Skip to main content

How to save an attachment from Gmail straight to Google Drive

how to change your gmail account password version 1413698423
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Recently, Google rolled out an update that allows Gmail users to save attachments from their emails directly to Google Drive, Google’s cloud storage service. Prior to the update, people who wanted to upload stuff to their Google Drive account from their Gmail inbox had to first download the attachments, save them to their machines, and then upload them to Google Drive manually. Not anymore.

So how do you pull this off? It’s pretty simple. Well show you how. 

How to save an attachment straight to Google Drive

First, open an email in your Gmail account that contains an attachment. From there, put your mouse pointer directly over the preview image of the attachment you want to save to Google Drive, which should be located towards the end of the email near where you’d type up a reply. By putting your mouse pointer over the preview image, Gmail gives you two options to choose from, in the form of buttons.

By clicking on the button on the left, you’ll simply download the attachment to your computer. However, the button on the right, whose icon sort of resembles the universal symbol for recycling,  is the button that’ll allow you to save that attachment directly to Google Drive.  Click on it, and it’ll do just that.

Depending on the size of the file, that attachment will soon be saved to your Google Drive account. To find it, just open your Google Drive account and search for the attachment by using the search box at the top of the screen. You can also find it manually, though we don’t recommend that you do so if your Google Drive account has tons of files in it.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Konrad Krawczyk
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Konrad covers desktops, laptops, tablets, sports tech and subjects in between for Digital Trends. Prior to joining DT, he…
How to download a video from Facebook
An elderly person holding a phone.

Facebook is a great place for sharing photos, videos, and other media with friends and family. But what if you’d like to download a video to store offline? This means you’d be able to watch the clip on your PC or mobile device, without needing to be connected to the internet. Fortunately, there’s a way to download Facebook videos to your everyday gadgets, although it’s not as straightforward a process as it could be.

Read more
How to choose an external hard drive
Samsung T5 SSD review

When it comes to learning how to choose an external hard drive, you need to consider what you want to do with the drive, how fast you need to be able to access the data on it, and how much you have to store on it. There are external hard drives with plenty of physical protection against the elements, external SSDs that give you super-fast data transfer, and huge external hard drives that are better for long-term backups. The best external drives often tick most of those boxes.

If it's not obvious what kind of external hard drive you need, or you need something that can do a little of everything, here are some more in-depth tips on how to choose an external drive.

Read more
How to get Android apps on a Chromebook
Dell Chromebook 3189 2-in-1 on a classroom desk floating in the air.

Over the last few years, Android apps have been added to more and more Chromebook models. A brilliant expansion of the overall user experience, Google went ahead and integrated the Play Store into most Chromebooks made after 2019. This is the most convenient way to download an Android app or two, but if you own an older Chromebook, the machine may not have native support for downloading and installing applets.

To confirm this, we recommend referencing this extensive Android app support list from The Chromium Projects.

Read more