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.
Search tips
- Your Drive searches include the titles and content of all files you have permission to access.
- To save your Drive searches, turn on Web & App Activity.
- To search within a folder:
- Go to the folder.
- Below the search bar, a filter chip for the folder shows.
- To limit the search within the folder, select the folder chip.
- Enter your search term.
- You get additional filter suggestions as you enter text.
In this section, you'll learn how to:
Search for your files
To narrow the list of files in Drive, you can type text in the search box, use filter chips, or both.
To start with text:
On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google Drive app.
- At the top, tap Search in Drive.
- To filter the list automatically, type a word or phrase in the search box. Drive suggests filter chips to narrow your search by Type, People, Date Modified, and more.
- For example, if you type “doc,” a filter chip appears to filter by Google Documents, as well as any results in Drive that contain the word “doc.”
- If you select a filter chip, your list of files narrows by that selection.
- To remove a filter chip, tap the chip and from the pop-up window, tap Clear.
- To filter the list automatically, type a word or phrase in the search box. Drive suggests filter chips to narrow your search by Type, People, Date Modified, and more.
To start with filter chips:
- On your iPhone or iPad, open the Google Drive app.
- At the top, tap Search in Drive.
- To refine your search by Type, People, or Modified, select a filter chip.
- Once you select a chip, you can filter results by keyword.
- To remove a filter chip, tap the chip and from the pop-up menu, tap Clear.
Drive search categories
In Drive, you can search by:
- File title
- File contents
- Type
- Other metadata, that includes:
- Description field
- Shared labels
- File location
- Owner
- Creator
- Modified date
- Approvals
- Follow-ups
- Items or words featured in pictures, PDF files, or other files stored on your Drive
Use advanced search
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 you’re a pending owner of. Important: You can only search for files that you’re the pending owner of. |
Example:
|
|
creator |
Find documents in shared drives created by a specific person. |
Example:
|
|
to |
Find documents you shared with a specific person or group or documents shared with you. |
Examples:
|
|
from |
Find documents 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 a specific Workspace account or group has access to. Exclude files the account owns. |
Examples:
|
|
is:starred |
Find items that you starred. |
is:starred |
|
is:trashed |
Find items you moved to trash. |
is:trashed |
|
type |
Search by document type:
|
Examples:
|
|
before & after |
Find items modified before or after a certain date. Format the date as YYYY-MM-DD. |
Examples:
|
|
createdbefore & 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:
|
| unorganized |
Find a file 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: No one but you can delete files you own.
|
Example:
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