Problem
You are experiencing performance issues with Google Drive.
Environment
- Google Drive
Solution
- Check the user's browser.
- Try a different browser — Open another browser that is compatible with Drive and see if the issue continues. Drive works best with:
- Chrome browser
- Mozilla Firefox
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 11
- Microsoft Edge
- Apple Safari
- Other browsers might work, but some features might not be available. See System requirements and browsers.
- Close unused tabs — The more tabs you have open, the harder your browser has to work.
- To close tabs you aren't using:
- On the tab, click Close.
- On Microsoft Windows, Linux, and devices running Chrome OS, you can use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+W.
- On Apple Mac, you can use the keyboard shortcut Command+w.
- To close tabs you aren't using:
- Clear cache and cookies — As your browser stores more cache and cookies, it could slow down. Clearing the cache and cookies can fix issues with items taking longer to load. See Clear cache & cookies.
- Turn off extensions and plugins — Browser extensions and plugins can sometimes cause issues with Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, or Forms. Turn off any extensions and plugins and see if the issue continues.
- See Install and manage extensions. If you're using a browser other than Chrome browser, see their support site for instructions.
- Try a different browser — Open another browser that is compatible with Drive and see if the issue continues. Drive works best with:
- Check the user's computer
- Restart the computer — Restarting the computer removes unneeded data and can help increase speed and improve the internet connection.
- Try a different computer — Have the user sign in to Drive on a different computer. If the problem still occurs, then you can look into other issues, such as network settings or Wi-Fi connectivity.
- Check the operating system requirements — If the user is having problems synchronizing files using Drive for desktop, check that they're using a compatible operating system.
- Check the user's Drive account
- Check storage quota in Drive — If a user runs out of storage space in Drive, they will not be able to store anything new. Not enough storage might make users think that Drive is running slow.
- Have the user remove any files they don't need and see if the issue continues. See Clear Google Drive space & increase storage.
- Check file sizes in Drive — Larger files can be slow to open and work with. For example, if you have a large number of cells or calculations in a spreadsheet, it might take longer to load and users might think that there is a problem. Try opening files of different sizes and see if the problem occurs for each file. For file-size details, see Files you can store in Google Drive.
- Check storage quota in Drive — If a user runs out of storage space in Drive, they will not be able to store anything new. Not enough storage might make users think that Drive is running slow.
- Advanced troubleshooting. After you check the user's browser and computer, you can take more advanced steps to try and solve the issue.
- Check the status of Google Workspace services — You can see if there are any outages or issues with Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, or Forms. See the Status Dashboard.
- Check firewall settings — To ensure that your users can access Drive or Google Docs editors, be sure your firewall rules connect to the correct hosts. See Drive firewall and proxy settings.
- Check for network issues when syncing with Outlook — If your organization uses Google Workspace Sync for Microsoft Outlook, Notes in Outlook can synchronize with Google Drive, which might cause slow performance in Drive. See Troubleshoot network traffic issues.