Airtable Sync integration: Google Drive

19 Jan 2023
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Airtable Sync integration: Google Drive

Updated on 19 Jan 2023
4 Minutes to read

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Learn how to use the Airtable Sync integration feature to bring information from external applications into a single, centralized table within Airtable. This article covers how to sync metadata from files in a Google Drive folder into Airtable. Once the sync is set up, you can then reference those records via linked records in order to maintain connections to canonical Drive files (and even access those files directly using a button).

Introduction

Plan availability	All plan types
Permissions	Owners/Creators - In order to create or update synced tables, you'll need to have creator permissions in the base where you are setting up the sync.
Platform(s)	Web/Browser, Mac app, and Windows app
Related reading	Sync - Basic setup - If you haven’t set up a sync before, we recommend first reading this article to become familiarized with how the Airtable Sync feature generally works. Airtable Sync FAQs - Answers to common questions that might help unblock you if you are encountering issues.

Setup

Step 1: Add a new synced table

Click the “+” symbol to the right of your list of tables, then select Google Drive from the list of available sync options.

Step 2: Select a Google Drive account

Select an existing Google Drive account (if you’ve previously connected to the service), or link to a new account.

Note

To learn more about managing external accounts within Airtable, see this article.

If this is the first time you're connecting Airtable to a Google Drive account, we’ll ask your permission to see and download all of your Google Drive files. Select “Allow” to continue setting up the sync. For more information about authorization, security, and OAuth scopes jump to the section below.

Step 3: Select which root folder to sync from

Next, you will select the root folder that you would like to sync files from. You will first click the "+ Select from Google Drive" option.

This will open up another window where you can select the particular root folder to sync from. The root folder may be located in a personal drive ("My drive"), Shared drive, or a folder in the "Shared with me" drive.

After selecting your preferred root folder, you can then click whether you'd like to sync folders within the root folder:

Checking this box means that folders within the root folder will sync as a record.
Leaving this box unchecked means that subfolders contained within the root folder will not appear as records. Files within the root folder, as well as files within subfolders, will appear as records within Airtable.

Step 4: Select fields to sync

After clicking next, you’ll be presented with two sync options; you can sync:

All fields from the source view (Google Drive), including any fields added by Google in the future.
Specific fields from the source view (Google Drive).

If you choose to sync specific fields you’ll be shown a menu where you can toggle each individual field that you want to sync from Google Drive.

Currently, there are 13 fields to choose from when syncing from Google Drive:

Field type	Description
File Path	Where the file is located within the selected Drive (e.g. subfolder/file name)
Name	The name of the file
Thumbnail	The thumbnail image generated or added to the file
Created	When the file was first created
Last Viewed By Me	When you last viewed the file
Last Modified	When the file was last modified
Last Modified By	Who the file was last modified by
File Owner(s)	A list of anyone with "owner" file permissions
File Type	If the file is a spreadsheet, form, slide, sheet, or doc
File Size	The file size shown in bytes
Parent Folder	The folder that contains the file (also shown in the file path)
Link	A direct link to open the file
File ID	The unique ID that Google generates for the file

For thumbnail images, if a thumbnail exists, then Airtable will sync in that image. If you choose the "Sync Folders" option, we are unable to sync over the thumbnail for those folders at this time. Additionally, some file types like .dmg or .zip do not support thumbnails in the sync.

Step 5: Create synced table

Before creating your synced table, there are “Settings” options that allow you choose how often you want to sync, and how to handle records deleted or hidden in Google Drive.

The frequency of syncing. Right now, the options are manual syncing and automatic syncing which happens around every 5 minutes.
Whether or not deleted records should be removed from the Airtable table. By default, deleted rows will be removed.

Once you’ve selected your desired settings, click the “Create table” button. A new table will be created with the synced fields from Google Drive.

Security and OAuth scopes

Authentication

We request the minimum read/write scopes necessary to make the Airtable Sync integration work. The OAuth consent screen will look like this:

Google Drive scopes

Scope name	Scope purpose
`drive.readonly`	For accessing Drive metadata and content
`email`	For user metadata
`profile`	For user metadata
`openid`	For sign-in

The tokens are transmitted between Airtable and Google’s servers securely via HTTPS. On Airtable’s side, the tokens are stored in databases that are encrypted at-rest.
For more information on Google Drive scopes, check out Google's documentation here.

FAQs

Can I sync from a folder in a shared drive?

Yes! You can sync any Google Drive folder that you have access to. If you are looking for a shared drive folder, make sure to choose “View folder from: Shared Drives” when setting up the Google Drive sync.

How many files can be synced from a selected folder?

Airtable will sync up to 10,000 files from the selected folder. This ensures that the synced table remains performant.

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Table of contents

Introduction
Setup
Security and OAuth scopes
FAQs