Henry31

Updated to 2022.13.
Use Alfred 5 GUI user configuration. Use Alfred 5 GUI Dialog box for diagnostics. Ignore list is now new-line separated. No longer allow multiple paths, to simplify path setting and more readily support Linked Shared Folders. If you have multiple Drives and want to ignore some, add the root to the Google Drive Path and the ones you wish to not see to the Ignore List. Only try to auto-refresh if Alfred is open. Hotkeys for gd and gdf. Remove update conditional.

Just based on my understanding, will this workflow just build up an index. So, a database file on your disk. So not heavy i/o writings, just one file, which will be updated and extended...
 
I don't know if this is a problem for an SSD. I'm working on a MacBook Pro also with an SSD. But for me, build is a search index is a basic task for a computer, so I'm not worrying about my SSD. It's a task which a computer must do, never mind if it has an SSD or an HDD.
 
Just my two cents..

Yes, I'm using this workflow with my 110,47 GB sized Google Drive. And it works like a charm.

Yes, I'm using this workflow with my 110,47 GB sized Google Drive. And it works like a charm.

New release is out with gdf, more notes, and messaging tweaks.

Thanks a lot for clarifying, and also for the new release.

I installed everything on the mac of my colleague and after a while the index was built up and everything works fine for him. For me, on my mac, after 24h it was not working, the index seems not to built up correctly.

But now I get it to work, this is how I did it:
Make sure the index agent is disabled Deleted your workflow Restarted by Mac Reinstalled your workflow new enabled the index agent after a while the index was built up, everything works 🎉 Thanks a lot for your work @vitor!!
 
 

Yes. You’re running the commands multiple times and making them trample each other.

This is the thread for the workflow itself, which links to Vitor's Github, so you'll always find the latest there
 
 

New release is out. It expands gd to differentiate between cache missing or being built and prevents immediate sequential cache rebuilds.

Setup

Set your Google Drive’s location in the Workflow’s Configuration.

Usage

Search the contents of your Google Drive via the gd keyword. Filter for folders only with gdf. Fallback Searches are included.




↩: Open. ⌥↩: Reveal in Finder. ⇧↩: Search on Google Drive’s website. You’ll be asked to build the cache on the first run. A notification will show when it’s ready. The more files you have, the longer the wait. A macOS launchd agent will be loaded to do it daily. An immediate cache rebuild can be forced with ⌘⌥⌃↩.

The Universal Actions make it straightforward to copy and move files to a Google Drive folder.



To report a problem, run !gddiagnostic.

⤓ Install on the Alfred Gallery | Source
 

The good news are that so far my current assumptions seem to be holding up, and that could lead to a workaround. Would like to have at least one or two more people confirm the behaviour, but so far I’m feeling optimistic.

Thanks for looking into this.
 
I "stream" all of my files in Drive - I don't keep any of them local. I'm pretty sure Spotlight used to still index these folders and files before the Apple updates.
 
 
If I run this then I see all of the "streamed" folders and files just fine.

I’m looking into possibilities here, but I’m not a Google Drive user. For those of you who are and looking for a fix, a few questions.

I see there are two methods of adding to Google Drive:
The online files, represented locally inside /Volumes/GoogleDrive/My Drive. In the Google Drive app preferences, this is “Google Drive, Folders from Drive” and defaults to “Stream Files”. The local synced files, which behave like Dropbox. In the Google Drive app preferences, this is “My Mac, Folders from your computer” and defaults to asking you to “Add folder”. Seems like files in the second option (“Folders from your computer”) would be indexable by Spotlight and Alfred, and that the issue everyone is facing is related to the first point (“Folders from Drive”). Is that correct?
 
And is everyone on the correct app, Google Drive for desktop?

If so, what do you get if you open a terminal and run (paste the code and press ↵):
 
ls -R "/Volumes/GoogleDrive/My Drive"  
Does it show all your files and directories? Are some missing? If so, do you have any guess as to why some might be missing and others not (e.g. having accessed them recently).

Looking for responses both if it works and if it doesn’t.

I'm also having this same issue. I used to use Dropbox, which never had any issues with Spotlight indexing/Alfred search. I switched to Google's "Shared Drives" feature via Google Workspace, which uses Google's new combined "Google Drive" app. 
 
I did put the following into Terminal and that seems to have fixed the issue, for now: 
 
 
But reading other posts, I think that's a temporary fix. I also contacted Google. Here's what they said: 
 

Hi all, it appears that an update to Google Drive a few days ago has caused Spotlight and macOS to stop indexing the files. Some users seem to have had quick and efficient success in finding files again by telling macOS to reindex their Google Drive, while others don't appear to have been able to.
 
Google is very opaque about what's happening under the hood with Google Drive. It could be that a workflow that directly interacts with the Google Drive API can finally put these issues to bed once and for all, and this is something we're going to look into.  
 
We'll pop some updates on the forum once we've investigated further.
 
Cheers,
Vero

I don't think there's a real solution to this problem right now.
 
1) It's possible to get this workflow to work using these instructions, however this workflow will open all files in the browser (fine for Google Docs/Sheets etc, but sometimes you might want the file to open in finder).
 
2) It's possible to force index Google Drive by using these instructions, however I believe it will download all files offline. It won't work with "online only" files.
 
I've tried to open a ticket with Google via their Google Workspace support (and I encourage anyone else that pays for GSuite / Google Workspace to do the same!) So far, not very helpful.

I don't think there's a real solution to this problem right now.
 
1) It's possible to get this workflow to work using these instructions, however this workflow will open all files in the browser (fine for Google Docs/Sheets etc, but sometimes you might want the file to open in finder).
 
2) It's possible to force index Google Drive by using these instructions, however I believe it will download all files offline. It won't work with "online only" files.
 
I've tried to open a ticket with Google via their Google Workspace support (and I encourage anyone else that pays for GSuite / Google Workspace to do the same!) So far, not very helpful.

Hello Vero, Google Spreadsheets are "gdoc" files and they are just links to a drive.google.com URL inside of chrome. They don't act as the actual file, and thus one can not search inside of them. A solution for this is to export the document as a DOCX (or XLS), and then upload it again and keeping it a DOCX (google now supports this, before they automatically converted the file to google drive's format). After that, a .docx file would be synced on your computer, and this file can be edited both in Google Drive via browser and locally through word, and it syncs very well.
 
I also post this in case it works for anyone having issues with GDFS and it's search:
 
The fact that GFS "mounts" is very inconvenient. Alfred can indeed index files by name (as can spotlight) but I am having issues with searching for content inside the files, for instance, phrases inside a PDF. And this is both from spotlight and from alfred (although alfred uses spotlight's index, so it's the same). This was a deal breaker for me, the ability to search within the files I feel it's extremely important.
 
The only solution I found was not to use Google Drive File Stream and switch to Google's Backup and Sync. The main difference (that I can see) is that it doesn't offer real time view on Office's products when someone is editing the file on drive.google.com. This isn't a deal breaker for me, I use it mostly as a personal tool. As a note: I don't know how Backup and Sync manages having multiple drives, I don't know if it supports it (I don't use them). Other than that, Backup and Sync actually creates a folder on your Mac, with all content stored locally (as Dropbox or iCloud do). 
 
This might help anyone, so here's what I did. In case anyone wants more info, here's a comparison between both tools: https://support.google.com/drive/answer/7638428?hl=en
 
Cheers!