Advanced File Filtering

Overview

At the heart of Drive Toolbox, a powerful file filtering system allows you to find and list a precise set of files from your Google Drive. And with that list, you can great things. Batch delete the files you want to get rid of. Add custom labels to organize your files. Remove, add, or change file permissions. Make public files private. Make private file public. Download matching files.

You do not actually have to learn the filter language to use the filtering system

It's powerful, but it's easy too. Drive Toolbox has three nifty tools you can use to create filters without learning the filtering language we've created.

(1) There's a natural language processor you can use to generate your filter with a prompt - just like you would do with a chatbot.

(2) There's a Visual Filter Builder that you can use to build filter conditions - and it's also a great way to learn how they work (probably more useful than this guide!)

(3) You can also generate common "Quick Filters" with a click, and edit them as needed.

What can you do with filters?

• Find files by name, size, type, or date - and many other criteria
• Locate files shared with specific people or publicly
• Search by file owner or modification date
• Combine multiple criteria with AND, OR, and NOT
• Save frequently-used filters
• Apply filters before batch operations (download, delete, label)
• Apply filters only within a particular folder tree (e.g., find files labeled important in /My Drive/Clients/Rogers)

Basic Syntax

Filters use a simple format:

field:operation:value

Examples:

name:contains:report           # Files with "report" in the name
size:gt:10MB                   # Files larger than 10 MB
recently:modified:7d           # Modified in the last 7 days

There are also some nicknames that don't follow this field:operation:value convention, just for convenience. So you will see, for example:

is:folder

which is a convenient way to say that the file type is a Google Drive folder; the long way to write that is:

mime_type:equals:application/vnd.google-apps.folder 

If you don't see expected results, make sure your Drive is synced to Drive Toolbox, then double-check your filters.

Important rules:

1. Separate field, operation, and value with colons (:)
2. Use UPPERCASE for logical operators: AND, OR, NOT
3. Quote values with spaces: name:contains:"Q1 Report"
4. Group conditions with parentheses: (A OR B) AND C

If you do not group your conditions with parentheses we follow the standard order of precedence for logical operators, evaluating NOT first, then AND, and finally OR.

Operations

Operations determine how the filter matches values. Different types of fields support different operations.

String Operations

String operations are used to filter files based on text values, such as the name of the file or the owner's email address.

Example queries:

name:contains:budget                    # Any file with "budget" in the name
owner_email:equals:elias@example.com     # Files owned by Elias
name:endswith:.pdf                      # All PDF files

Use quotes if there are spaces in a text value:

name:contains:"march presentation"      # Any file with "march presentation" in the name

Numeric Operations

Numeric operations are used to filter files based on numbers, such as file size in bytes.

Example queries:

size:gt:104857600                       # Files larger than 100 MB
size:lt:1024                            # Files smaller than 1 KB

Size Nicknames:

You can also use KB, MB, and GB as nicknames, and the filter will parse them properly:

size:gt:100MB    # Files larger than 100 MB (100 * 1024 * 1024 bytes)
size:lt:1KB      # Files smaller than 1 KB (1024 bytes)

Time Operations

Time operations are used to filter files based on dates and times, such as when a file was created, modified, or viewed.

Time formats:

1. Relative time:

   • 7d = 7 days ago
   • 1w = 1 week ago
   • 30d = 30 days ago
   • 6h = 6 hours ago
   • 1y = 1 year ago

2. Keywords:

   • now, today, yesterday, this_week, last_week

3. Absolute dates:

   • 2024-01-01 (date only)
   • 2024-01-01T12:00:00Z (date and time)

Example queries:

modified_time:since:7d                  # Modified in the last week
created_time:before:2024-01-01          # Created before 2024
viewed_by_me_time:since:today           # Viewed today

Special Operations

Special operations check whether a field has a value or is empty.

Example queries:

viewed_by_me_time:exists                # Files you have viewed
parent_folder_id:isnull                 # Files with no parent folder

Logical Operators

Combine multiple filter conditions using logical operators to create powerful queries.

AND - All conditions must match

Use AND when you want files that match all criteria.

is:file AND name:contains:report
size:gt:1000000 AND mime_type:contains:pdf

OR - At least one condition must match

Use OR when you want files that match any of the criteria.

name:contains:doc OR name:contains:pdf
is:folder OR size:gt:10485760

NOT - Negates a condition

Use NOT to exclude files that match a criteria.

NOT is:folder
is:file AND NOT mime_type:contains:image

Parentheses - Group conditions

Use parentheses () to control the order of operations.

(name:contains:doc OR name:contains:pdf) AND is:file
is:file AND NOT (label:archived OR label:deleted)

Operator precedence (highest to lowest):

1. NOT
2. AND
3. OR

Shortcuts

Shortcuts provide convenient syntax for common queries.

is: Shortcut

Quickly filter by file type.

recently: Shortcut

Quickly filter by recent activity.

permissions: Shortcut

Quickly filter by sharing permissions.

Common roles: reader, writer, commenter

Common types: user, group, domain, anyone

label: Shortcut

Quickly filter by custom labels.

label:important
label:project-alpha
label:"needs review"

Examples by Use Case

Finding Large Files

size:gt:100MB                           # Files larger than 100 MB
size:gt:1073741824                      # Files larger than 1 GB (1024 * 1024 * 1024 bytes)
mime_type:contains:pdf AND size:gt:1MB  # Large PDFs (greater than 1 MB)

Finding Old or Stale Files

modified_time:before:1y                 # Not modified in over a year
created_time:before:2020-01-01          # Created before 2020
size:gt:104857600 AND modified_time:before:1y  # Large, old files

Finding Files by Type

mime_type:contains:pdf                  # PDF files
mime_type:contains:image                # Images
mime_type:contains:video                # Videos
mime_type:contains:spreadsheet          # Google Sheets
mime_type:contains:document             # Google Docs

Finding Shared Files

permissions:anyone:reader               # Publicly readable files
permissions:type:user AND NOT owner_email:equals:me  # Shared with you
owner_email:contains:@example.com       # From a specific domain

Security Audits

permissions:anyone:writer               # Publicly writable files (dangerous!)
permissions:anyone:reader OR permissions:anyone:commenter  # All public files

Cleanup Operations

size:gt:104857600 AND modified_time:before:1y AND NOT owner_email:equals:me
# Large files (>100MB) not modified in a year that you don't own

is:orphaned AND created_time:since:7d
# Recently orphaned files

Complex Queries

(name:contains:"Q1 Report" OR name:contains:"Q2 Report") AND NOT (label:archived OR label:deleted) AND size:gt:1048576
# Q1 or Q2 reports, not archived or deleted, larger than 1 MB

(owner_name:contains:John OR owner_name:contains:Jane) AND recently:modified:30d
# Files owned by John or Jane, modified in the last 30 days

Common Patterns

• Large files: size:gt:100MB
• Recent activity: recently:modified:7d or recently:viewed:7d
• Specific file types: mime_type:contains:TYPE where TYPE is pdf, image, video, document, spreadsheet
• Folders only: is:folder
• Files only: is:file
• Shared publicly: permissions:anyone:reader
• Not owned by me: NOT owner_email:equals:me
• Old files: modified_time:before:1y
• Labeled files: label:LABEL_NAME

Filter Expressions Reference

This is a comprehensive reference of all available filter fields. Use this when you need to look up specific field names or see what operations are supported.

Supported Fields

Common MIME Types

For use with mime_type:contains:VALUE:

More about Activity Filters

Google Drive provides File Activity data, which you can optionally add to your Drive Toolbox and use in filters. This is data about who, what and when: who did something to one of my files, what did they do, and when did they do it. For example, if yvonne@example.com edited a document called Best tacos in LA on 1/26/2026 a 4:15 pm, that's info that appears in the File Activity data.

You can optionally choose to sync activity data. If you do not turn on the feature, there won't be any activity data synced to the Drive Toolbox database on your computer. You can turn it on, on the Settings page of the Desktop app.

Activity filters give you great information about recent activities, but Google does not provide an activity history all the way back to when you first created a file. So it's great if you want to see which of your files yvonne@example.com has edited in your Drive, in the past few months. But don't use it for questions like, "has this file been edited in the last 3 years?" In that case, rely on the file Properties filters, like recently:modified:3y. You can't see if it was Yvonne, though.

Extended syntax for activity filters:

Activity filters (like activity_last_edit_time, activity_last_create_time, activity_last_move_time) support an optional :for:actor clause to filter by who performed the action:

activity_last_edit_time:since:7d                                     # Files edited in last 7 days (by anyone)
activity_last_edit_time:since:7d:for:actor:equals:me                 # Files edited by YOU in last 7 days
activity_last_edit_time:since:2m:for:actor:equals:juno@example.com   # Files edited by juno@example.com
activity_last_create_time:since:30d:for:actor:contains:@example.com  # Files created by people with an email containing `@example.com`

Activity Data Limitations:

Activity filters rely on data from Google Drive's Activity API, which has important limitations:

1. Retention Window: Activity data is retained for 90-180 days (configurable, Google's max is 180 days). Activities older than this window are not available.
2. Permission Required: Drive Activity API read permission. If not granted, no activity data will be available to Drive Toolbox.
3. Email Resolution: If the actor (the person who edited the file, for example) is not in your Contacts or in your Workspace, we won't know what their email is; instead Google provides an unhelpful alphanumerical identifier.
4. One Filter Per Query: Only ONE activity filter (e.g., activity_last_edit_time) is allowed per query. You can combine it with other non-activity filters (size, name, etc.).
5. Results Based on Available Data: Activity filters yield results based on the activity records available to Drive Toolbox. If no activity data is available, query results will be the same as for files that have actually had no activity.