18

After searching, the closest information I've found is this question. However, that answer covers just creating a Google Drive file, period. I would like to find out how to make that file get created in a specific folder.

Is this possible?

4 Answers 4

7

I watched what happens when Google Docs creates a new document in a folder. The browser briefly goes to a create url. To make the url, you need to know your folder's id. If you navigate to the folder in a browser, its id is at the end of the url:

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/[string_of_characters_is_the_folder_id]

Copy the id, open a new browser tab, and paste the id onto the end of the create url, like so:

https://docs.google.com/document/create?usp=drive_web&folder=[string_of_characters_is_the_folder_id]

Press Enter, and the browser will go to your new document created in the folder identified in the url.

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9

I was able to accomplish this by:

  1. getting the URL of the destination folder https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/[Folder ID]

  2. taking the file's url

  3. replacing /edit with /copy

  4. adding the copyDestination param to the end

Original URL:

https://docs.google.com/[specific file URL]/edit

Final result would look like this:

https://docs.google.com/[specific file URL]/copy?copyDestination=[Folder ID]

1
  • hm, the urls made with this now work for me on files I created/folders I own, but not for other accounts. It copies the file, but not into the folder and so it isn't shared (all files and the folder are set to public). Anyone else encountering this, or/and work out how to fix?
    – sjgknight
    Commented Aug 24, 2021 at 9:21
7

To follow on to the questions in comments on the answer from @jaycer :

How do you create a file from a template inside a specific folder

The URL would look like this

https://docs.google.com/document/d/${temlpateId}/copy?id=${temlpateId}&copyCollaborators=false&copyComments=false&includeResolvedCommentsOnCopy=false&title=${title}&copyDestination=${folderId}&usp=docs_web

Substituting these values :

  • ${temlpateId} : The ID of the source file/template. You can get this from the URL when you browse to the source file/template. Note that the value shows up twice in the URL
  • ${title} : The name to give the new file
  • ${folderId} : The ID of the folder to put the new file in. This comes from the URL when you browse to the Google Drive folder.
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-1

New Document: https://docs.google.com/document/create?usp=drive_web&folder=[folder-id]

New Spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/create?usp=drive_web&folder=[folder-id]

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