Importing Documents from Google Drive

SecureAI's Google Drive integration lets administrators connect their organization's Google Drive so that documents, spreadsheets, and PDFs stored in Drive are automatically indexed and available in conversations. This article walks through the full setup process — from OAuth authentication to selective folder sync — and covers how users interact with imported Drive content.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, confirm the following:

• You have administrator access to the SecureAI admin panel.
• Your organization uses Google Workspace (formerly G Suite). Personal Gmail accounts are not supported.
• You know which Google Drive folders contain the documents you want to import (e.g., parts catalogs, spec sheets, SOPs).
• The Google Workspace account you'll use for authentication has read access to those folders.

Step 1: Connect Google Drive via OAuth

SecureAI uses OAuth 2.0 to authenticate with Google Drive. This means you sign in with your Google account and grant SecureAI permission to read files — no API keys or service accounts are required.

1. In the SecureAI admin panel, go to Settings > Integrations > Google Drive.
2. Click Connect Google Drive.
3. A Google sign-in window appears. Sign in with your Google Workspace account.
4. Review the permissions SecureAI is requesting:
   • View files and folders in your Google Drive (read-only)
   • View metadata for files and folders
5. Click Allow to grant access.
6. You are redirected back to the SecureAI admin panel. A green confirmation banner confirms the connection is active.

SecureAI requests read-only access. It cannot create, edit, move, or delete files in your Google Drive.

Choosing the Right Account

Use a shared service account or a team admin account rather than a personal account. The connected account determines which files SecureAI can see — it can only index files that account has access to. If you connect with your personal account and later leave the organization, the integration will break.

Revoking Access

To disconnect Google Drive, return to Settings > Integrations > Google Drive and click Disconnect. You can also revoke access from your Google Account at myaccount.google.com/permissions.

Step 2: Select Folders to Sync

After connecting, you choose which Drive folders SecureAI should index. This is selective sync — SecureAI does not index your entire Drive by default.

1. On the Google Drive integration page, click Select Folders.
2. A folder browser appears showing your Drive structure, including Shared Drives.
3. Check the folders you want to import. You can select:
   • My Drive folders owned by the connected account
   • Shared Drive folders your organization has set up
   • Shared with me folders that others have shared with the connected account
4. Click Save Selection.

Best Practices for Folder Selection

• Start small. Select one or two folders first, verify the import works correctly, then add more.
• Organize by topic. If your Drive has a Parts Catalogs folder and a Technical Bulletins folder, select those specifically rather than a parent folder containing unrelated files.
• Avoid personal folders. Only index folders containing content that should be accessible to all SecureAI users. Drive permissions do not carry over — once indexed, all SecureAI users can access the content.
• Use Shared Drives for team content. Shared Drives are not tied to individual accounts, making them more resilient to account changes.

Step 3: Configure File Types and Indexing

SecureAI can index the following file types from Google Drive:

File Size Limits

• Files under 50 MB are fully indexed.
• Files between 50 MB and 100 MB are partially indexed (first 50 MB of content).
• Files over 100 MB are skipped. Consider splitting large files before importing.

Setting the Re-Index Interval

SecureAI periodically checks your selected folders for new, updated, or deleted files.

1. On the Google Drive integration page, find the Re-index Interval setting.
2. Choose an interval:
   • Every 15 minutes — Best for folders with frequently changing documents.
   • Every hour (default) — Good balance for most teams.
   • Every 6 hours — Suitable for stable document libraries that rarely change.
   • Daily — For archived content that changes infrequently.
3. Click Save.

You can also trigger a manual re-index at any time by clicking Re-index Now.

Step 4: Verify the Import

After saving your folder selection and indexing settings:

1. Click Re-index Now to trigger the first sync.
2. The integration page shows a progress indicator: files discovered, files indexed, files skipped.
3. Once indexing completes, go to Admin Panel > Knowledge Bases to confirm the imported documents appear.
4. Open a conversation and ask a question that references content from one of your Drive documents. For example: "What does the 2026 Dorman catalog say about part number 523-1234?"

If the AI references your Drive content in its response, the import is working correctly.

Troubleshooting Import Issues

How Users Interact with Drive Documents

Once documents are imported, they behave like any other knowledge base content in SecureAI. Users do not need to know whether content came from Google Drive, a direct upload, or another integration.

Users can:

• Ask questions that reference Drive content. SecureAI searches indexed Drive documents alongside other knowledge bases.
• See source citations. When SecureAI uses Drive content in a response, it cites the source document name so users can verify.
• Search across all sources. Drive documents are included in knowledge base search results.

Users cannot:

• Access the original Drive files through SecureAI. SecureAI indexes content but does not provide a link back to the original file.
• Modify Drive files through SecureAI. The integration is read-only.
• See files from Drive folders that were not selected for sync.

Managing the Integration Over Time

Adding or Removing Folders

Return to Settings > Integrations > Google Drive > Select Folders at any time to add or remove folders from the sync. Removed folders are de-indexed within one re-index cycle — their content will no longer appear in conversations.

Monitoring Sync Status

The Google Drive integration page shows:

• Last sync time — When the most recent re-index completed.
• Files indexed — Total number of files currently indexed from Drive.
• Errors — Any files that failed to index, with reasons.
• Storage used — How much of your knowledge base storage is consumed by Drive content.

Switching the Connected Account

If you need to switch the Google account used for the integration:

1. Click Disconnect on the integration page.
2. Click Connect Google Drive and sign in with the new account.
3. Re-select the folders to sync (folder selections are not preserved across account changes).

Data Retention

Imported Drive documents follow the same retention policies as other SecureAI content. If you have configured data retention policies (see Configuring Data Retention Policies), they apply to Drive-imported content as well.

Deleting a file from Google Drive does not immediately remove it from SecureAI. The file is de-indexed on the next re-index cycle based on your configured interval.

Security Considerations

• OAuth 2.0 authentication — No passwords or API keys are stored. SecureAI holds an OAuth refresh token that can be revoked at any time.
• Read-only access — SecureAI cannot modify, delete, or create files in your Drive.
• Credential encryption — The OAuth token is encrypted at rest within SecureAI's credential store.
• Audit logging — All sync events (files indexed, files removed, authentication changes) are recorded in the SecureAI audit log.
• Access scope — Only files in the selected folders are indexed. Changing folder selections immediately restricts the scope.

Related Articles

• Integration Overview: What Connects to SecureAI — summary of all available integrations
• Can SecureAI connect to Slack, Microsoft 365, or Google Drive? — quick FAQ on integration availability
• How to Create and Manage Knowledge Bases — managing knowledge bases that Drive documents feed into
• Knowledge Base Design Best Practices — organizing content for effective AI retrieval
• Configuring Data Retention Policies — retention settings that apply to imported content