How can I adjust the column width to view file names in google drive?

December 9, 2023 8:46 AM

How can I adjust the column width to view file names in list view in google drive?

See here an example of the problem I'm trying to fix.

Like, why does google want to give me 100 pixels of the file owner and like 10 pixels of the actual file name? How can I adjust this?

I want to stay in list view NOT grid view.

Thanks!

posted by greta simone to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

Interesting, what browser and OS are you using?

In Chrome on Windows, Drive behaves sensibly for me — as the window shrinks, the filename column stays wide while the owner, size and timestamp fields shrink and eventually disappear.
posted by Klipspringer at 8:50 AM on December 9, 2023

Response by poster: Chrome on Mac Ventura.

Shrinking or enlarging the window maybe gives me three more letters?

It's not like this in every folder, but in some folders. And it's not like this every time either, only sometimes? Stupid google.

Bc it isn't consistent in how it appears, I'd love to know a way to adjust them so I can account for the variation.
posted by greta simone at 9:09 AM on December 9, 2023

I don't think you can adjust it manually, the code for the page doesn't have the resizable attribute on the table.

You can go to cog > Settings and change the Density between Comfortable, Cozy, or Compact, but otherwise the columns dynamically resize based on your browser width and zoom level. So if you zoom out the column widths will get wider but that's the only manual thing you can do.
posted by underclocked at 9:21 AM on December 9, 2023

Here is what I have found after having this exact problem for months.

There is no way to fix it permanently, only temporarily. Refresh the page. It will auto-adjust the columns again but somehow, on refresh, it always manages to get that the filename column is the important one.

I don't know what the problem is or when precisely this started, but it definitely did not used to be like this. For me, it happens in nearly every folder in my Drive, most of the time. (Occasionally it doesn't, but it's not folder dependent.) FWIW, I use Arc, which is based on Chromium, on macOS Ventura.
posted by tubedogg at 9:34 AM on December 9, 2023

I had this issue a couple of days ago. I noticed if I toggled on and then off the file details that the names started showing up correctly. This was using Chrome. Of course making the window large also fixed the issue. YMMV
posted by tedwhite at 2:50 PM on March 12

I'm going to regret saying this because it will jinx me, but for the last two days, this has not been an issue once. I'm wondering if they finally fixed it.
posted by tubedogg at 3:53 PM on March 12