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Google Drive to a Vector Store

This workflow connects My Drive or a Shared Drive, processes supported documents, sends their vectors to the store configured for your project, and verifies the result in the Playground.

Expected result​

The selected Drive files reach Synced status in the intended project, and a specific phrase from a known file returns that document in a semantic search.

Before you start​

You need:

  • A Vector Data Loader account with access to the target project
  • A Google account that can read the files or Shared Drive you intend to sync
  • A configured embedding provider and vector store for the project
  • At least one supported file: PDF, Google Doc, Google Sheet, or Google Slides presentation

1. Confirm the project destination​

  1. Select the target project.
  2. Open Settings → Embedding Model and test the configured provider.
  3. Open Settings → Vector Store and test the configured destination.
  4. If the destination uses a fixed vector dimension, confirm it matches the embedding model.

Checkpoint: Both connection tests succeed for the selected project.

2. Connect Google Drive​

  1. Open Sources.
  2. Choose Add Source, then Google Drive.
  3. Complete Google OAuth using the account that can read the required files.

The connector can browse only content available to the Google account that grants access. If a Shared Drive is missing, first confirm that account's membership and file permissions in Google Workspace.

Checkpoint: The Google Drive source appears as connected.

3. Browse and select files​

  1. Choose Browse on the source.
  2. Select My Drive or Shared Drives.
  3. Navigate to the required folder.
  4. Select the supported files you intend to add.
  5. Start the sync and confirm the target project.

Vector Data Loader exports Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides into processable formats during extraction. You do not need to export them manually.

Checkpoint: The selection contains only the intended files, and they appear in Documents for the correct project.

4. Review sync status​

Wait for each required file to reach Synced status. Open a failed document to review the error before retrying. A partially successful batch does not mean every selected file is ready for retrieval.

Checkpoint: Every required file has a synced status and a current sync timestamp.

5. Test retrieval​

  1. Open Playground → Search.
  2. Search for a distinctive sentence or concept from one file.
  3. Inspect the returned title, source link, excerpt, and relevance score.

Checkpoint: The expected Drive document appears for the test query.

Optional: monitor a folder​

Google Drive supports automatic folder monitoring for both My Drive and Shared Drives.

  1. Return to Sources.
  2. Choose Monitor on the Google Drive source.
  3. Select the exact folder and target project.
  4. Start monitoring.

The monitor discovers new supported files through scheduled polling. Confirm the folder and project before enabling it so new documents do not enter the wrong collection.

Primary provider documentation​

See also Google Drive Integration, Folder Monitoring, and Search.