Admitting this is a tad bit embarrassing, but I still use the same email I created when I was a little girl. Thankfully, I didn’t go with something painfully embarrassing likeprincesssparkle_222 oriloveonedirectionforever. But sticking with the same email for over a decade has a side effect: my Google Drive is overflowing.
An organized person would have probably sorted through their files at least once in all this time. I, on the other hand, hoard anything and everything I can, so I’ve just kept… well, everything. I have college lecture notes sitting next to a project I made in Year 7, my resumes next to files I downloaded during a sudden crochet obsession, and the list goes on.
I've occasionally created folders and sub-folders for certain documents, but for the most part, my Google Drive is a chaotic mess. Ultimately, this means searching for even a simple document is a challenge. Thankfully, NotebookLM launched a feature a while ago that essentially turns Google Drive into a fully searchable library.
What feature am I talking about?
A fairly new feature that finds files for you
At the beginning of October, I suddenly spotted a shiny newGoogle Drive button in theDiscover Sources feature section. The feature does exactly what you'd expect it to if you'veused theDiscover Sourcesfeature before — allowsNotebookLM to search my connected Google Drive for relevant files based on a prompt and pull them in as sources.
All Drive files owned by you or shared with you are indexed by NotebookLM, and will show up when you search, with the exception of files shared using the “Everyone with the link” setting. In other words, if it lives in your Drive and you have access to it, NotebookLM can surface it for you with a simple natural-language query.
You can find this feature by clicking theDiscover Sources button in theSources panel, and then selecting the checkbox next toGoogle Drive under theFind sources from header. Now, all you need to do is type in a prompt describing exactly the type of sources you need from your Google Drive. Within seconds, NotebookLM will surface the top results, and will include a brief description of each source to help you pick the highest-quality sources.
How it actually helps you find files in Drive
It's not supposed to help with Drive clutter… but it does
By reading the above, you're probably wondering how the feature helps with Google Drive organization or in converting my messy Drive into a searchable library. After all, it's simply meant to help you pull the right files into NotebookLM notebooks. However, after using it for a bit, I instantly knew it would be an excellent way to find files within Google Drive.
If you've ever tried searching for a document in Google Drive, you may have noticed that you only get accurate results when you remember the file's name or something in the content of the document. With the latter, you'll likely get flooded with dozens of irrelevant documents that just happen to contain a keyword you searched for. And if you're anything like me, remembering exact file names is wishful thinking at best.
That's where this feature quietly shines. You can simply create a new notebook in NotebookLM and head immediately to the Discover Sources feature. You can then describe the file you're trying to find in completely natural language. Describe it however you remember it, and NotebookLM will use its AI capabilities to surface files that best match your description, not just the literal words.
Now, if you're paying for Google's premium tier and have access to Gemini in Drive, you can do something pretty similar. However, for everyone else, you're stuck with the basic keyword search. Fortunately, NotebookLM gives you that same intelligent file-finding superpower without paying a dollar. I've tested both Gemini in Drive and NotebookLM's abilities for this task, and there have been barely any meaningful differences in my experience.
It also reminds me of things I really don’t need anymore
Helps the other half of your messy Drive too
The reason why my Google Drive still has so much old clutter isn't because I'm emotionally attached to all of it. I might have been once, but not anymore. Instead, it's simply because I haven't looked at it for years. In addition to NotebookLM's Drive integration helping me find the files I actually need, it also surfaces junk I've ignored for far too long and can delete.
For instance, when I searched for old chemistry notes, it immediately pulled up the one set of notes I was actually looking for, and the rest was a bunch of documents I hadn’t opened since high school. Seeing all of it in one place made it easy to decide what was worth keeping and what I could finally toss, turning a once-overwhelming pile of digital clutter into something manageable.
Given how often I use the Drive integration to find relevant sources for my NotebookLM notebooks, I've ended up rediscovering so many forgotten files along the way. Every search becomes a mini clean-up session.
The reason my Drive is finally usable
I highly doubt Google thought people would be using NotebookLM's Google Drive search integration this way, but here we are. If your Drive is as messy as mine, you'll quickly see why it's a game-changer the moment you try it.
