Chykalophia Docs

A beginner's guide to Google Drive — how to upload, organize, and find your files, and how to access them from any device.

Google Drive is the cloud storage included with your Google Workspace account. It's where all your Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and uploaded files live. You can access Drive from any device — computer, phone, or tablet — as long as you're signed in.

Quick summary

Go to drive.google.com to open Drive. Click New to upload a file or create a document. Use folders to keep things organized. Everything saves automatically — there's no Save button to worry about. Your storage is shared with Gmail and other Google services.

Getting to Drive

On a computer: Go to drive.google.com, or open the Google apps menu at the top right of Gmail and choose Drive.
On your phone: Install the Google Drive app from the App Store or Google Play.

Creating and uploading files

Click the New button at the top left of Drive.

Choose what to create:

File upload — upload a file from your computer
Folder upload — upload an entire folder
Google Docs — a new word-processing document
Google Sheets — a new spreadsheet
Google Slides — a new presentation

Your file is saved automatically. Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides save every change in real time. No Ctrl+S needed.

You can also drag and drop files from your computer directly onto the Drive page in your browser.

Organizing with folders

Folders work just like on your computer. To create a folder:

On the left, click New, then choose Folder.

Type a name and click Create.

Move files into the folder by dragging them, or by right-clicking a file and choosing Organize → Move.

One file, one home — use shortcuts for the rest

A file in Drive lives in one folder. Drive used to let the same file sit in several folders at once, but those extra locations were replaced with shortcuts: a shortcut is a link that points at the original, so there's still only one copy to keep up to date. To add one, right-click the file or folder and choose Organize → Add shortcut, then pick where it should go.

Searching for files

The search bar at the top of Drive is fast and powerful. Type any part of a file name, or even words from inside the document.

You can also narrow results with filter chips — Type, People, and Modified — on their own or alongside a search term. For example, set Type to Presentations and then type "Client" to get every presentation with that word in it.

Accessing Drive offline

You can set Drive to work without internet access. This is useful if you travel or have an unreliable connection.

Use Chrome or Microsoft Edge, install the Google Docs Offline extension, and don't use private browsing. You need to be online to set this up.

Go to drive.google.com, click the gear icon at the top right, and choose Settings.

Turn on the Offline setting. On Edge, you'll be sent to the Chrome Web Store to install the extension first.

Turning offline access on for Drive also turns it on for Docs, Sheets, and Slides. The next time you're online, changes sync automatically.

Drive on your desktop

Google Drive also has a desktop app, Google Drive for desktop. It puts a folder called "Google Drive" on your computer: files you drop in there upload to Drive, and edits sync both ways. You can also work on files and folders offline, including files from shared drives.

By default files stream rather than download, which uses almost no space on your computer; you can choose to mirror a folder instead, which keeps a full local copy. Note that the space tracker in the app shows room left on your hard drive, not your Google storage.

Download it from Google's Use Google Drive for desktop help page, which has the installers for Windows and macOS.

Common questions

How much storage do I have?

Your storage amount depends on your Google Workspace plan. Business Starter includes 30 GB per user and Business Standard includes 2 TB per user. Storage is pooled: every user license adds its share to one organization-wide pool that everyone draws from, so one person can use more than their own allowance. See Storage & quotas in Google Workspace for more detail.

What file types can I store in Drive?

You can store any file type — PDFs, Word documents, images, videos, ZIP files. Google can preview many common formats. Everything you upload counts towards your storage, as do Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides files created or edited after 2 May 2022. That applies even when you upload into a folder someone else owns.

Yes. See Sharing files & folders in Drive for all the sharing options, including sharing with people who don't have Google accounts.

I accidentally deleted a file — can I get it back?

Yes. Go to the Trash in Drive's left sidebar. Files stay in Trash for 30 days before Drive deletes them permanently. Click a file and choose Restore to bring it back. Two things worth knowing: files in the trash still count towards your storage until they're permanently deleted, and anyone you shared a file with can keep using it until then.

Need a hand?

If you're stuck, email support@chykalophia.com and we'll help. Include your website address and a screenshot if you can.

Google Drive basics