Google Drive is great as a storage repository for files, but if you can’t find your files when you need to it’s not worth anything, which is why Google has made some changes to Drive on Android, iOS and the Web to make it easier to find them.
The update is rolling out and once complete, you can select a file type to a search as a filter to make finding files easier just from the search bar – for example, filter for docx files and then select to only search for files of that type. You can also choose to search through Drive for shared files by owner using just their name or their full email address. If it’s your own file you can search by date you last modified the file, words it contains or who you shared it with.
Google has pegged the update as rolling out ‘in the coming weeks’ so it may take some time to start seeing this new fast search feature on your desktop or mobile device.
I didn’t realise it was difficult to find files in Drive. I’ve always found the search to be excellent (as you might expect from Google!).
I’m the opposite. I always find it really difficult to find files in Drive which is ironic for Google. I can find the files I’m searching for very easily in Windows Explorer but Drive is a nightmare.