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.

Written by Wayne Connor
Mac user since 1996
Helping people master their Macs since 2005


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