Integrating Google Drive into OSX

The normal way to access your Google drive is to go into your browser, login to Google, then browse the files. Thus is a bit clunky. Thanks to a macOS app from Google, you can incorporate Google drive directly into the Finder to make it easy to access. Here’s how.

Log into Google Drive

Firstly you must have a Google drive account. Log in and find the settings button, then click on ‘Get Drive for Desktop’

This will take you to an option to download Google Drive for a Mac.

Download and run the Google Drive app.

Download the app and run it. You’ll be asked to login.

Now Google drive will appear in your finder like this:

If you open the Google folder in finder and right click on a folder or file, there are now some new options from Google:

‘Open with Google Drive’ will open the file in a browser, where you can access advanced options not available in the finder.

‘Create New’ allows you to create a new Google doc or Google sheet.

‘Online Access’ allows you to set files or folders to be available offline. (It downloads them to your computer.)

If you click on a google file there’s also the option to grab the shrink link right there from the finder. You can paste this into an email to share share file.