File Search & Auditor for Google Drive™ — Support
Help, FAQs, and how to report a problem with File Search & Auditor for Google Drive™.
Need help? The fastest way to get support is by email — drop a line to greataicoding@greataicoding.com with a description of the problem (and a screenshot if you can).
Reporting a Bug
If something isn't working as expected, please include the following so the issue can be diagnosed quickly:
What you were trying to do, and what happened instead.
Whether you're on a Google Workspace™ account or a consumer Gmail account (My Drive only mode).
The exact search string you used.
Which search options were ticked: Include Files and/or Include Folders, and which search mode (default words, "exact phrase", or title:).
Any error messages from the sidebar (they appear in red below the search box).
Any error messages from the Apps Script execution log (Extensions → Apps Script → Executions).
Requesting a Feature
Suggestions are welcome — particularly around how the search results sheet is laid out, what columns would be most useful, or what extra audit/risk-detection features would help in real-world use. Open a feature request by email greataicoding@greataicoding.com with the details.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does the search take so long on large drives?
Each search has to call the Google Drive™ API once per page of results (up to 100 files at a time) for every drive you've ticked in the myDrives sheet. For very large drives or broad searches, this can take several minutes. Apps Script also has a hard execution time limit — 6 minutes for consumer Gmail accounts and 30 minutes for Google Workspace™ — and a search across many large drives may approach this. If it does, the sidebar will show a timeout error; try narrowing the search or unticking some drives in myDrives.
Why does the "Risk Flag" column flag every named user as external?
The Risk Flag uses the ORG_DOMAIN constant at the top of listFilesFound.gs. While that constant is left blank, the App can't tell what counts as "internal" to your organisation — so it conservatively flags every named user/group permission. Set ORG_DOMAIN to your organisation's email domain (e.g. "mycompany.com") and the flag will only fire for emails outside that domain.
I added a new Shared Drive, but it's not in the myDrives sheet. What do I do?
Open the search sidebar and click the ↻ Refresh Drives button. This rebuilds the myDrives sheet from scratch, picking up any new Shared Drives you've been added to since the last time you opened the sidebar.
I'm on a personal Gmail account — does this work for me?
Yes. If the App detects you have no Shared Drives (typical for consumer Gmail accounts), the sidebar will switch to a simple "Search My Drive" mode with a single tickbox. Searches then run across your personal Drive only.
Does the App modify or delete any files?
No. The App uses read-only scopes and is purely a reporting tool. To change a file's sharing settings, click the file's link in the results sheet to open it in Google Drive™, then use Drive's native sharing controls. See the Privacy Policy for full details on what data the App accesses and how.
I tried to search and got "No Records Found", but I know the file exists.
A few things to check:
Is the drive containing the file ticked in the myDrives sheet? Untick rows you don't want to search and tick the ones you do.
Are Include Files and/or Include Folders ticked appropriately for what you're looking for?
If you're searching file content (default mode), Google Drive™ may not yet have indexed very recently uploaded files. Try searching by name using the title: prefix instead.
If you used "exact phrase" mode, double-check the exact wording — even one different character will cause it to miss.
Privacy & Data
The App does not transmit, store, or share any data outside of your Google account. All searching, processing, and reporting happens entirely within Google Apps Script™ — there are no external servers, no databases, and no third-party services involved. See the Privacy Policy for full details.
File Search & Auditor for Google Drive™ is an independent open-source project. Google Drive™, Google Sheets™, Google Workspace™, and Google Apps Script™ are trademarks of Google LLC. The App is not affiliated with or endorsed by Google LLC.