Thoughts Brewing Blog

How to upload a file into Google Drive (desktop)

Written by Damien Griffin | Mar 8, 2025 1:15:00 PM

Quick Checklist

  • Open Google Drive
  • Login (if necessary)
  • Navigate to where you want the file to go (i.e. My Drive, Share Drive, etc.)
  • Click +New
  • Click File upload
    • (New window opens)
  • Select the file from your computer
  • Click Open
  • Verify filename and location


Detailed Steps

Open Google Drive

There are multiple ways to get there.  Here are the most common

  • Go to https://drive.google.com
  • If you are already in a Google application like Gmail, click on the Google apps icon (nine dots in the upper right corner) and select Google Drive

Login (if necessary)

If you are already logged in to a Google application, you can skip this step.


If not, when you go to https://drive.google.com it will take you to Google’s login screen

Log in with the account that you want to use.


Navigate to where you want the file to go

Once you are in Drive, you will need to decide where you want to put the file and go there.

Usually, this is in My Drive or a Shared Drive.

Note - If you want this file to be inside of a folder, make sure you go into that folder before moving to the next step



Click +New

On the left side of the screen, under the Google Drive logo, there is a +New.  Click on it to open the menu of things that you can create.


Click File upload

This will open a File Upload window


Select the file that you want to upload and click Open


Verify file name and location

Clicking Open will upload the file in the location that you are currently in.  It will be highlighted.  Take a second to verify that the name is what you want and that it is where you want it to be.



Notes

  • The default location for an uploaded file is My Drive.  If you are in a location where you cannot upload a file (i.e., Home, Recent, Trash, etc.), it will put the uploaded file in My Drive.
  • Once you are in the location where you want the file, you can use the shortcut Alt + C, then U to bring up the file upload window, select the file, and upload the file.