Mac Spotlight not indexing Google Drive files in desktop

[BoI_Admin]

I got an increasing amount of feedbacks in our organization about a particular issue with the Google Drive for Desktop app:

It seems that on Mac, the Spotlight is not indexing the files that are in the Google Drive desktop folder...
I looked into it and tried all the recommended solutions from these sources but no result:

• https://support.google.com/a/thread/10460837/spotlight-doesn-t-find-files-in-google-file-stream?hl=e...
• https://smallbusiness.chron.com/make-mac-file-names-external-drive-30728.html
• https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/180082/how-to-enable-searching-inside-google-drive-docs-us...

Has anybody had the same issue and is there some clear solution?

[RobA]

Spotlight isn't technically able to index the content inside the Google Drive files, as they are technically not files, but shortcuts.  Regular files put into drive could technically be indexed, but it would defeat much of the benefit of a cloud hosted storage space.

Google Drive for Desktop is a hybrid Network/local drive. It's a virtual filesystem, that acts like a network drive, but also employs local caching, to allow offline access and enhance response times/speed.

If you were to index the Google Drive, the result would be that the whole drive would be cached locally. This issue isn't unique to MacOS. The same occurs with Windows.

Ideally the indexer services like Spotlight would leverage Google Drive indexes, but I'd imagine Apple are more focused on iCloud, rather than enhancing a competitors offering.

[BoI_Admin]

Thank you @RobA , appreciate your insights.

[kaince]

Thanks for this--do you know if it would be possible to use the Google Drive feature to download specific folders to my desktop, then get Spotlight to search the downloaded files? None of the solutions the OP mentioned work for this either.

[simon_heywood]

I think it might be Microsoft that loses out here.  Apart from the frustration and time suck imposed on Mac users the very non-transparent lack of support for Spotlight drives people towards abandoning Microsoft Office.   Where to go?  Insync supports both Spotlight search and selective sync, making it efficient on file storage, internet traffic and Office productivity.  However, is it dependable enough?  I shall adopt Insync for the Macbook Air that I take with me when I travel and see how it goes.  If that way lies trouble I would sure like to know. 

[colkurtz_78]

100%. I'm one of those. It's really simple: I used Google Drive because I could search Google Drive files in Finder and not need to use their browser interface. That's the whole value proposition for Google Drive. Whether it "technically" indexes or whatever is besides the point - it worked until Montery and now every time I need to dig up a file it's a goddamned time vampire trying to find it.

[Just_Lurking]

It stopped working for me recently on Catalina and on Big Sur. Not sure if that's due to an update to the Google Drive software or what. If there's a way to re-activate it on Big Sur it would be great if someone could share the steps!

[dcampagna]

The thing is, Google Drive was indexed and searchable though Finder and Spotlight up until Monterey. So it is possible, but that functionality is suddenly broken.

[ThomasB]

This is exactly the problem. I want to make sure RobA realizes that while the explanation sounds sensible it is not consistent with what actually happened. That discrepancy is reason to hope for a solution from someone who what involves in the interconnection in the past. 

[colkurtz_78]

With respect to RobA, his post just pissed me off. Google, if you're listening - and I know you are because you keep trying to sell me discounts on new "Workspaces" accounts for my team - FIX THIS ISSUE so we can all go back to work. 

[xgougeon]

I don't need  everything to be indexed... just the filename !!! But event this does not work !!!!!

[jemsmyth]

After I migrated from my old 2015 MBA running Big Sur to a new M1 MBA running the same, I was gutted to find that Alfred.app (via Spotlight's index) would no longer server me results for Google Drive shortcuts (not downloaded files). 

However thanks to Jonathan's Blog I was made aware of the command to enable Spotlight's indexing of networked drives, and it seems to have done the trick. At least for now. I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts! 

[acowan]

I keep getting: 

... ~ % mdutil '/Volumes/GoogleDrive/' -i on
/System/Volumes/Data/Volumes/GoogleDrive:
Indexing and searching disabled.

I found a few SO posts on this, but none of them specifically related to Google Drive. If anyone has any ideas, I'd certainly appreciate them. It has been miserable since MTY update not being able to open files and folders w/ Spotlight.

[RobA]

I don't believe Spotlight (mds) indexes Symlinked folders.

[xgougeon]

Google Drive synchronized folders are not indexed indeed. Poor user experience. Using the spotlight is a very productive way to find files for mac users... And DropBox folders are indeed properly indexed 😞

[alesdokulil]

I've been experiencing the same issue after I upgraded from Mac OS Big Sur to Monterey. My current version of Google Drive.app is 52.0.6.0. Searching and Indexing of Google Drive streamed content is disabled. It is very frustrating for me, because I have all my work data on this virtual place and searching them via spotlight is vital function for me -- I use native Spotlight to search a several hundred times per a day. 😞 

I was in contact with Google support, but there was no solution. I was told to wait a few days or weeks for an update -- there may be a possibility of fix 😞

[cnc-chantal21]

I have experienced the exact same issue. I upgraded to Monterey and have lost all ability to search my Drive files. I contacted Google and they said it's an Apple problem and that they themselves experience the same issue with their own Macs. They said there may be an update coming that will fix it but it's so frustrating because like you, I search my Drive hundreds of times a day. This issue has led to me being less productive and has wasted several hours of my time trying to find a solution which I am yet to find.

[mwilken]

Same thing here, since the update to Monterey Google Drive has become practically unusable. It worked like a charm before but ever since I was forced to update ( deteriorating performance of the Mac) indexing and searching no longer works. Fingers crossed there will be a solution for this.  

[mixiacreative]

Same here, so frustrating. I can't work properly anymore. This should be fixed asap. I feel like downgrading to Big Sur....... 😕

[jemsmyth]

I'm not sure that would fix it, TBH. I've experienced this behaviour in Big Sur as well as Monterey. 

[jsameth]

Interesting. I definitely did not have this experience with Big Sur; problem occurred immediately after upgrading to Monterey. A colleague still running Big Sur is having no problem (and will not be upgrading until this is fixed). Seems there may be two issues; one that previously existed for some but could be remedied by use of the mdutil command; I don't think I've seen anyone report success with that route running Monterey, nor have I seen anyone report running Monterey but not having this issue. Would be good to hear from anyone with a different experience.

[mixiacreative]

Exactly, if everybody on Monterey is having the same issue they might fix it sooner than later. Let's hope, I don't want to downgrade the OS.

[Myk3]

I am running Big Sur (and Catalina, Monterey, among other MacOSs on over 300 Apple mobile and desktop computers) and Google Drive for Desktop on every machine and can categorically state that my desktop running Big Sur doesn't index my Google Drive content, nor does my Catalina Mac Mini sitting next to me.

Your colleague is mistaken.

I suspect the changes at Google happened coincidentally with the release of Monterey, but the inability for spotlight to index is down to Google changes, not Apple updates.

[simon_heywood]

Same here.  Version 11.6 to be precise.

[jsameth]

Well, at least good to know it seems to be a known issue. I had the experience on upgrade to Monterey. Would be interested to hear whether the same issue exists when Monterey is running on a Mac with the M1 chip (for which I understand it was specifically designed)?

Hopefully will be resolved soon.

[jemsmyth]

Yes its the same on an M1 Mac. I did force mine to index GD as a networked drive briefly, but it now seems to have reverted to its previous behaviour. 

I have fallen back to using the 'drive' command in Alfred.app. This opens GD search results for the query in a browser tab.

A few more clicks but once you get into the habit it does the job. 

[jsameth]

Thanks, but not sure that will help with one of the main ways I use spotlight, which is to quickly navigate to a nested g-drive folder in an application's "Save as" dialog when saving a document. Fingers-crossed that enough people are inconvenienced by this that a fix will be forthcoming.

[sprain]

I have the same issue since upgrading to macOS Monterey.

Please report this to Apple, too.

https://www.apple.com/feedback/macos.html

[mixiacreative]

Reported to Apple as well, thanks for the link.

[Rickbp1]

Thanks for the link! I just reported the same issue. I hope they find a fix ASAP because it's slowing me down a lot!

[kristinm]

Same issue here

[kristinm]

Reported it. Just upgraded 12.0.1 to 12.1 and problem still exists!

[A-Train]

Same issue as everyone here.  Have wasted hours upon hours trying to find a solution.  Happened on my MacBook Pro Intel i7.  Indexing was working for google drive using finder and spotlight under Big Sur, then went away after the upgrade.  Looks like the google drive is no longer showing up as a "connected server" on the desktop either.  This may be the issue as the drive is not being indexed any longer.  Anyhow, huge issue for me as I have thousands of files and subfolders, and using spotlight/finder was the only way to easily search and move files around.  I just can't believe google drive does not have a "search" function when trying to organize files.  This is a huge handicap on there google drive service, and I hope they fix it soon or will have to switch to dropbox or another cloud provider.   

[josemariamp]

this happens with google drive personal accounts. I have an organization account and google drive is mounted on the desktop as a server. So I can search with spotlight. But if I connect my personal google drive account, then google drive is no longer mounted as server and I can't search anymore with spotlight. it's very frustrating

[cnc-chantal21]

My issue is through my organisation account so it's not only a personal account issue.

[jsameth]

Same. josemariamp, can you confirm you are able to search a g-drive business account from a computer running Monterey? If so, let’s try to figure out how!

[alesdokulil]

Yes, I use both personal and business accounts... The problem occurs on both of them.

[dcampagna]

Yes, it happens on both of my accounts as well, one from my university and the other is my personal account.

[kortina]

This is crazy, same issue. If anyone finds a work-around, please post.

[brownjive]

Has a solution been found? I share everyone's frustration. This makes work much more difficult.