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?

[bryonm]

Good luck, so far, so good on my end. I'm going to reindex spotlight tonight to see if that speeds things up.

[JasonTM1]

In case it is helpful to others, my searches are taking approximately 15 seconds to show results. I can type in a partial filename that I know matches 10-20 files on a Shared Drive and right around 15 seconds the filenames will populate my Spotlight search results all at once.

[GregW]

Since it appears that the OS is simply sending the search off to Google, it's unlikely reindexing will help. But would love to hear your results. Thanks.

[dcampagna]

Okay! I'm convinced it's working! Dynamite. Thank you Google!

"Enable Spotlight to search streaming files" is checked.
I'm running Google Drive Version: 59.0.3.0 (Intel) on MacOS Monterey , Verson 12.4 (21F79)

[jhtitus]

I feel super lucky I just started having this problem just last week and joined this bandwagon as soon as a fix comes out. Shout out to the OP and all the earlier posters that kept this thread alive and fought the good fight. Wow. Amazing. 👏👏👏

[jhtitus]

Are you experiencing speedy search results?

[KrisPenguin]

Yes!! Worked for me too! SOLVED! 

[jwein]

That's fantastic that this seems like it's starting to work for people here! However, mine still isn't functional at all. Is there something I need to do? I tried re-indexing spotlight but still nothing...

[JasonTM1]

I disabled mine and enabled it again, each change caused Drive for Desktop to restart. I cannot say whether that was the fix or if I wasn't waiting long enough before but it did appear to start working. My results take about 15 seconds to show up so be patient.

Based on how long it takes mine to find results I am not convinced that the files are indexed in advance, so reindexing Spotlight might not do anything. It appears to me that Drive has registered with Spotlight as a searchable app. So when you search for something Spotlight asks the Drive app which does a cloud search and responds to Spotlight with the results, this leads to the delay. But who knows what is really happening under the hood, I have not been able to locate any developer notes.

[jhtitus]

Yes. While technically the feature is functional once again, it is very very very slow. @JasonTM1 's presumptions feels close to what I'd assume is happening under the hood as well.

[jwein]

I enabled the setting (I'm on Google Drive v60) but can confirm it 100% does NOT work yet. Hopefully this is just the beginning of the implementation and Google is working on the back end. At least one could hope...

[dcampagna]

I’ on v59 and it works great for me. Make sure the “Enable Spotlight to search streaming files" box in Preferences is checked. Also, there does seem to be some server-side work on the initial indexing, so make your internet is active and there’s no firewall blocking the app. 

[GregW]

That matches with my findings. I believe there is no local machine indexing spotlight. I believe it's calling up to the standard Google drive search mechanism.

[jwein]

For those that have it working with Spotlight (I do not), do files also show up in Finder's "Recents" folder once they're opened? To me, this is the biggest missing feature that has severely slowed down my workflow. 

[bryonm]

In my case, no for the system, but yes for Default Finder X.

[GregW]

I am in shock. It's working (OS 12.4 & Drive 59.0.3.0 (Apple Silicon). It's slow to respond initially (likely due to the call to Google for the off-machine search). But it's accurate. And, I kind of like it better than before. I do not think Spotlight and the local index were as accurate as native Google. I have four large Google accounts attached through Google Drive for Desktop. The search is inaccurate if you just search from the very top (the machine level). Choosing the virtual Google Drive makes it MUCH more reliable.

Hard to describe how much better my daily life using this machine is going to be! Thanks for everyone's engagement!

[bryonm]

Last night I used Clean My Mac's 'reindex spotlight' maintenance tool, but I do not see any difference in speed. It takes a good beat for results to appear and they seem to update in real time, as in you'll get a first return of results and then over the next few seconds you'll see additional results fill in. I cannot tell for sure, but the first pass seems to be docs with search term in the file name, and then the slow results seem to be docs containing the search term within the doc. So, on one hand, it's slower, but it seems to be doing a deep search, and based on the previous comments, it may simply be calling to the server.

[JasonTM1]

A reminder that there is new universal keyboard shortcut (hotkey) to bring up a Drive for Desktop search window. My results vary a bit from using Spotlight. I get better results using partial filenames when using Spotlight. You can also add other search terms that you might use with Drive on the web such as specific shared drive, file type, etc.

 

[ThomasB]

Can you do that from within the "Open file" window of an application like MS Word or Adobe Acrobat? That may be the most common use case.

[nidgemo]

this still isn't working for me in any shape or form at all. Can people who it IS working for be specific about what they're doing (ie, are they hitting command-space to do a spotlight search, or searching from a finder window, or searching from a google drive folder window in the finder etc?

[bryonm]

After further testing, I've realized that the desktop search (search bar in the top right of a finder window) will only return results in Drive when I am already within a Google Drive folder on the desktop. Spotlight search (cmd+spacebar) is not searching in Google Drive or, at least, it does not provide Google Drive results. Dropbox works seamlessly in Spotlight and desktop, but if I want to search Google Drive, I have to use the top right search in while I am in a Google Drive folder (on the desktop), and there is the delay, though it seems faster today. 

This isn't the end of the world for me, at least it's an improvement in the right direction. Hopefully, they can get it working as well as Dropbox, like it did before.

[jwein]

Another three weeks have gone by and still no legitimate progress on this issue. When is this going to be fixed!? Can someone from Google at least chime in and give an update!?

[xgougeon]

Google versus Apple battle. What else can this be about?

[Myk3]

Given that Google are actively trying to integrate Apple devices into its Secure LDAP subsystem, nothing like the conspiracy many see between competing IT companies.

Were having the discussion, right now, about what the school IT landscape will look like in a couple of years, with the total adoption of Google Workspace, Google Classrooms, Chromebooks, ChromeOS Flex, etc.

Other than for labs for things like CAD and 3D imaging, there's little we need a high-powered disk-based OS for nowadays.

[Tom_Sch]

I am not agreeing on your last point. Maybe not for schools and I think there are other devices much better suited for the job, but for everything else I would prefer MacBook over any Chromebook. Just not my thing. Just my ¢2

[nidgemo]

Totally. I have a chromebook, and it's a decent low cost little tool for checking email, browsing the net and maybe writing a letter. For anything else it serves no use at all. Also (and I say this as someone who lectures in a university part time) it would be hugely damaging to a generation of youth to have them leaving school only versed in ChromeOS, because windows and mac just aren't going away, and a good working knowledge of at least one (probably windows) will remain a basic essential of life for todays kids. As a graphic designer I seen a generation of graduates coming out of universities who were, due to cheaper cost, taught to design in the wrong software for 4 years, and became basically unemployable.

[Tom_Sch]

I think a good tablet is much better for schools, but lets keep this discussion to Google Drive and not Chromebooks!

[dcampagna]

"there's little we need a high-powered disk-based OS for nowadays."

That's silly. Not everyone has the privilege of free and easy connectivity.

[ThomasB]

These considerations are only relevant if all the work is done on campus with school-issued hardware. Most users have a very different computing environment, so it is important not to extend those conclusions onto anyone else.

[Tom_Sch]

I wouldn't say that. It is more about Google offering a product that needs more attention.

[jwein]

Can someone from Google please provide an update!!? This discussion is getting extremely long and your users are clearly unhappy. Stop ignoring us!

[ballardlj]

I used to be able to search Google Drive using spotlight in the Finder app on my old iMac, but ever since our church bought a new iMac for the office (running Monterey), this no longer works.  Our in-house IT person said, "Oh well, that's just how Google Drive is now."  That is unacceptable!  Having to search for the file online, memorize its location, and then find it manually in the Finder is ridiculous.  I am spending way too much time now searching for files that used to be easy to find.  I can't believe that Google can't fix this issue that is causing so much trouble for so many people!  

[jim_plantman]

Yep - I feel your pain, it's been with me since Monterey. I don't think they'll ever fix it - they would have by now if it was on the agenda.

[dmitriy_romanyu]

No real fix yet (( 

1. search works only in finder ( but with significant delay) 

2. search from spotlight doesn't work 

3. search from "save as" menu  doesn't work   ( the most painful issue for me )

[JasonTM1]

We have switched to using the search provided by Drive for Desktop, Command-Option-G. Not a perfect solution but in some ways it works better for us. Might be of some help.

[dmitriy_romanyu]

Yes, I use this search time to time.. but It doesn't fix p.3 of my problem - search from "save as" menu((

[nidgemo]

It's not a great solution as it's a terrible search function - slow, plus doesn't show file location, allow selection of multiples etc. Plus, as well as anything else, the default shortcut for it is a common photoshop command, so if you're in photoshop and try to perform the action it now brings up a google search window instead...

[kvgorham]

Doesn't work well for me at all. Extremely slow. And not nearly as accurate as spotlight/finder. Still cannot SAVE AS or PRINT TO. This has hampered my productivity so much that I've gone to DropBox for most frequent folders. Will give Google until end of year to fix it. Then I'll migrate away. Can't stay stuck in this hell forever.

[colkurtz_78]

So far this is the best solution to this problem we all share. It is not perfect, but at least I don't a) need the exact filename to search and b) hotkey up the search window. It ain't perfect but it's better than calling up Google Drive in Chrome.

[kvgorham]

Mine does NOT work in finder automatically… only manual search of the Google drive in finder. Which is often faster than drive search function and more accurate. Drive search often does not give me the main folder I’m looking for.