cannot "open with" ai files from google drive anymore

It's an extension on Chrome that you can enable. Just make sure it's toggled to "ON"

Hi @Alexa23973810pbrm,

Thanks for reaching out. I agree with what Monika said. It is recommended to work locally/ offline with Illustrator (https://helpx.adobe.com/in/illustrator/kb/illustrator-support-networks-removable-media.html).

I would suggest reinstalling the "Google Drive for desktop" app and the extension on chrome to see if that helps. If it doesn't, would you mind sharing the details like OS & version of Ai along with the details asked by Lukas & Mylenium?

Kindly update the discussion if you still need assistance with it. We'd be happy to help.

Thanks,
Anshul Saini

As @Monika Gause you need to download it. All cloud services do actually download files, but they do it more or less transparently. Google shanged the way that drive worked, Apple and Microsoft constantly evolve their security preferences… when was the last time you did what you explain here? (all of a sudden needs to be defined… what changed, update of illustrator, update/patch of OS, update/patch of google service change of network, naming of files…? )  Troubble shooting clouds is a moving target in the mist. Working on a local file to ,a sycnced folder can also be problematic if your save time exceeds your sync time, so plenty to think about when setting up a workflow.

Illustrator doesn't like handling files from servers, removable drives, network, synchronized storage, whatever the name is. You can lose your files when handling them this way. It's quite common actually.

You might want to download the file, edit it with Illustrator, save it locally and only then put it whereever you want. On top of that you really (really) REALLY want to make multiple copies and versions and backups of your files. Because any power outage can ruin all your plans of saving space. An additional harddisk is always cheaper than having to rebuild your files.

What extension? Have you actualyl checked your Chrome Extensions panel or for that matter the registered MIME types? That said, of course such stuff is notoriously unreliable and can change or break at any point. It may be more reliable to use the Google Drive desktop app or manually download files.

Mylenium