Footage Buried in Google Drive? Give It a Searchable Home in Shade

Q: "What happens to Google Docs and Sheets mixed into the folders?"

"Nothing, if you filter the transfer to media formats — that's the recommended shape, since Workspace documents belong in Drive. If you do include them, Google-native files are exported to Office formats during the copy, but a media library migration rarely wants them."

Q: "Will Shade's AI indexing run on imported footage?"

"Yes. Files that arrive through the API are ordinary drive content; dialogue and visual indexing runs automatically, and team plans include unlimited indexing, so bulk imports don't hit a quota."

Q: "How much Shade storage does the team get?"

"500 GB of active storage per seat on the $20/seat team plan — a 6-seat team works with 3 TB. It's sized for the active library; older projects rotate to archive storage rather than accumulating in Shade."

Q: "Why does the Shade connection need a Drive ID?"

"Shade scopes everything — permissions, content, API access — to individual drives. CloudsLinker mirrors that: one connection per Drive ID, found in the drive's settings. Migrating into several drives just means adding each as its own connection."

Q: "Does Google limit how fast the library can leave Drive?"

"Reads are governed by API rate quotas rather than the well-known 750 GB/day cap (that applies to uploads into Drive). CloudsLinker paces requests and backs off automatically on rate-limit responses, so multi-hundred-GB exports complete unattended."

Q: "Is the folder structure preserved?"

"Yes — the Drive folder tree is recreated inside the Shade drive, so project organization survives the move intact."

Q: "Can we test with one project before committing?"

"Yes, and it's the sensible order: run one project folder through, let indexing finish, have an editor try dialogue search and the Premiere/Resolve panel, then queue the rest."

Q: "How is access secured on each side?"

"Google Drive uses OAuth with a revocable token managed from your Google account's security settings. Shade uses an API key from account settings — deleting it cuts access immediately, and the Drive ID scoping means a key only ever touches the drive you configured."

Move video libraries from Google Drive folders into Shade drives — dialogue search, editor panels and review tools. Docs stay; the media graduates.

Introduction

Shade treats a video library as something to query, not just store: type what was said or what's on screen, and the AI index finds the clip — no tags, no filename archaeology. Google Drive is where team footage usually accumulates, because it's already there for the Docs and Sheets; but Drive's search reads documents, not dailies, and reviewing a cut means downloading it or squinting at a preview. The clean split is to leave the documents where Workspace shines and move the media into a Shade drive ($20 per seat/month, 500 GB active storage per seat, unlimited AI indexing). Since Google-native files aren't involved, this migration is pure media — no format conversions, just bulk weight. Two methods below: manual, and a server-side copy with CloudsLinker.

Method 1: Download and Re-upload by Hand
Method 2: Copy Google Drive to Shade in the Cloud
Quick Comparison
Practical Tips
Frequently Asked Questions

What is Google Drive?

Google Drive is the storage layer of Google Workspace — excellent for Docs, Sheets and collaboration, with 15 GB free and Google One tiers to 2 TB ($9.99/mo). Video files sit in it as opaque blobs: storable, previewable, but not searchable by content.

15 GB free shared; 2 TB at $9.99/mo
Document-first search and collaboration
No dialogue/visual indexing for video
OAuth access for transfer tools

What is Shade?

Shade is media-first team storage: AI search across dialogue and visuals, review/approval workflows, full-resolution streaming, and panels inside Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve. $20 per seat/month with 500 GB active storage per seat.

Natural-language search over footage content
Unlimited drives and AI indexing
Up to 15 seats + 150 guest collaborators
API key + per-drive Drive ID access

Comparison: Google Drive vs Shade

Feature	Google Drive	Shade
Search on video	Filename only	Dialogue + visual content, plain English
Review workflow	Comments on files	Frame-accurate review and approval
Editor integration	None	Premiere Pro / Resolve panels, mountable drives
Pricing	2 TB — $9.99/mo (per account)	$20/seat/mo — 500 GB active per seat
Native document formats	Docs / Sheets / Slides	None — media-focused storage
Connection in CloudsLinker	Google OAuth	API key + Drive ID

Sources: Google: storage and upload limits, Google Drive API limits, Shade: official site, Capterra: Shade pricing.

Preparing to Transfer from Google Drive to Shade

Locate where the media actually lives — team footage tends to scatter across My Drive folders, shared drives and 'Shared with me' items, and only content in drives you control migrates cleanly (shortcut anything critical into your own tree first). Decide the drive layout in Shade (per client, per show) and note each target drive's Drive ID; generate an API key in account settings. Plan the filter up front: video and image formats move, Workspace documents stay. And check the seat arithmetic — 500 GB active per seat — so the working set fits without immediately needing an archive rotation.

Method 1: Download and Re-upload by Hand

Step 1: Download the media folders from drive.google.com

Select the footage folders at drive.google.com and choose Download. Drive zips the selection — video-heavy folders arrive as a series of multi-GB archives that need local disk space to extract.

Google Drive web interface listing project folders, illustrating the selection view used when downloading media folders

Step 2: Upload into the Shade drive

Open the target drive in Shade's web app and upload the extracted folders; indexing starts as files land. The office uplink is the constraint — at typical business upload speeds, each terabyte is roughly a day of saturated connection.

Method 2: Copy Google Drive to Shade in the Cloud

Media out of Drive, documents left in place

CloudsLinker reads Drive over OAuth with automatic back-off on Google's API rate limits, filters to the media formats you choose, and writes into the Shade drive by API key + Drive ID. The documents stay in Workspace; only the footage graduates — with no office bandwidth consumed.

Step 1: Connect Google Drive

Click Add Cloud → Google Drive and approve access on Google's consent page at accounts.google.com. The token is revocable from your Google account's third-party access settings.

Connecting Google Drive in CloudsLinker via the Google OAuth consent screen

Step 2: Connect Shade

In Shade, create an API key (account settings) and copy the target drive's Drive ID (drive settings). Then click Add Cloud → Shade in CloudsLinker, paste both, and confirm — the connection is scoped to that one drive.

CloudsLinker Add Cloud dialog for Shade with API Key and Drive ID input fields

Step 3: Configure the Transfer

Set Google Drive as the source, tick the footage folders, and set the Shade drive as the destination. Apply a format filter — .mp4, .mov, .mxf, images — so Docs, Sheets and project clutter stay in Drive where they belong.

CloudsLinker transfer configuration with Google Drive footage folders checked as source on the left and a Shade drive destination on the right, format filter set to video types

Step 4: Start and Monitor the Transfer

Start the job and follow the Task List. Rate-limit pauses on the Google side are handled automatically; by completion, earlier files are already searchable in Shade.

CloudsLinker task monitoring view with an active migration in progress

Comparing the Ways to Transfer From Google Drive to Shade

Method	Ease of Use	Speed	Best For	Uses Local Bandwidth	Skill Level
Manual download / upload	Medium	Slow (uplink-bound)	A single shoot's folder	Yes — twice	Basic
CloudsLinker	Easy	Fast (server-side)	Department-scale media libraries	No	Basic

Practical Tips for Moving Google Drive to Shade

Filter to media formats: the clean split is footage to Shade, documents in Workspace — a format filter enforces it automatically.
Chase down 'Shared with me': files others own aren't in your My Drive and won't transfer — add shortcuts or request copies first.
Pilot one project: move one folder, let indexing finish, have an editor test search and the NLE panel before queuing the archive.
Mind the active-storage budget: 500 GB per seat is for the working set — send finished projects to archive storage, not Shade.
Reclaim Drive quota afterwards: once verified, delete the migrated media and empty Drive's trash — deleted files count against quota for 30 days otherwise.
One connection per Shade drive: multi-drive layouts need one CloudsLinker connection per Drive ID — sequential migrations keep it tidy.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nothing, if you filter the transfer to media formats — that's the recommended shape, since Workspace documents belong in Drive. If you do include them, Google-native files are exported to Office formats during the copy, but a media library migration rarely wants them.

Yes. Files that arrive through the API are ordinary drive content; dialogue and visual indexing runs automatically, and team plans include unlimited indexing, so bulk imports don't hit a quota.

500 GB of active storage per seat on the $20/seat team plan — a 6-seat team works with 3 TB. It's sized for the active library; older projects rotate to archive storage rather than accumulating in Shade.

Shade scopes everything — permissions, content, API access — to individual drives. CloudsLinker mirrors that: one connection per Drive ID, found in the drive's settings. Migrating into several drives just means adding each as its own connection.

Reads are governed by API rate quotas rather than the well-known 750 GB/day cap (that applies to uploads into Drive). CloudsLinker paces requests and backs off automatically on rate-limit responses, so multi-hundred-GB exports complete unattended.

Yes — the Drive folder tree is recreated inside the Shade drive, so project organization survives the move intact.

Yes, and it's the sensible order: run one project folder through, let indexing finish, have an editor try dialogue search and the Premiere/Resolve panel, then queue the rest.

Google Drive uses OAuth with a revocable token managed from your Google account's security settings. Shade uses an API key from account settings — deleting it cuts access immediately, and the Drive ID scoping means a key only ever touches the drive you configured.

Conclusion

One shoot's folder can move by hand. A department's video history — hundreds of gigabytes scattered across Drive folders and shared links — is a server-side job: CloudsLinker reads Drive over OAuth, paces around Google's API quotas, and writes into the Shade drive while nobody's workstation is involved. Filter to media formats so the documents stay in Workspace, verify in Shade, then reclaim the Drive quota.

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