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Google Drive Integration

The Google Drive integration lets you select individual images or entire folders from your Drive and generate alt text in bulk. Alt text is written back to each file's description field in Drive automatically — no CSV imports or copy-paste required.

Requirements

  • A Google account with access to Google Drive
  • An AltText.ai account (free trial includes 25 images)
  • Read access to the Drive files or folders you want to process
  • Permission to update file description metadata in Drive

Connecting Google Drive

  1. Go to Account → Integration Settings in AltText.ai.
  2. Find the Google Drive section and click Connect Google Drive.
  3. A Google OAuth prompt will open. Sign in to the Google account that has access to your Drive.
  4. Grant the requested permissions — AltText.ai needs read access to download images and write access to update file descriptions.
  5. After authorizing, you'll be returned to AltText.ai with your Drive connected.

You can disconnect or reconnect your Drive at any time from the same Integration Settings page.

Selecting Images

Once connected, go to Images → Import → Add from Google Drive.

The Google Picker opens inside AltText.ai. You can:

  • Select individual images — browse your Drive and click any image file.
  • Select a folder — navigate to a folder and select it. All images inside will be included.
  • Select multiple items — hold Ctrl/Cmd to select multiple files or folders in one picker session.

After selecting, click Open in the picker to confirm your selection.

Folder Selection and Recursive Expansion

When you select a folder, AltText.ai expands it recursively — every image inside the folder and its subfolders is included in the processing batch.

Expansion goes up to 5 levels deep. A folder structure like Campaign > Region > Quarter > Week > Images would be fully expanded. Folders nested deeper than 5 levels won't be included.

Folders are expanded in the background. For large folder trees, processing may take a few minutes to start as the folder structure is read page by page.

Writeback to Google Drive

After alt text is generated, AltText.ai writes it back to each file's description metadata field in Google Drive. This is the "Description" field visible in the file's details panel in Drive (right-click a file → Details).

The writeback:

  • Updates the description field on the original file — no copies are made
  • Uses the Google Drive API with the same OAuth token you authorized during setup
  • Happens automatically for every image in the batch — you don't need to trigger it separately

If a file's Drive description already has text, it will be overwritten with the generated alt text.

Generation Options

Before submitting your selection for processing, you can set:

  • Language — Generate alt text in any of 130+ supported languages.
  • Custom prompt — Provide instructions to guide the AI (e.g., "focus on the product name and color", "describe for a museum catalog").
  • Skip images with existing alt text — Avoid reprocessing files that already have descriptions in your AltText.ai library.

These options appear after you confirm your selection in the Google Picker.

Exporting Results

All generated alt text is stored in your AltText.ai image library. You can:

  • Export as CSV — Download a CSV file with the image filename, Drive file ID, and generated alt text for use in other systems.
  • View in library — Browse, filter, and edit results in the AltText.ai image library.

Troubleshooting

The Google Picker won't open The Picker loads from Google's servers. If it doesn't appear, check that your browser isn't blocking third-party scripts from apis.google.com. Disable ad blockers or content blockers temporarily to test.

Connection expired / token error Google OAuth tokens expire after a period of inactivity. If you see an authentication error, go to Account → Integration Settings, disconnect Google Drive, and reconnect. This refreshes the access token.

Processing seems stuck for a large folder Large folders with thousands of images take time to expand. Expansion happens page by page in the background. The processing queue will fill gradually — check back after a few minutes if the count isn't rising yet.

Images from a folder aren't appearing Confirm you have read access to the folder in Drive. Folders shared with "View only" access work for image download, but you may not be able to update the description (writeback) if you don't have editor access.

Writeback isn't showing in Drive After processing completes, allow a moment for Drive to sync. The description appears in the file's details panel (right-click → Details → Description). If it's blank, check that the integration still has write permission — reconnecting may be necessary if permissions were revoked.

Unsupported file types Only image files are processed (JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF, TIFF, BMP). Google Workspace files (Docs, Slides, Sheets), PDFs, and video files are skipped automatically.