How to Quickly Find Google Drive Files or Folders Using the Search Bar

The advanced search options are the following:

• Type – files of a specific kind, such as Folder, Document, Spreadsheet, Audio, Video, .pdf, etc.
• Owner – lets you search by owner.
• Location – you can also look for items in Trash or Starred.
• Date modified – allows you to search only for items that have been modified in a specific time range.
• Item name – lets you enter a term that matches part of the file name.
• Has the words – lets you look for words found in the file.
• Shared to – finds items shared with a specific email address.
• Follow up – can be used if the file has action items assigned to you or suggestions in files you own.

You can click RESET at the bottom to reset the search terms.

There are also other terms you can use to refine your search even more:

Quotes “”

Find documents that contain an exact word or phrase.

Example: “match this phrase exactly”

Minus sign –

Find documents that exclude a particular word. If you want “salsa,” but not “dancing”…

Example: salsa -dancing

owner:

Find documents owned by a specific person.

Examples:

owner:steve@gmail.com

From:

Find documents shared by a specific person.

Example: from:jim@gmail.com

creator:

Find documents in a Shared Drive created by a specific person

Example: creator:roger@yourdomain.com

to:

Find documents you shared with a specific person or a group.

Examples:

to:[email protected]

is:starred

Find items in Starred

is:trashed

Find items in Trash

type:

Search by document type: folder, document, spreadsheet, presentation, PDF, image, video, drawing, form, site, script, table, or jam file.

Example: type:spreadsheet

Before & after

Find items edited before or after a specific day. Format the date as YYYY-MM-DD.

Examples:

before:2014-05-01

After:2014-05-01

title:

Search by title

Example: title:Conference 2014

app: 

Find Google Fusion Tables or Apps Script files. 

Examples:

app:”Google Apps Script”

app:”Google Fusion Tables”

Source:domain (Google for work or school)

Search for items shared across your organization’s entire domain instead of items you or your group created.

Example: To search for files related to a domain, use source:domain