Files & storage
Set up Google Drive
The usual setup is sharing a folder with a “service account” — a robot Google account your company creates for itself in a few minutes. No approval from anyone else is involved, and the only Drive-side action is an ordinary Share.
One folder (service account + share)
- In the Google Cloud console (console.cloud.google.com, any project — create one if none exists) open IAM & Admin → Service accounts → Create service account; a name is all it needs.
- On the new account open Keys → Add key → Create new key → JSON — a small key file downloads. Note the account's email too (it ends in @…iam.gserviceaccount.com).
- In Google Drive, right-click the folder → Share → paste that email → Viewer access — exactly like sharing with a person.
- Back here: Documents → Google Drive, paste the folder's URL straight from the browser, paste the ENTIRE contents of the JSON key file, choose the access groups, Test, then Sync.
Google Docs, Sheets and Slides are imported too (exported to text, spreadsheet and PDF). Shared drives work if the folder is shared with the service account. Set Access to “Mirror each file's own Drive sharing” to keep documents readable here by the same people they're shared with in Drive (see Access).
Whole-organisation mode (domain-wide delegation)
Whole-organisation mode gives the assistant everything the company has — every user's My Drive and every shared drive, with new people picked up automatically. It uses the SAME service account plus one authorisation your Workspace admin performs in the Google Admin console (domain-wide delegation); nothing is installed and no vendor approval is involved. You are in this mode exactly when a Workspace admin email is entered and the Folder field is BLANK.
- In the service account's JSON key, note the client_id (a long number).
- Google Admin console (admin.google.com) → Security → Access and data control → API controls → Domain-wide delegation → Add new: paste that client ID and authorise the two scopes https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.readonly and https://www.googleapis.com/auth/admin.directory.user.readonly.
- Back here: leave Folder BLANK, enter a Workspace administrator's email in “Workspace admin email”, paste the JSON key, Test, then Sync — every user's Drive and every shared drive syncs.
Reading happens per user (each My Drive is read as its owner), so pairing this with Access = Mirror keeps every file visible here exactly to the people who can see it in Drive. To leave whole-organisation mode, paste a folder URL back into the Folder field. Use the Advanced Exclude patterns to leave out folders or file types across the sweep.
Last updated 29 Aug 2026