Connect and manage Google Drive

Google Drive lets Rox search your company’s documents and use them to answer questions. An admin connects your Google Workspace and sets organization-wide rules. Shared drive Managers and Content managers then choose which content to sync.

Rox follows Google Drive access permissions. Admin controls do not grant access to files an admin could not already open in Google Drive.

Before you begin

You need:

• A Rox admin account.

• A Google Workspace admin account with permission to read users and groups.

• Access to approve Rox in your Google Admin console if your organization restricts third-party apps.

Each Rox organization can connect to one Google Workspace domain. Domain-wide delegation is not required.

For continuity, use a dedicated Google Workspace integration user, such as rox-integration@yourcompany.com, rather than an employee’s personal work account. Give it a Google Workspace admin role with Users → Read and Groups → Read privileges, and add it as a Rox admin.

The organization’s connection depends on this account staying connected.

Connect your Google Workspace

1. Go to Settings → Integrations.

2. Find Google Drive and select Connect.

3. Review the requested permissions:

   • View your Google Drive files — required.

   • View users and groups in your Google Workspace — required to resolve access through Google groups.

   • Save files to your Google Drive — optional.

4. Sign in with the Google Workspace admin account you want to use for the integration.

5. Complete the authorization flow.

If Google says the app is not trusted, allow Rox under Security → API controls in the Google Admin console.

Once connected, shared drive Managers and Content managers can connect their own Google accounts and choose drives to sync. See Sync and use Google Drive files.

Google permissions

Manage organization controls

Go to Settings → Integrations → Google Drive → Overview.

Monitor sync status

The Overview tab shows shared drive health, the number of synced drives and files, and when Rox last synced.

Exclude shared drives

Under Skip shared drives, add name prefixes for drives that should not sync. For example, a rule beginning with hr- excludes shared drives whose names start with that prefix.

You can add up to 50 rules. Drive Managers cannot override these exclusions.

Control personal file syncing

Under Personal files, configure:

• Allow personal files — allow or prevent users from syncing My Drive and Shared with me.

• Allowed people — limit personal file syncing to specific people. Leave this empty to allow everyone.

• Denied people — prevent specific people from syncing personal files. Denied people remain excluded even if they also appear on the allowed list.

These settings control what can be synced. They do not change who can access a file in Google Drive.

How file access works

A user can find a synced file in Rox only if they have qualifying access in Google Drive. This includes:

• Membership of a shared drive, directly or through a Google group.

• Ownership of the file.

• Sharing permissions on the file or a parent folder.

• Organization-wide sharing where the file is discoverable in Drive search.

Anyone with the link sharing alone does not grant access in Rox. Expired sharing permissions do not grant access either.

Files synced from My Drive or Shared with me follow the same rules. Other users in your organization may find those files in Rox if they already have qualifying Google Drive access.

Supported content

Rox supports:

• Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides.

• PDFs.

• Text and Markdown files.

• CSV files.

• PNG and JPEG images.

Rox does not sync:

• Files larger than 16 MB, or Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides larger than 10 MB.

• Folders with limited access, including their contents.

• Shortcuts.

• Files whose owner has disabled downloading.

Sync timing and removal

Rox checks Google Drive for changes every 30 minutes, including new files, edits, sharing changes, and Google group changes.

Starting a drive sync begins the initial import immediately. Large drives can take longer to finish.

If a shared drive remains Paused for 15 days, it is turned off.

When a shared drive or personal sync is turned off, the affected files disappear from Rox search immediately and are deleted from Rox within one day. Files in Google Drive are unchanged.

Synced files are encrypted at rest.

Disconnect Google Drive

On the Overview tab, select Disconnect Google Drive.

This stops syncing for the organization, disconnects users’ Google accounts from the integration, and removes synced files from Rox. It does not change files in Google Drive.

The same organization-wide disconnection occurs if the admin account that originally connected Google Drive disconnects its own account.

Removing the Rox app in the Google Admin console revokes its Google access immediately.

Troubleshooting

Keep the connection running

If the admin account used for the organization connection is disconnected, Google Drive turns off for the organization until another admin connects it.

For important shared drives, make sure more than one Manager has connected their Google account, or give the dedicated integration user Manager access and connect it for those drives.

When a user is removed from Rox, their Google account is disconnected automatically.