Google Drive File Picker Usability

I find the usability of the file picker for Google Docs to be below par. The only way to quickly attach a document that I currently am working on in another tab is copy & paste the title of it into search, wait a sec, and then click the autocomplete result. The list of folders that it presents by default is pretty random and therefore not useful.

We also use Slack. Their Google Docs file picker is much more usable. 1) it doesn’t seem to make me click on the my google account as much for authorization, 2) it shows recent docs at the top of the initial list – that is great! 99% of the time the doc I want is there. Often, attaching a doc with their system is 3 clicks.

Same action in Asana takes more clicks, copy & paste, and tab-switching. :frowning:

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I’ve noticed the same thing, although sometimes it shows recent documents and sometimes it doesn’t. I assumed this was a Google issue. As for the login, it’s easier to login to Google first and then use the Login with Google button to log into Asana. That should avoid your having to choose a Google account later. I wonder whether that also changes the default picker view, since sometimes I log into Google first and sometimes I don’t.

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Hi

Indeed I agree with the previous comments, Google Drive picker is not taking into account folder structure, all folders and sub-folders are visible in a random order what makes research almost impossible without using the search bar. Is there a solution to fix this and get the same structure as in Google Drive ?

Thank you
Julien

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Hi

Has someone a solution to fix that issue ?
I already emptied historical, cache, … updated Chrome version, … but no differences …

Julien

My organization uses Google Drive for all of our folders and files. When I go to add files from our Google Drive all folders appear with no folder structure, making it extremely challenging to find the right document unless you know the file name.

One solution for this would be to upload files from the computer and go through Google’s Drive File Stream. However, when I try to add a Google Doc through file stream as an attachment I receive the following error:

Failed to attach Business card order 3.4.gsheet to Build out tech policy for staff

If upload from computer had the ability to upload .gdoc and .gsheet files this would solve my problem!

Suggestions and thoughts?

Hi @greer and thank you so much for taking the time to share your feedback with us!

The fact that the Google Drive integration doesn’t follow your private folder structure is a known issue. I’ve created a task internally to remind our team of this usability issue and I’ll make sure to circle back when I have some update on this topic! In the meantime, since we already have a thread on this topic, I’ve gone ahead and merged your post with the existing thread we have on this topic.

Ahh perfect, I hadn’t been able to find this thread. Thanks so much!

Do you have any sense of a timeline for resolving this issue? No worries if not, just thought I’d ask.

Not at the moment, but I’ll make sure to give you some updates via this thread, as soon as I have some!

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As a new poster, does adding my comment to this topic influence the issue priority at all? In Asana, for attachments, my Select a file > Google Drive shows shared content as well as files in my drive, so I have hundreds of folders showing. Do you know how to limit the folder list for Google Drive to just the contents of “My Drive”? I know how to search for a specific folder in my drive, e.g., type:folder title:n3, but I don’t know the name of “My Drive”. It’s not “My Drive”.

This is never gonna be updated, am I right?

I mean I get it; It’s not really impact full. But there are some nice quick fixes that’ll make the experience so much better (and some not so quick ones). Sadly seems like no-one wants to actually look at this piece of code.

But I’ll add my thoughts regardless.

  • Use the full Drive Picker Experience (see also Google Chat File Picker)
  • Yes! Have “recents” first!
  • Allow longer sessions (not just one-time auth)
  • Convert links in Descriptions & Comments to Drive Files into Attachments
  • Check if people in Asana Task (Project?) can access file and offer to share