Unable to Index Google Drive as External Volume

Google Support told me, that this issue is fixed with the Google Drive Version 55.0

Currently its in global rollout but I was currently unable to update/download the 55.0 version.

Can someone verify if this update is resolving the spotlight/finder search issue with Monterey?

Because in the release notes of 55.0 I found nothing that indicates this.

I suggest more investigation on what google calls "File Provider feature" in this page https://support.google.com/a/answer/7577057?hl=en

"Starting with version 58, Drive for desktop will be rolling out a change that impacts macOS users over the next few releases. This update adds support for File Provider, a feature introduced by Apple in macOS 12.3 which provides native support for accessing cloud-based file systems like Google Drive"

This is my experience. Suddenly without any noticeable other change, the search via spotlight started working again, even for content that is only streamed

You will get lots of seemingly obscure errors if it cannot write to the .Spotlight-V100 folder on the drive you are indexing.

It seems that it can’t even create the folder on Monterey.

I was able to change spotlight to Alfred and I have to admit that Alfred is better option. Just try it. But you have to buy license to work with google drive....

Cheers!

Unfortunately I couldn't find the .Spotlight-V100 folder in the google drive. Attached are the folders inside the google drive volume.

That's probably why it doesn't index. It can't make the folder it needs to write the index into.

I have no idea why it can't.

Is that folder really a mount point? Or, did they just create a folder inside /Volumes hoping the OS would think it is an external drive? Can you eject it? If you Go > Computer does it show up and does it have an eject symbol next to it?

A few more points of clarification:

1. Worked perfectly with Catalina;
2. Still works with Catalina--a colleague who didn't update his OS has confirmed--so it was a change in MacOS, not in Google Drive, that caused the problem (colleague is running the same version of Google Drive as me);
3. Alfred doesn't solve the problem entirely for me, because I use the Spotlight search feature built into the standard application File-->Save as and File-->Open dialogs to quickly go to a nested folder on Google Drive without having to drill down multiple layers when saving or opening a file;
4. But, Alfred is able to index and search Google Drive, which means Apple should be able to fix whatever they broke as well (and if they can't figure it out, I bet the Alfred folks would be happy to share their expertise for the right price 😉).

Found this... but have NOT found the version to download yet. This was posted a couple of days ago in google drive help.

https://support.google.com/drive/thread/148545238/google-drive-for-startup-mac-os-version-55-0?hl=en

Google Drive for Startup - Mac OS - Version 55.0

Google Release Notes states that Google Drive for Desktop version 55.0 was released on 01/27/2022. The 55.0 version allegedly fixes the searching problem.

I have tried to update to Version 55.0 (reinstalled Google Drive a few times). However, I keep getting version 54.0.3.0. 

Has the 55.0 version already been released for MacOS? Any MacOS user could download the 55.0 version? 

How can I do that?

Thank you!

I see the following Change log for Google Drive but can't seem to update to this version:

January 27, 2022 - Bug fix release

Windows and macOS: Version 55.0

• Windows and macOS: Users can now search all their Drive content from the Drive for desktop UI
• macOS: Resolved an issue when connecting a camera.
• Resolved an issue where a USB device can block Drive from loading. 
• Additional bug fixes and performance improvements.

Note: Drive for desktop native search requires version 50 or above.

Ending support for older versions: Support has ended for versions of Drive released more than 12 months ago. Users with Drive for desktop versions 40 through 46 must upgrade to remain supported.

I'm having the same problem. Let's all leave a feedback on Google Drive application reporting this problem. I just did it.

Do you have the preferences set for mirroring files or streaming files? I have it set for streaming files and this did not work for me.

Alfred still working for me (though of course not from finder)

But this worked without issue with Big Sur. Only in Monterey is it a problem. I have been opened tickets with Mac and with Google and they are basically pointing fingers at each other.

Perhaps this might be helpful to someone smarter than me. Running Monterey, I ran the following command with the following result:

Command:

sudo mdutil -i on /Volumes/GoogleDrive

Result:

/System/Volumes/Data/Volumes/GoogleDrive:

Indexing and searching disabled.