The GSHEET is a shortcut file extension to open Google Sheets documents from Google Drive for Desktop. The file contains related information to the original file stored on Google Drive. It is useful when you want to quickly access a Google Sheet document without having to open your browser and log in to your Google account.
GSHEET shortcut files reside on your PC after you download the Google Drive for Desktop app. Keep reading to learn more about the GSHEET file extension.
More About the GSHEET File
The GSHEET file extension came with the Google Drive for Desktop application. The app syncs your Google Drive files to your computer. When you make a file on Google Sheets, the app generates a shortcut file with the same name but a GSHEET extension.
The shortcut file holds details like the URL, file type, and owner on Google Drive. Interestingly, it doesn’t contain the original file’s content. Instead, the GSHEET file just stores a reference to the file’s location on Google Drive.
- GSHEET introduced with Google Drive for Desktop
- Shortcut file with URL and owner information
- No original file content
How to Open a GSHEET File?
It’s simple to open a GSHEET file with Google Drive for Desktop. Just find the file on your PC, typically in Google Drive > My Drive. Double-click to open it.
GSHEET files can’t be opened directly with other programs since they only store reference information. To view or edit, open them with Google Sheets. After that, you can download the file in formats like Excel or PDF by going to File > Download.
If you don’t have Google Drive for Desktop installed, the shortcut won’t do much on its own. Double-clicking it on a machine without the app usually opens it as a plain text file, where you’ll only see the stored link rather than your spreadsheet. The quickest fix is to copy that link into a browser, or simply sign in to Google Sheets and open the file from there. The same thing applies if you email a GSHEET file to someone else: because it carries no real data, the recipient needs access to the original Google Drive document for the link to work.
On phones and tablets there’s no GSHEET file to worry about at all. The Google Sheets mobile app pulls your spreadsheets straight from your account, so you tap the file inside the app instead of hunting for a shortcut. A handy tip for desktop users is to right-click a GSHEET file and pick “Open with” if double-clicking sends it to the wrong program; once you set Google Sheets as the default, the file will behave the way you expect every time.
