Upload & organize

Getting files into Drive is a drag away, and the folder structure you drop in comes with them.

Upload files

1. Navigate to the folder the files should land in.
2. Drag files onto the upload zone above the grid — or click it and pick files.
3. Each file uploads directly to storage and appears in the grid when it’s done. Failures are reported per file, so one bad file never sinks the batch.

Files up to 5 GB each upload. There’s no file-type restriction.

Upload a whole folder

Drag a folder from your desktop onto the upload zone. Drive recreates its directory structure — subfolders and all — inside the current folder, and every file lands in its right place.

Note

Folders are recreated from the files inside them, so an empty subfolder in what you drop doesn’t create an empty folder in Drive.

Create folders and navigate

• Click New folder, name it, and it appears in the current folder.
• Click a folder card to open it; use the breadcrumbs at the top to jump back up, and My Drive to return to the root.

Find files

The filter row above the grid narrows the current folder:

• Search this folder matches names as you type (matches from the start of the name).
• The All / Folders / Files toggle limits by kind.
• The type dropdown filters files by category: Images, Documents, Videos, Audio, PDF, or Other.
• The sort menu orders by Name, Modified, Created, or Size; the arrow button flips ascending/descending. Folders always group before files.

Large folders page — click Load more at the bottom to keep going. For a workspace-wide search that also matches file contents, use the search icon to open search pre-filtered to files.

Trash, restore, and delete forever

1. Open a card’s ⋯ menu and choose Move to trash. Trashing a folder takes everything inside it along.
2. Switch the My Drive / Trash toggle to see trashed items. From an item’s menu, choose Restore to put it back where it was, or Delete forever to purge it permanently.
3. Empty trash purges everything trashed at once, after a confirmation.

Permanent deletion is asynchronous — a big folder’s contents are cleaned up in the background — and it can’t be undone. Trashed files still count against workspace storage until they’re permanently deleted.