If you want to see even more files yet, on the web, you can click the gear-shaped icon in Drive’s upper-right corner and select “Settings” — then change the option for “Density” from “Comfortable” to “Compact.” That’ll eliminate a bunch of the white space built into Drive by default and let you see much more info at a time on whatever size screen you’re using.
Google Drive problem #8: The buried file blues
We all have those perpetually important files — documents, images, and other resource-like items we pull up all the time. And always having to search for said VIP files to find ’em isn’t exactly fun or productive.
Drive doesn’t have any way to pin files to the top of a list, but it does have some helpful tools for treating certain items as high priority and making ’em especially easy to find and access. First, you can star any file (or even an entire folder) by hovering your mouse over its line and clicking the star outline that appears along its rightmost edge, on the Drive website — or by using the Ctrl-Alt-S (or Cmd-Alt-S, on a Mac) keyboard shortcut. In the Drive mobile app, you’ll tap the three-dot menu icon alongside the item and then select the “Add to starred” option in the menu that pops up.
However you go about doing it, that action will cause the item in question to appear in a special starred section that you can then get to by clicking the “Starred” option in the main left-of-screen menu or by bookmarking this direct link for the desktop — or by tapping the “Starred” tab within the main bottom-of-screen menu in the Drive mobile app.
You can also create your own custom shortcuts for files or folders so that they effectively appear in multiple places — if, say, you have an important item that’s buried a few folders deep in your Drive and want it to be more easily accessible. By creating a shortcut for it, you could make it available from the main “My Drive” list while technically still leaving it in its properly organized home. Just right-click on any file or folder and select “Organize” and then “Add shortcut” to get started with that from a computer — or use the Ctrl-Alt-R (or Cmd-Alt-R, on a Mac) keyboard shortcut. You can tap that three-dot menu icon next to any item to find the same option on mobile.
If you’re using Android, you can also add a direct shortcut to any file or folder right onto your phone’s home screen for one-touch access without even having to open the app. Tap the three-dot menu icon alongside the item you want, then scroll down and look for the “Add to Home screen” option to give it a whirl.
Whew — that pesky ol’ cloud is sure starting to feel a heck of lot lighter, isn’t it?
This article was originally published in December 2020 and most recently updated in August 2025.
