> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.alex.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Google Drive Knowledge Base > Sync Google Drive folders so Alex can answer candidate questions from your docs and files Connecting Google Drive lets Alex answer candidate questions from documents you already keep in Drive — benefits guides, client one-pagers, role briefs, process docs. ## Overview You authorize Alex with a single Google account, then browse that account's Drive and tick the **folders and shared drives** whose files should sync. What Alex can see is exactly what that account can see. Access is **read-only**. Alex never uploads, edits, moves, or deletes anything in Drive. ## Permissions Requested | Scope | What it's for | | - | - | | `drive.readonly` | Browse the account's Drive and read the files in the folders you selected | | `openid`, `email` | Identify the connected account | > [!WARNING] > > `drive.readonly` is Google's read scope for Drive as a whole — there's no per-folder equivalent. Alex only ever *reads* the folders and shared drives you explicitly tick; nothing else is fetched or indexed. > > Because the grant is scoped to an account, **connect with a durable service or ops account, not an individual's personal account**. If that person leaves and their account is suspended, the connection can't be reconnected — it has to be set up again from scratch. ## Installation **1. Open the Knowledge Base settings** In the Alex app, go to **Settings** > **Knowledge Base** and click the **Google Drive** card. **2. Connect** Click **Connect**, sign in with the Google account, and approve read-only Drive access. You'll return to Alex with the message *"Google Drive connected — choose which drives and folders to sync"*. **3. Pick folders** Browse the tree and tick the shared drives and folders whose files Alex may answer from. **4. Save** Click **Update Connection**. The first sync starts within 15 minutes. ## Choosing What Syncs ![Google Drive settings showing My Drive, Shared with me, and a shared drive, with one selected folder chip](https://mintcdn.com/apriora/1dLms1nR32YN9Z59/images/kb-google-drive-settings.jpg?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=1dLms1nR32YN9Z59\&q=85\&s=de8c5d87eed91b9321f5385eb874f5fa) The tree has three roots: | Root | Contains | | - | - | | **My Drive** | Folders in the connected account's own Drive | | **Shared with me** | Folders other people shared directly with the account | | **Shared drives** | Each shared drive the account is a member of, listed by name | Expand any row to browse into it and select folders at any depth. You can also tick a whole shared drive. ![Google Drive folder tree expanded to show a subfolder](https://mintcdn.com/apriora/1dLms1nR32YN9Z59/images/kb-google-drive-tree.jpg?fit=max\&auto=format\&n=1dLms1nR32YN9Z59\&q=85\&s=d1518a1657ed750155b43461b4896540) Everything you've picked appears under **Selected**, as removable chips. The summary line previews the result — for example, *"1 file will sync."* Click **files…** on a selected folder to open its file list, where you can switch individual files off or [scope them to specific jobs](https://docs.alex.com/integrations/knowledge-base/job-scoping.md). **Sync content updated in the last** limits files by modification time: `7 days`, `30 days`, `90 days`, `6 months`, `1 year`, or `All time` (the default). > [!WARNING] > > Narrowing the freshness window **removes** files that fall outside it on the next sync, rather than just holding them back. ## Supported Files | | | | - | - | | **Uploaded file types** | `.pdf`, `.docx`, `.doc`, `.txt` — up to 25 MB each | | **Google Docs** | Synced, read as text | | **Google Sheets** | Synced, read as CSV | | **Google Slides** | Synced, read as text | | **Volume cap** | 5,000 documents per connection | Google Forms, Drawings, Sites, and shortcuts are skipped — there's no text worth indexing. Other file types and oversized files are skipped too. Skipped files don't fail the sync; they're simply not indexed. > [!NOTE] > > Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides have no size limit, because Alex reads them through Drive's export rather than downloading the file. > [!TIP] > > Scanned PDFs with no text layer are still read: Alex falls back to optical character recognition when a PDF has no extractable text. ## Sync Behavior * Alex checks the connection **every 15 minutes**. There's no manual sync button. * The first run is a full crawl of the selected folders; later runs pick up only what changed. * Files deleted or moved out of a selected folder are removed from Alex. If a selected folder is unreachable during a run, Alex skips deletion processing that run rather than risk clearing your content. * Saving your selection makes the next run a full re-crawl. ## Unreachable Folders If a selected folder or shared drive can no longer be read, the panel warns that some selected locations are no longer reachable — they may have been deleted or un-shared. Common causes: the folder was deleted, it was un-shared from the connected account, or the account was removed from a shared drive. Re-share the folder with the connected account, or untick it in Alex and pick another. ## Pausing and Reconnecting * **Disable** pauses syncing and retrieval while preserving indexed content, so **Enable** takes effect immediately. * **Reconnect** re-runs authorization when the grant has been revoked in Google. > [!WARNING] > > Reconnection must use the **same Google account** the connection was created with. What a Drive grant can read depends entirely on the account, so a different one would sync different content. Alex refuses the mismatch and leaves your existing content untouched. To remove the connection and delete its synced content entirely, contact Alex support. ## Troubleshooting > **The authorized Google account can't see any Drive content** > > The account has an empty Drive, no shared drives, and nothing shared with it — or the Drive API is disabled for your Google Workspace. Confirm the account can open Drive in a browser and see files. > **Authorization was declined in Google** > > Consent was cancelled, or your Google Workspace admin restricts third-party app access. Ask your Workspace administrator to allow the Alex app, then click **Connect** again. > **Reconnection must use the same Google account** > > Alex pins the connection to the account it was created with. Sign in as that account. If the account no longer exists, the connection has to be set up fresh — contact Alex support. > **Some files in a selected folder never sync** > > Check the file type against the table above — Forms, Drawings, Sites, shortcuts, and unsupported types are skipped, as are uploaded files over 25 MB. Also check the freshness window. > **A folder shared with me isn't in the tree** > > Items shared directly with the account appear under **Shared with me** only if they're folders. A file shared on its own has no folder to select — move it into a shared folder, or upload it to a folder the account owns. This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.