Everything you need to know about DriveNest.
DriveNest is an Android app that analyzes your Google Drive storage. It visualizes your folder hierarchy, finds duplicate files, audits sharing security, identifies cleanup opportunities, and tracks storage trends over time.
DriveNest itself only has read-only metadata access (drive.metadata.readonly) and cannot modify or delete files directly. Cleanup and unshare actions happen through Google Apps Scripts that DriveNest generates and deploys to your account — but you must review and run them manually. Cleanup scripts move files to Google Drive Trash (30-day recovery window), never permanently deleting them. An undo function is included in every script.
Only metadata: file names, sizes, dates, MIME types, folder structure, MD5 checksums, and sharing permissions. DriveNest never reads the contents of your files. All data stays on your device.
After the initial scan (which requires internet to fetch metadata from Google Drive), all analysis runs on your device. You can browse results, view charts, and generate scripts without an internet connection.
Yes. Your scan data and settings are preserved when you purchase. You immediately get access to unlimited full-Drive scans and all Premium features. The Free tier is limited to 20% of discovered files (up to 2,000 files) with a cooldown between scans.
One-time (perpetual) purchases: Google Play does not support upgrading between one-time purchases. If you bought Premium perpetual and want Ultimate, you would need to purchase Ultimate separately. The perpetual purchase is permanent and non-refundable. Choose your tier carefully.
Subscriptions: Currently, switching between Premium and Ultimate subscriptions requires cancelling the current subscription (takes effect at end of billing period) and purchasing the new one. Managed in-app subscription upgrades with prorated billing are planned for a future update.
Perpetual is a one-time purchase that gives you all features of your tier permanently. Subscription is billed monthly with a 6-month commitment period (installment plan) and adds automation features on top: scheduled background scans, storage budget alerts, and auto-cleanup deployment (Ultimate). You can have both. Update policy also differs: subscriptions receive major version updates, while perpetual licenses are entitled to minor and bugfix updates within the purchased version line.
Subscriptions use a 6-month commitment period with monthly billing. After the commitment period, you can cancel at any renewal. If you cancel, you keep all features of the perpetual tier (if you purchased one). Subscription-only features like scheduled scans and auto-cleanup stop at the end of the paid period. Your saved scans and data remain on your device.
Yes. The perpetual purchase gives you the base features permanently. The subscription adds automation on top. If you cancel the subscription, you keep the perpetual features.
DriveNest uses MD5 checksums provided by Google Drive to find byte-for-byte identical files, regardless of filename or location. On top of that, heuristic scoring analyzes path depth, folder structure, and access patterns to classify each duplicate as waste (safe to remove) or structural (intentional copies like templates).
Ultimate tier can scan files shared with you by others. These don't count against your storage quota but can contain duplicates and security risks. This partition is always excluded from scheduled background scans.
DriveNest computes a 0–100 security score based on sharing exposure. It detects publicly accessible files, overshared items (many collaborators), forgotten shares (no activity in months), and shared folders that expose entire folder trees. It separates direct sharing from inherited folder sharing so you can fix the root cause.
DriveNest generates executable scripts (Google Apps Script, Bash, or PowerShell) that perform actions on your Drive files. Cleanup scripts move files to trash. Unshare scripts revoke non-owner permissions. You can deploy Apps Scripts directly to your Google account with one tap, or download and run them manually.
Ghost files are items that clutter your Drive but are invisible in normal browsing: empty folders, zero-size files, hidden items, and orphaned files whose parent folder was deleted. DriveNest detects and lists them so you can clean them up.
Subscribers can configure background scans that run automatically on a schedule you choose (every 4 hours to weekly). Scans are bound to a specific Google account and run even when the app is closed, using Android's WorkManager. Results appear when you next open the app.
Ultimate subscribers can enable automatic cleanup script deployment. After each scheduled scan, DriveNest identifies confirmed safe-to-remove duplicates and deploys an Apps Script to your Google account. You still need to open the script and run it manually — nothing is deleted without your approval.
Scheduled scans are bound to a specific account. If you switch accounts, scans are paused until you switch back or rebind the schedule to the new account. This prevents accidentally scanning the wrong Drive.
No. All scan data stays on your device. DriveNest makes no server calls, has no backend, and sends no telemetry or analytics. The only network access is to Google Drive's API to fetch metadata.
Scan backups are encrypted with AES-256-CBC automatically when exported. The encrypted file can be imported across devices. Encryption is transparent — no password is needed. Backups use the .dnbk format with a magic header for validation.
At sign-in, only drive.metadata.readonly is requested — read-only access to file metadata (names, sizes, dates, sharing permissions, MD5 checksums). DriveNest cannot read file contents. The script.projects scope is requested separately via incremental auth only when you first deploy a cleanup or unshare script, and requires explicit consent.
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