How To Add a File to Multiple Google Drive Folders

Posted by Arch on April 16, 2019
how to add a file to multiple google drive folders

Google Drive went through a lot of updates in recent years. This can leave its users confused because some of the commands change or disappear, which is exactly what happened with moving files.

Previously, you could add a file to multiple folders while holding the ‘Ctrl’ key, but now, this is not possible. This feature didn’t disappear, but the process is slightly different.

Adding a file to multiple Google Drive folders is simple. There are a few different methods that you can use and we’ll explain them all in this article.

Use the ‘Shift + Z’ Hotkey

If you have a functioning keyboard the ‘Shift + Z’ way is the easiest to place a file into different folders. Here is how to do it:

  1. Go to your Google Drive.
  2. Find a file that you want to move.
  3. Hold the ‘Shift’ and ‘Z’ buttons at the same time.
  4. A new window will appear with a list of all possible destinations.
    add a file to multiple google drive folders
  5. Choose ‘My Drive’.
  6. Select a folder where you want to move the file.
  7. Click ‘Add’ and the file will be moved to the folder you chose.

how to add a file to google drive folders

Once you do this, you will notice that the file didn’t completely move. Instead, a new copy was created and saved in the designated folder.

Now you have two copies of your file – one in your Google Drive menu, and one in the destination folder. You can repeat this process for each folder where you want to move your file to. This way, you will have a copy of the same file in all the chosen folders.

To check the location of all the copies of the file, do the following:

  • Click on the file.
  • A menu with the details of the file will open to the right. Check the ‘Location’ section to see all the folders that contain that file.
    add a file to google drive folders
  • You can click on an ‘X’ next to a folder to remove it from that folder.

Be careful, though. If you just delete a file the usual way, you will automatically delete all the copies from all the folders. Always use the ‘X’ method to get rid of unnecessary copies of your files.

This way, you can always keep a tab on all the copies you have and make sure that they don’t slip to some folders that they are not meant to be in.

Drag-and-Drop Method

If you don’t want to use the hotkey, you can also move files via the drag-and-drop method. You can achieve this by holding the ‘Ctrl’ button. If you’ve done this before, the method didn’t change. If you haven’t, here is a step-by-step guide:

  1. Open your Google Drive.
  2. Make sure that you can see both Folders and Files in the Menu.
  3. Choose the file that you want to add to multiple folders.
  4. Hold the ‘Ctrl’ button and drag a file from the menu to the chosen folder.
  5. This should create an additional copy of the file in the destination folder.

You can check the status of the file the same way as in the previous method by looking at the Details.

Using ‘Make a Copy’

Both methods explained above create temporary copies. If you delete one, you’ll delete all of them unless you use the ‘X’ method to remove a specific copy of the file.

If you want to make a permanent copy of a file, you can use the ‘Make a Copy’ option. This way, even if you move this copy to another folder and then erase the other, it will remain intact. Here is how you can do it:

  1. Go to your Google Drive.
  2. Choose a file.
  3. Right click on it.
  4. Click ‘Make a Copy’. This will create a copy of the same file called ‘Copy of [File Name].

how to add a file to google folders

You can move this copy to any folder by clicking on it and dragging it to the desired folder. Alternatively, you can right-click on the file and choose the ‘Move to…’ option. It has an icon of the folder and an arrow pointing to the right. With this, you can add multiple permanent copies of a file to different folders.

The positive side is that these files are independent of one another and you don’t have to worry about losing all copies if you erase just one. On the negative side, they take a lot of space and you can’t track them as easily as you can track files from the previous two methods.

Pay attention to the size of the file that you would like to copy, because large files may take up a lot of additional storage space.

Move Wisely

Be careful what files you move and to which folders. If you accidentally move a private file to a public folder, you risk other people seeing it, sharing it, and downloading it. Always track the location of each file that you move around to make sure everything is in the right place.


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