Google Photos is the better app. Photos backed up there don't need to be uploaded to Drive as well.
How do I recover deleted files in Google Drive?
Deleted files go to Bin and stay there for 30 days, during which you can restore them with a right-click. For Google Docs, Sheets and Slides, File → Version history shows every earlier version and lets you restore one. Other files, such as Word documents and images, keep earlier versions for 30 days when you upload a new version with Manage versions. After that, deleted files are gone for good, so keep a separate backup of anything irreplaceable.
Drive alternatives
Microsoft OneDrive comes with Windows and Microsoft 365, iCloud Drive is built into iPhones and Macs, and Dropbox is popular for sharing large files with clients. All of them work much like Drive. If you mainly use Gmail and Google Docs, Drive is the most convenient because it shares storage and sign-in with them.