[Solved] Search Drive File Stream

[Ghyslain]

Hi,

 

I just downloaded Google Drive File Stream but I can't search within my files with Alfred.

I found this post that is pretty pessimist about this feature: https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/drive/s8SGUGCNlOM

Any workaround so far?

 

Thanks!

[Xavez]

Got here via a Google search, the workaround is to add /Volumes/GoogleDrive to your search scope in Alfred.

[Peterp]

I've added /Volumes/GoogleDrive to search scope, waited many days, tried removed and re-adding...but Alfred still does not search it. Any help please?

Edited March 13, 2018 by Peterp

[Vero]

@Peterp @Ghyslain @Xavez The Google team have stated that the File Stream doesn't currently support Spotlight, which means that other apps - like Alfred - that rely on the metadata normally provided by files on your Mac are also unable to present results from File Stream.

 

You can find the statement made by the Google team, as well as a link where you can express your interest in indexing being supported, here:

 

Cheers,
Vero

[Peterp]

Thanks for the update! Ugh, I already disliked FS, now ever more so...Google has this nasty habit of forcing people to upgrade to newer products that have less features...

[Bret Fisher]

Google File Stream was updated in July to support Spotlight, and works great in that app, is there something we need to do in Alfred Search Scope to support it? 

[Vero]

@Bret Fisher That's fantastic news!  Can you confirm you can find your Google Drive files using Spotlight?

 

If so, adding Google Drive to your search scope (or creating a File Filter workflow to specifically search Google Drive) should be sufficient.

 

If you still can't find files as expected, could you please install the Alfred Metadata tool and drag one of the Google Drive files to it? It should provide some insight into whether all the metadata is complete.

 

https://cachefly.alfredapp.com/tools/AlfredMetadataTool_v1.1.zip

 

Cheers,
Vero

[Bret Fisher]

Hey sorry, I never saw this reply. I now have notify turned on in here 😁.  Adding Google Drive File Stream to my Alfred search scope works (defaults to looking like a mounted drive and has path of /Volumes/GoogleDrive) and I see file and folder results. Because the files are streamed when opened and not really there by default, I added a "File Search > No Previews In" for the path to prevent potential unnecessary Internet traffic for previews as I use Alfred to search.

 

When I drag a file from GDFS into the Metadata tool, it works as expected... the tool freezes a minute while I see the GDFS menu icon "spinning" indicating it's downloading the file for use (a similar experience to a slow network file server). 

[Briscoe]

Hi - I've added  the Google Drive location  to my search scope but Alfred still can't search it (though Spotlight can find the files).

 

The only way I can get Alfred to work is to enable "UnIntelligent > Search all file types".

 

Does any one know of a workaround that will enable Alfred to search Google Drive? 

 

Attached is what my Default Results look like. Any help is much appreciated! Thanks

 

[Chris Spiegl]

Hi @Adrian00, I am having a similar experience. It worked on Mojave and without the "Uninteligent" setting for me. Now on Catalina it's no longer working.

I hope there will be an update sometime to support the new filesystem structure of Catalina soon and that this will also fix the issues with the Google File Stream system.

[rogierl]

I'm having a similar problem with Googe Drive stream. My Google drive contains the folowing files:

 

-r--------   0 rlommers  LOCAL\Domain Users   370K Jan  1  1970 .VolumeIcon.icns
drwx------   5 rlommers  LOCAL\Domain Users   4.0K Apr 26 14:06 .Spotlight-V100/
d-wx------   3 rlommers  LOCAL\Domain Users   4.0K May  1 10:06 .TemporaryItems/
drwx------   8 rlommers  LOCAL\Domain Users   4.0K Jun 26 17:51 Shared drives/
drwx------  14 rlommers  LOCAL\Domain Users   4.0K Jun 26 17:51 My Drive/
drwx------   3 rlommers  LOCAL\Domain Users   4.0K Jun 26 17:51 .Trashes/
drwx------   4 rlommers  LOCAL\Domain Users   4.0K Jun 26 17:51 ./
drwx------   3 rlommers  LOCAL\Domain Users   4.0K Jun 26 17:51 .fseventsd/
drwxr-xr-x+ 71 rlommers  LOCAL\Domain Users   2.2K Jun 27 07:11 ../

Now the problem is that evertything inside "My Drive" is being indexed perfectly and searchable through (latest) Alfred. Unfortunately all the files in the "Shared drives"-directory is NOT being indexed. I really don't get it. What could be the reason of this? It's "just" two directories right? why is the one being indexed and the other not? Even the "unintelligent" option doesn't fix this. For some reason Alfred (or spotlight?) doesn't know the "Shared drives" directory at all.

Edited June 27, 2019 by rogierl

[LordBusiness]

1 hour ago, rogierl said:

...Unfortunately all the files in the "Shared drives"-directory is NOT being indexed. I really don't get it. What could be the reason of this? It's "just" two directories right? why is the one being indexed and the other not? Even the "unintelligent" option doesn't fix this. For some reason Alfred (or spotlight?) doesn't know the "Shared drives" directory at all.

 

I've been having the same problem since Google renamed "Team Drives" to "Shared drives" in their May 31st update.

 

I've chatted with Google support twice about this and there first response was that they are receiving similar reports from other users, and to follow the procedures in this Apple support article... https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201716.

 

When that didn't work, I chatted with them again and this time got a "It's Apple's problem, contact them." response.  😞

 

It's still not working for me, but please post an update here if you figure anything out.

Edited June 27, 2019 by LordBusiness

[robertstrazz]

I'm experiencing this issue today with latest Mac OS and latest Alfred.  I have the google drive path in my search scope, etc.  This used to work... so something broke :)

[Jules Moretti]

On my end it is also partially working, I had to enable the search all files but I can see that not all files are found not sure if it is an index issue, or a filetype issue, or because the file name has spaces?

[face]

Any update on this please (using Mac OS 11 - Big Sur) ?

I'd like to move my data from a shared network hard disk into Google Drive with drive File Stream enabled. 

But i love so much Alfred app so i'll consider to move on only if Alfred works searching in Google Drive ...