---
title: Google Drive source configuration leading practices
slug: o8ra8064
canonical_url: https://docs.coveo.com/en/o8ra8064/
collection: index-content
source_format: adoc
---
# Google Drive source configuration leading practices
Google Drives can contain large volumes of content, making it essential to index only the items relevant to your [search interface](https://docs.coveo.com/en/2741/) users.
By excluding unnecessary content from [indexing](https://docs.coveo.com/en/204/), you reduce the indexing time and improve search relevance.

This article presents Google Drive [source](https://docs.coveo.com/en/246/) scoping features and indexing strategies that can significantly improve indexing performance.

## Index only required user drives

In the source configuration [**Content to index**](https://docs.coveo.com/en/1531#content-to-index-subtab) subtab, under **Select users to index**, select **Specific users** and enter the emails of the users whose drives you want to index.

Alternatively, you can select **All users** and exclude specific users' drives by adding [URL exclusions](https://docs.coveo.com/en/1531#exclusions-and-inclusions).

**Example**

Suppose you want to index all users' drives except for those belonging to `bfranklin@abc.com` and `jwhite@abc.com`.

. On the [**Sources**](https://platform.cloud.coveo.com/admin/#/orgid/content/sources/) ([platform-ca](https://platform-ca.cloud.coveo.com/admin/#/orgid/content/sources/) | [platform-eu](https://platform-eu.cloud.coveo.com/admin/#/orgid/content/sources/) | [platform-au](https://platform-au.cloud.coveo.com/admin/#/orgid/content/sources/)) page, click your Google Drive source, then click **Edit** in the Action bar.

. On the **Configuration** tab, select the **Content to index** subtab.

. In the **Exclusions** section, click **Add rule**.

. In the new rule dropdown menu, select **contains**.

. In the text box next to the dropdown menu, enter the following:

```text
User:bfranklin@abc.com
```

. Click **Add rule**.
Repeat the previous steps to add a **contains** exclusion rule for the following text:

```text
User:jwhite@abc.com
```

. In the **Inclusions** section, ensure **Include all non-excluded items** is selected.
This inclusion rule ensures that all remaining users' drives are indexed.

. Click **Save and rebuild source**.

## Index only specific shared drives

By default, the Google Drive source only indexes the specified users' _My Drive_ content.
However, you can configure the source to index content from the users' _Shared drives_ as well, or only from the _Shared drives_.

To index only shared drives content:

. On the [**Sources**](https://platform.cloud.coveo.com/admin/#/orgid/content/sources/) ([platform-ca](https://platform-ca.cloud.coveo.com/admin/#/orgid/content/sources/) | [platform-eu](https://platform-eu.cloud.coveo.com/admin/#/orgid/content/sources/) | [platform-au](https://platform-au.cloud.coveo.com/admin/#/orgid/content/sources/)) page, click your **Google Drive** source, and then click **Edit** in the Action bar.

. On the **Configuration** tab, select the [**Content to index**](https://docs.coveo.com/en/1531#content-to-index-subtab) subtab.

. Under **Select users to index**, choose **Specific users** and enter the emails of the users whose shared drives you want to index.

> **Note**
>
> The source indexes a shared drive only if the specified user is set as the manager of that shared drive.

. Under **Select the type of drives to index**, check only the **Index shared drives** box.

. Click **Save and rebuild source**.

For maximum control over indexed content and source ease of management, consider creating a dedicated user account and [indexing the handpicked drives you share with this account](https://docs.coveo.com/en/nceg8428/).

## Index only items modified within a rolling period

By default, the Google Drive source indexes all items, regardless of when they were last modified.
You can configure the source to index only items modified within a rolling period.

. On the [**Sources**](https://platform.cloud.coveo.com/admin/#/orgid/content/sources/) ([platform-ca](https://platform-ca.cloud.coveo.com/admin/#/orgid/content/sources/) | [platform-eu](https://platform-eu.cloud.coveo.com/admin/#/orgid/content/sources/) | [platform-au](https://platform-au.cloud.coveo.com/admin/#/orgid/content/sources/)) page, click your Google Drive source, and then click **Edit** in the Action bar.

. In the [**Content to index**](https://docs.coveo.com/en/1531#content-to-index-subtab) subtab, in the [**Additional exclusions**](https://docs.coveo.com/en/1531#additional-exclusions) section, use the two controls in the **Exclude older content** section to specify the number of units and the time period respectively.

. Click **Save and rebuild source**.

## Exclude MIME types

The Google Drive source lets you specify [Google Drive supported MIME types](https://developers.google.com/drive/api/guides/mime-types) that you want to exclude from indexing.

. On the [**Sources**](https://platform.cloud.coveo.com/admin/#/orgid/content/sources/) ([platform-ca](https://platform-ca.cloud.coveo.com/admin/#/orgid/content/sources/) | [platform-eu](https://platform-eu.cloud.coveo.com/admin/#/orgid/content/sources/) | [platform-au](https://platform-au.cloud.coveo.com/admin/#/orgid/content/sources/)) page, click your Google Drive source, and then click **Edit** in the Action bar.

. In the [**Content to index**](https://docs.coveo.com/en/1531#content-to-index-subtab) subtab, in the [**Additional exclusions**](https://docs.coveo.com/en/1531#additional-exclusions) section, use the **Exclude MIME types** dropdown menu to select all types you want to exclude.
You can also add your own MIME types to the exclusion list.

. Click **Save and rebuild source**.

## Split your source and parallelize updates

Google [limits Drive API calls per minute](https://developers.google.com/drive/api/guides/limits), but it's a generous limit.
There's no per-day limit.

You can take advantage of the generous per-minute limit by splitting your Google Drive source into smaller ones and scheduling their updates to run in parallel.

> **Note**
>
> The Google Drive source supports [refresh](https://docs.coveo.com/en/2710/) and [rescan](https://docs.coveo.com/en/2711/) scheduled source updates.
> You should understand the [differences between both source update types](https://docs.coveo.com/en/2705#schedule-and-trigger-incremental-source-updates) and [set scheduled update frequencies](https://docs.coveo.com/en/2705#determine-incremental-source-update-frequency) that make sense in your context.

One way to split your source is by using [URL inclusions](https://docs.coveo.com/en/1531#exclusions-and-inclusions) to organize user drives into alphabetical groups.

**Example**

You have a Google Drive source that indexes content from [**All users**](https://docs.coveo.com/en/1531#content).
Now, you want to split this source into multiple sources.

Suppose you want the first source to index _My Drive_ content from users whose email addresses start with letters _a-d_. The second source would then cover users with email addresses starting from _e-h_, and so on.

. On the [**Sources**](https://platform.cloud.coveo.com/admin/#/orgid/content/sources/) ([platform-ca](https://platform-ca.cloud.coveo.com/admin/#/orgid/content/sources/) | [platform-eu](https://platform-eu.cloud.coveo.com/admin/#/orgid/content/sources/) | [platform-au](https://platform-au.cloud.coveo.com/admin/#/orgid/content/sources/)) page, click your Google Drive source, and then click **More** > **Duplicate**.

. In the **Duplicate a source** panel, enter a name (that contains "_a-d_") for your new source.
Then, click **Duplicate source**.

. Return to the [**Sources**](https://platform.cloud.coveo.com/admin/#/orgid/content/sources/) ([platform-ca](https://platform-ca.cloud.coveo.com/admin/#/orgid/content/sources/) | [platform-eu](https://platform-eu.cloud.coveo.com/admin/#/orgid/content/sources/) | [platform-au](https://platform-au.cloud.coveo.com/admin/#/orgid/content/sources/)) page, click your new Google Drive source, and then click **Edit** in the Action bar.

. On the **Configuration** tab, select the **Content to index** subtab.

. In the **Exclusions** section, ensure you have no rules configured.

. In the **Inclusions** section, click **Include non-excluded items that match at least one rule**.

. Click **Add rule**.

. Under **Include an item if its URL**, in the dropdown menu, select **matches regex rule**.

. In the text box next to the dropdown menu, enter the following:

```text
.*/Root:GoogleDrive($|/User:[a-d]).*
```

. Click **Save**.

. Repeat the previous steps for the remaining groups of users.
For example, in your next source, you would use `+.**/Root:GoogleDrive($|/User:[e-h]).**+` for your **matches regex rule**.

. At the end of the process, delete the original source.

## A word on indexing pipeline extensions

[indexing pipeline extensions (IPEs)](https://docs.coveo.com/en/206/) offer a powerful way to customize the indexing process.
However, whereas your [Google Drive source configurations](https://docs.coveo.com/en/1531#configuration-tab) are applied in the [crawling stage](https://docs.coveo.com/en/1893/) of the Coveo indexing pipeline, indexing pipeline extensions are applied in the [document processing manager (DPM)](https://docs.coveo.com/en/191/).

Using an IPE to [reject items](https://docs.coveo.com/en/58/) doesn't reduce the number of items crawled and, therefore, only adds to the total time required before source items are indexed.

Use IPEs only as a last resort, when native filtering within the Google Drive source isn't possible.