How to Create a Shortcut in Google Drive on Any Device

To create a shortcut in Google Drive takes ten seconds: right-click the file or folder, choose Organize, then Add shortcut, pick the destination folder, done. The shortcut is a pointer to the original. The file still exists only once, but it also shows up wherever you need it. For creators, editors and agencies, that's the cleanest way to use footage in several projects without piling up copies.

Below you'll find the steps for the browser, Android, iPhone and desktop, the difference from a copy, and what happens when you share. Sharing is where most of the misunderstandings start.

What a Google Drive shortcut is

A Google Drive shortcut is a small file that points to another file or folder. When you click it, the original opens. So you always see the current version: if someone changes the original, you see the change through the shortcut as well.

Why does this exist? Since September 30, 2020, a file in Google Drive can only sit in exactly one folder. Before that, you could put a file in several folders at once. Google dropped that and introduced shortcuts as the replacement. If you need a file in two places today, the original stays in one place, and every other place gets a shortcut.

An everyday example: from a shoot day you have a folder with B-roll, say footage of a client's office. You need the same clips for three Reels and one YouTube video. Instead of copying the files four times, you create a shortcut to the B-roll folder in each project folder. How to build a library like that for the long run is explained in the guide on how to organize B-roll.

Create a shortcut in Google Drive in the browser

Here's how it works on drive.google.com on a computer:

1. Open Google Drive in your browser.
2. Right-click the file or folder.
3. Choose Organize, then Add shortcut. In some versions the menu says Add shortcut to Drive directly.
4. Pick the folder where the shortcut should go.
5. Click Add shortcut.

The shortcut then appears in the destination folder. The small arrow on the icon tells you it's a shortcut.

Faster with the keyboard

Google describes a second way: select the file, copy it with Ctrl + C, go to the destination folder and paste it with Ctrl + Shift + V. That creates a shortcut, not a copy. According to Google, this key combination only works in Google Chrome.

When you're not allowed to move a file

One detail surprises many people: if you try to move a file you don't have permission to move, Google Drive automatically creates a shortcut in the destination folder instead. This often happens with files a client has shared with you. Your Drive looks tidy, but the original still sits with the client.

Create a shortcut in Google Drive on Android and iPhone

Android

1. Open the Google Drive app.
2. Tap the three-dot menu next to the file or folder.
3. Tap Add shortcut to Drive.
4. Pick the destination.
5. Tap Add shortcut.

iPhone and iPad

1. Open the Google Drive app.
2. Tap More (the three-dot menu) next to the file or folder.
3. Scroll down and tap Add shortcut to Drive.
4. Pick the destination and tap Add.

If you see a note that you only have view access, you can't put anything in that folder. Pick one of your own folders instead, for example in My Drive.

This is handy on the road: on a shoot day, the client sends a link to a folder with phone uploads. You create a shortcut in your project folder right from your phone, and by the evening everything is in the right place on your computer.

Create a Google Drive shortcut on your desktop

When people say "desktop", they mean two different things. Both work.

Google Drive as an icon on your desktop

If you just want to get to Google Drive in your browser faster:

1. Open drive.google.com in Google Chrome.
2. Open the three-dot menu at the top right.
3. Choose Cast, save, and share, then Create shortcut. In older Chrome versions, the entry is under More tools.
4. Enter a name. If you like, check the box to open the page in its own window.

Menu names change between Chrome versions. If you can't find the entry, look for "shortcut" in the menu.

Drive folder on your computer

With the Google Drive for desktop app, your Drive shows up as its own drive in File Explorer on Windows, often with the letter G:, and in Finder on a Mac. From there you create a shortcut as usual: on Windows with right-click and Create shortcut, on a Mac as an alias. That's an operating system shortcut, not a Google Drive shortcut. It only works on that one computer.

Google Drive for desktop can stream or mirror files. When streaming, your computer only downloads files when you open them. Anything you need offline, you mark as available offline with a right-click. For large video folders this matters, so your disk doesn't fill up.

Shortcut vs copy: the difference

	Shortcut	Copy
What you get	A pointer to the original	A new, independent file
Changes to the original	Visible right away	Not visible, the copy stays old
Storage	The file still exists only once	The file exists twice
Folders	Can get shortcuts	Can't be copied in the browser, only files can
Permissions	Depend on the original	The copy has its own permissions
Who can delete	The shortcut: its creator. The original: only its owner	The copy belongs to you

Rule of thumb: use a shortcut when everyone should work from the same version. Use a copy when you deliberately need your own version, such as a template you adapt for a new client.

For video footage, a shortcut is almost always the right choice. A talking head clip of several gigabytes copied into three project folders eats storage and causes confusion about which file is the right one. That's exactly where the duplicates come from that you later have to hunt down, see how to find duplicate photos in Google Drive. If your storage is already tight, the guide on what to do when your Google Drive storage is full helps.

What happens when you share a shortcut

This is the most important section. Google separates two things:

• Seeing: anyone with access to the folder that holds the shortcut sees the shortcut.
• Opening: whether someone can open the original depends only on the permissions of the original.

Creating a shortcut doesn't change anything about the original's permissions. Anyone without access can request it through the shortcut. The owner of the original then gets an email and decides.

A typical case in agencies: you build a handoff folder for your editor and put shortcuts to the client's originals in it. You share the handoff folder with the editor. They see every file but can't open any of them, because the originals belong to the client and aren't shared with the editor. The fix is to share the original folders too, at least with view access. What a clean handoff looks like is covered in the guide on how to hand off footage to an editor.

The other way around: when you share a folder, all files and subfolders inside inherit its permissions. Shortcuts only share themselves, though, not their target. That protects you from accidentally sharing material that lives somewhere else.

Delete a shortcut without losing the original

In the browser, right-click the shortcut and choose Remove. On Android, tap More, then Remove. The original stays unchanged. The shortcut sits in the trash until you permanently delete it there.

A few rules from Google worth knowing:

• The creator of a shortcut can delete it at any time, but only the owner can delete the original.
• If you created a shortcut in a folder owned by someone else, you can't delete it there yourself.
• A shortcut to another shortcut isn't possible. You can copy a shortcut, though.
• Each file or folder can have up to 500 shortcuts, with a maximum of 5,000 across all users.

If the original is deleted, the shortcut has no target anymore. So clean up shortcuts first and originals afterwards, not the other way around.

Shortcuts in the daily work of creators and agencies

A few patterns that work well:

One archive, many projects. The raw footage from every shoot lives once in a fixed archive folder. Project folders only hold shortcuts. That keeps your Google Drive folder structure lean, and nobody asks which of three folders with the same name is the right one.

Bring client folders in. Many clients only share their folders instead of transferring them. Those folders show up under Shared with me and get lost there. A shortcut in your client structure brings them to the place where you look for them. More on that for teams on the page for agencies.

One file, several topics. A clip can be "product", "office" and "team" at the same time. With shortcuts, it sits in all three topic folders without you having to pick one. That's the basis of a good content library.

Footage for the editor. For each episode, one folder with shortcuts to exactly the clips being edited. The editor doesn't have to dig through the whole archive. How editors work with this themselves is described on the page for video editors.

For a few files, you do this by hand. With hundreds of clips after a shoot day it becomes busywork, because each shortcut needs a right-click and a folder choice.

How Sorted works with shortcuts

Sorted builds exactly this principle automatically. The web app connects to your Google Drive. You pick folders, and subfolders are included. Gemini from Google recognizes what's in every photo and video (for videos through the thumbnail Google Drive creates), writes a short description and keywords and suggests a category.

When you sort, Sorted creates a folder called "Sortiert" in your Drive with one subfolder per category, filled with shortcuts to the originals. The originals aren't moved, copied or changed, and it takes no extra storage. A file can sit in several categories, and re-sorting takes one click. The next run only adds what's new. What that looks like for photos is explained in the guide on how to sort photos automatically with AI.

To be fair, the same rules from above apply: anyone who should see the "Sortiert" folders also needs access to the originals. With Sorted Pro, you share a folder together with its originals with your team in one click, with view access. Sorted works with Google Drive only, not Dropbox, iCloud or a local disk. Sorted starts at €10 a month, plus your own Gemini API key at about €0.70 per 1,000 files, billed by Google (details on the pricing page). Try Sorted

Conclusion

To create a shortcut in Google Drive, right-click in the browser and choose Organize, then Add shortcut, or use the three-dot menu on your phone. A shortcut is a pointer, not a copy: it saves storage and keeps everyone on the same version. When sharing, remember that the recipient always needs access to the original as well. How to clean up your whole Drive this way is covered in the guide on how to sort Google Drive.