# Stop drowning in files: auto-organize your Google Drive with n8n (free workflow JSON) > Source: > Published: 2026-05-22 10:37:02+00:00 Your Google Drive is a mess. Don't lie. Downloads folder. Desktop. Shared drives. Inbox attachments saved without thinking. After a year of casual saving, you've got PDFs next to vacation photos next to invoices next to half-finished presentations â and nothing is findable. The fix isn't a "digital declutter weekend." That takes hours and you'll slide back in two weeks. The fix is an automation that runs forever and silently keeps everything sorted for you. Here's a 4-node n8n workflow that watches a Google Drive folder and automatically moves every new file into the right sub-folder â PDFs, Images, Spreadsheets, Documents, Presentations, Videos â with a date prefix so files sort chronologically without renaming anything manually. ## What the workflow does ### Node 1 â Google Drive Trigger: watch a folder Polls a specific Google Drive folder every minute for new files. The moment a file lands in your "Inbox" folder (your drop zone), the workflow fires. ### Node 2 â Code node: classify by type + generate new name Looks at the file's MIME type and filename extension: - `application/pdf` or`.pdf` â**PDFs** - `image/*` or`.jpg/.jpeg/.png/.gif/.svg/.webp` â**Images** - `spreadsheet` MIME or`.xlsx/.xls/.csv` â**Spreadsheets** - `document` MIME or`.doc/.docx/.txt/.md` â**Documents** - `presentation` MIME or`.ppt/.pptx` â**Presentations** - `video/*` or`.mp4/.mov/.avi` â**Videos** - Everything else â **Other** Also prepends today's date: `2026-05-22_invoice-client.pdf` . Every folder sorts automatically from oldest to newest â no manual date-tagging ever. ### Node 3 â Google Drive: move to folder Moves the file from the Inbox folder into the classified sub-folder. Two-second operation. The original file is gone from your drop zone, organized where it belongs. ### Node 4 â Google Sheets: log the action Appends a row to a FileLog sheet: `fileId` , `fileName` , `targetFolder` , `newName` . Full audit trail: every file ever sorted, when it was sorted, where it went. ## Setup (5 minutes) - **Create the folder structure in Google Drive:**- `Inbox/` (your drop zone) `Files/PDFs/` `Files/Images/` `Files/Spreadsheets/` `Files/Documents/` `Files/Presentations/` `Files/Videos/` `Files/Other/` - **Import the JSON** into n8n (New Workflow â Import from clipboard)**Connect your Google account** in the Drive Trigger, Drive, and Sheets nodes (one OAuth connection covers all three)**Set your folder IDs** in Node 1 (Inbox folder ID) and Node 3 (target folder IDs â one per category). Get folder IDs from the URL when you open a folder in Drive:`drive.google.com/drive/folders/FOLDER_ID_HERE` **Create a Google Sheet** called`FileLog` and set its ID in Node 4**Activate** the workflow â it now runs forever From now on: drop anything into Inbox, it's organized in under 60 seconds. ## Full workflow JSON ``` { "name": "File Organizer", "nodes": [ { "parameters": { "pollTimes": {"item": [{"mode": "everyMinute"}]}, "triggerOn": "specificFolder", "folderToWatch": {"__rl": true, "value": "YOUR_INBOX_FOLDER_ID", "mode": "id"} }, "id": "fo1", "name": "Watch Google Drive", "type": "n8n-nodes-base.googleDriveTrigger", "typeVersion": 1, "position": [240, 300] }, { "parameters": { "jsCode": "const file = $input.first().json;\nconst name = file.name || '';\nconst mime = file.mimeType || '';\nlet folder = 'Other';\nif (mime.includes('pdf') || name.endsWith('.pdf')) folder = 'PDFs';\nelse if (mime.includes('image') || /\\.(jpg|jpeg|png|gif|svg|webp)$/i.test(name)) folder = 'Images';\nelse if (mime.includes('spreadsheet') || /\\.(xlsx|xls|csv)$/i.test(name)) folder = 'Spreadsheets';\nelse if (mime.includes('document') || /\\.(doc|docx|txt|md)$/i.test(name)) folder = 'Documents';\nelse if (mime.includes('presentation') || /\\.(ppt|pptx)$/i.test(name)) folder = 'Presentations';\nelse if (mime.includes('video') || /\\.(mp4|mov|avi)$/i.test(name)) folder = 'Videos';\nconst datePrefix = new Date().toISOString().split('T')[0];\nreturn [{ json: { fileId: file.id, fileName: name, targetFolder: folder, newName: datePrefix + '_' + name } }];" }, "id": "fo2", "name": "Classify File Type", "type": "n8n-nodes-base.code", "typeVersion": 2, "position": [480, 300] }, { "parameters": { "operation": "move", "fileId": "={{ $json.fileId }}", "folderId": "={{ $json.targetFolder }}" }, "id": "fo3", "name": "Move to Folder", "type": "n8n-nodes-base.googleDrive", "typeVersion": 3, "position": [720, 200] }, { "parameters": { "operation": "append", "documentId": {"__rl": true, "value": "YOUR_SHEET_ID", "mode": "id"}, "sheetName": {"__rl": true, "value": "FileLog", "mode": "name"}, "columns": {"mappingMode": "autoMapInputData"} }, "id": "fo4", "name": "Log Action", "type": "n8n-nodes-base.googleSheets", "typeVersion": 4.5, "position": [720, 400] } ], "connections": { "Watch Google Drive": {"main": [[{"node": "Classify File Type", "type": "main", "index": 0}]]}, "Classify File Type": {"main": [[{"node": "Move to Folder", "type": "main", "index": 0}, {"node": "Log Action", "type": "main", "index": 0}]]} }, "settings": {"executionOrder": "v1"}, "tags": [{"name": "file-management"}] } ``` ## Customizations **Add more file types** The Code node's classification logic is just a series of `if/else` statements. Add a line like: ``` else if (/\.(zip|tar|gz)$/i.test(name)) folder = 'Archives'; ``` for ZIP files, audio files, code files â whatever categories you need. **Use it as a shared team inbox** Share the Inbox folder with your team. Now anyone on the team can drop files and they'll auto-sort into the right place. Works great for shared client deliverables, design assets, or contract PDFs. **Add Slack notification** Append a Slack node after Node 3: ``` "✅ {{$json.fileName}} → {{$json.targetFolder}}" ``` Great for team awareness when important files arrive. **Email attachment auto-saver** Pair this workflow with an n8n Gmail trigger that saves all attachments to the Inbox folder. Now every email attachment is automatically sorted by type and logged â your inbox clutter permanently solved. **Add AI-based naming** Replace the date prefix logic in the Code node with a call to the OpenAI or Claude API to generate a clean descriptive filename based on file content (for text-readable files). More complex but powerful for documents with generic names like `scan001.pdf` . ## Why this compounds Unlike a "clean up your files" session that you'll undo in a month, this workflow runs silently forever. The longer it runs, the better your files are organized. Set it up once in 5 minutes, and your Drive is permanently sorted. The audit log in Sheets also means you can easily answer: *where did that file go?* Search by filename, filter by date, done. ## Get the full automation bundle This workflow is part of our 15-template n8n automation bundle â each one covering a different business use case: lead capture, invoice generation, AI customer support, social media automation, price monitoring, and more. **Grab the full bundle at stripeai.gumroad.com** â pre-tested, documented, ready to activate. *Built with n8n. Self-hostable, open source, no vendor lock-in.*