--- sourceDocument: Australia ServiceNow AI Platform Administration sourceDocumentLink: https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/r/platform-administration Release : - australia ft:locale : - en-US ft:publication_title : - Australia ServiceNow AI Platform Administration ft:clusterId : - platadm bundleId : - platadm workflow : - Platform --- # Google Drive external content connector # Google Drive external content connector {#ariaid-title1} Release version: Australia Updated August 26, 2026 ![](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ico-clock) 2 minutes to read Summarize ![AI sparkle icon](https://servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ai-sparkle-icon) Summarized using AI This content was generated using new OpenAI-powered functionality. Results are provided on an as is basis and are not guaranteed to be accurate or complete. ## Summary of Google Drive external content connector The Google Drive external content connector enables ServiceNow customers to retrieve files and attachments from eligible shared drives within their Google Drive environment. It makes the content and metadata searchable within AI Search applications by indexing this data. Administrators can perform or schedule content crawls to update indexed content and access permissions, as well as user permission crawls to refresh security principal information. The indexed records are stored in a connector-specific source that can be linked to AI Search profiles to enable search functionality. Show full answer Show less ## Drive Eligibility Only shared drives accessible by at least one Directory user with the Manager role (or a group member with that role) are eligible for crawling. This ensures appropriate access controls and compliance with Google Drive permissions. ## Delta Content Crawls The connector supports delta content crawls, which incrementally retrieve and index only new, changed, or deleted items between full content crawls. This approach significantly reduces crawl times and allows for more frequent refreshing of searchable content. However, delta crawls have limitations: * They cannot detect membership changes in shared drives, so access permissions may be temporarily out of sync until the next full crawl. * If Manager role members are removed from shared drives, delta crawls may miss changes, requiring a full crawl to resynchronize. Delta content crawls supplement but do not replace full content crawls. ## Configuration and Setup To set up the connector, customers must enable the Google Drive and Admin SDK APIs and create a Google Cloud service account. This account grants the connector permission to crawl eligible shared drives and security principals. Administrators then create a Google Drive external content connector within ServiceNow and configure crawl settings, including specifying which shared drives to crawl and setting inclusion or exclusion filters to control the content retrieved and indexed. Additionally, a label filter can be configured to restrict crawling to content tagged with specified labels, improving precision in searchable content. ## Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers * Integrate Google Drive content securely and efficiently into AI Search applications, enhancing enterprise knowledge discovery. * Maintain up-to-date search indexes with scheduled full and delta crawls, balancing thoroughness and crawl performance. * Control and filter content scope through drive selection and label filters, tailoring search results to organizational needs. The Google Drive external content connector retrieves files and attachments from eligible shared drives in your Google Drive source system and makes their content and metadata searchable in AI Search applications. Connector administrators can run or schedule content crawls to retrieve updated content and access permissions from your source system, or user permission crawls to retrieve updated security principals from your source system. Both types of crawl feed their data to AI Search for indexing. The indexed content and metadata are stored as records in a connector-specific indexed source. Search administrators can create search sources from this indexed source and link them to search profiles to make the indexed records searchable in AI Search applications. ## Drive eligibility {#google-drive-external-content-connector__section_w4h_1gg_bhc} To be eligible for crawling, a shared drive must be accessible by at least one member who is a user in the Directory and who has the Manager role (or is a member of a group with the Manager role). To learn more about the Directory, see . For details on the Manager role, see . ## Delta content crawls {#google-drive-external-content-connector__section_zmn_5jx_gkc} The Google Drive external content connector supports the ability to run delta content crawls in between full content crawls. Unlike full content crawls, delta content crawls only examine, retrieve, and index newly added, changed, or deleted items from your shared drives. By ignoring unchanged items, delta content crawling can significantly reduce the time taken to crawl content from the source system. This means you can refresh your searchable content more often by running delta content crawls between your scheduled full or partial content crawls. To learn more about delta content crawls, see [Delta content crawls for external content connectors](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/KWmskCNac4pCU2wdT4x4wQ "Delta content crawls improve content crawl performance by only retrieving newly added, changed, or deleted items from an external content connector's source system."). For details on the activation procedure for delta content crawls, see [Activate delta content crawling for an external content connector](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/2fr30gzmG1LtWZKGTUQfKw "Reduce content crawl time for your external content connector by enabling delta content crawls, which ignore unchanged content items from your source system."). Note: Delta content crawls don't replace full content crawls. They're supplemental crawls that enable you to refresh searchable content more frequently in between full content crawls. Delta content crawls for the Google Drive external content connector have the following limitations. * Delta content crawls can't detect membership changes for Google Drive shared drives. As a result, user access permissions to files and attachments from your shared drives may be out of sync until the connector completes its next full content crawl. * If members with the Manager role are removed from shared drives, future delta content crawls may not retrieve changed items from those drives. As a result, searchable content may be out of sync with the source system until the connector completes its next full content crawl. {#google-drive-external-content-connector__ul_jr5_fkx_gkc} * **[Configure Google Drive for external content indexing](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/Xu4m6bJOY29bZ_3ok7cM1A)** Enable the Google Drive and Admin SDK APIs and create a Google Cloud service account to allow the Google Drive external content connector to crawl eligible shared drives and security principals in your Google Drive source system. * **[Create a Google Drive external content connector](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/PserdR1YofqGD~L6NoepCw)** Create an external content connector to retrieve searchable content and security principals from your Google Drive source system. * **[Configure crawl settings for a Google Drive external content connector](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/T0TdV0mmVLLTRr_pl2d0dg)** Specify the shared drives you want your Google Drive external content connector to crawl. Define inclusion or exclusion filters to dictate the types of content the crawl retrieves and feeds to AI Search for indexing. * **[Filter content by label for a Google Drive external content connector](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/Y4RfWqgxOe0TX88rmyI2Kw)** Configure a label filter for your Google Drive external content connector. The connector only retrieves content that has one or more of your specified label values applied. **Related tasks** * [Create a content crawl for an external content connector](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/fFJ92ZYif96fkc2JA4HtyQ "Retrieve searchable content and metadata from your source system with a content crawl. Run the crawl as a one-time task or schedule it to run on a recurring basis.") * [Create a user permission crawl for an external content connector](https://servicenow-prod.fluidtopics.net/mgt5mVce9bh_zJPIF3Xy5A "Retrieve security principals from your source system with a user permission crawl. Run the crawl as a one-time task or schedule it to run on a recurring basis.")