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How to show Google Drive content (mages, PDFs) in Airtable without storing it?

  • Nov 8, 2026 11:05 AM UTC
  • 3 replies
  • 23 views
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Hi,

I just realised I seemed to have made some design blunders in our CRM for a portrait photography business. We store customer inspiration images they send us and the final images we deliver to them in client specific Google Drive folders for storage cost and client delivery benefits.

I have linked the delivery images to an attachment field in Airtable, and somehow have thought for several years now that the images are stored only in Google Drive. I now realised that seems wrong, and Airtable actually has mirrored the images, so they are stored both in Airtable and Google Drive.

Apart from the master data issues with having them stored in two places, this obviously makes no sense given Airtable’s attachment storage limits (we’re on Team, so 20 GB). The whole point of my earlier design was to leverage Google Drive as a kind of simple CDN.

Is there a way to build this the way I originally wanted? I’d like to have an Airtable field which can show (preview) all images in a Google Drive folder, either with individual URLs for each image or with only the folder URL in an interface.

Additionally one should be able to add files manually to this folder.

I realise I can put the Drive folder URL into a URL field, but then it opens the Drive folder and with that all the other clients’ image folders also become unnecessarily easy to accidentally do something to.

I guess I could (?) set up separate bases for the images, but at some point the storage limits will hit again, so that doesn’t feel like a robust long term plan.

A kind of “gallery” view in Airtable based on URLs with the possibility to add images would be fantastic.

Thought?

Cheers,

Björn

3 replies

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  • rachelwilson
  • New Participant
  • Nov 8, 2026 11:58 AM UTC

attachment fields do mirror the file in, so they cant really work as a live drive preview. id keep the drive folder url as the source of truth and let drive handle the preview, and just use airtable for the client record itself.

VedaSync_Aziz
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  • VedaSync_Aziz
  • Participating Frequently
  • Nov 8, 2026 5:08 PM UTC

Hi Björn, you're right: an attachment field keeps its own copy of every file in Airtable, so it all counts toward your 20 GB.

The way to get your original design is Airtable's Google Drive sync, which keeps the files in Drive and brings only links and small previews into Airtable.

1. Go to Add or import > more sources > Google Drive.
2. Pick your clients' parent folder as the root folder. Leave "Sync Folders" and "Sync file content as attachment" unticked.
3. Create the table. It re-syncs about every 5 minutes, or straight away with "Sync now".
 

You get one row per file, subfolders included, each with a small thumbnail (about 220 px, a few KB), an "Open in Google Drive" button, and a Parent Folder field showing which folder it sits in.

To link each file to its client automatically:

4. In Clients, add a text field "Drive folder name" with each client's folder name exactly as it appears in Drive.
5. In the synced table, add a link field "Client" pointing to Clients. Synced tables accept your own fields; the sync only touches its own.
6. Create an automation with the trigger "When a record matches conditions" on the synced table: Parent Folder is not empty AND Client is empty.
7. Add "Find records" in Clients where Drive folder name is [Parent Folder from the trigger]. Limit 1.
8. Add "Update record" on the synced table: Record ID = [Airtable record ID from the trigger], Client = [Airtable record ID from step 7].
9. Turn it on.

New files now link to the right client within seconds of syncing in.

The automation only picks up files that arrive after it's switched on. For the files you already have, copy the Parent Folder column and paste it into the Client column. Airtable matches the pasted text to your client names, as long as those match the folder names.

Two things to keep in mind: the sync is one-way, so new files go into Drive, not Airtable. And the thumbnails are for spotting the right image; open Drive for full size.

Aziz · CEO @ VedaSync.com
ScottWorld
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  • ScottWorld
  • Genius
  • Nov 8, 2026 9:08 PM UTC

​@0800-grizzly 

As ​@VedaSync_Aziz mentioned above, your best bet is most likely to use Google Drive sync.

Alternatively, note that Airtable’s interfaces have the ability to display a preview of an image that lives at a specific external URL. But that URL needs to be publicly accessible (i.e. no website logins blocking the URL from being accessed), and the URL needs to lead directly to the image itself… not an image sitting on a Google Drive “wrapper” webpage.

- ScottWorld, Best Airtable Consultant 

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