Google Drive setup

This page walks you through connecting Customer Cloud Gallery to your Google Drive account. The plugin uses your own OAuth credentials, generated for free in the Google Cloud Console — your photos and tokens never pass through any server operated by the plugin author. Aimed at photographers who already store client photos in Drive and want them to appear on their WordPress site.

What you’ll learn

• How to create a Google Cloud project and enable the Drive API
• How to create an OAuth Client ID and copy the redirect URI from the plugin
• How to publish the OAuth consent screen so the connection doesn’t break after 7 days
• How to connect the plugin and confirm it works
• How to handle the “This app isn’t verified” warning that Google shows the first time

Prerequisites

• The plugin installed and activated (see Installation)
• A Google account that owns or has access to the photo folders you want to share
• About 10 minutes the first time you do this — much faster on subsequent connections

Tutorial video

Video coming soon.

Step-by-step

1. Open the Google Cloud Console

Go to console.cloud.google.com and sign in with the Google account that holds your client photos.

2. Create a project (or reuse an existing one)

In the top bar, click the project picker → New project. Name it anything (e.g. “Customer Gallery”). Skip this step if you already have a project you want to reuse.

3. Enable the Google Drive API

1. In the left menu go to APIs & Services → Library.
2. Search for Google Drive API.
3. Click the result, then Enable.

4. Configure the OAuth consent screen

1. APIs & Services → OAuth consent screen.
2. Choose External and click Create.
3. Fill in app name, support email and developer contact. The other fields can be left blank.
4. On the Scopes step, add .../auth/drive.readonly. The plugin only needs read access.
5. On the Test users step, add your own Google account.
6. Important: back on the consent screen overview, click the Publish App button to move the app from Testing to In production. If you skip this, Google invalidates the refresh token after 7 days of inactivity and the gallery silently disconnects. You do not need to submit the app for verification — the unverified-app warning is fine for personal use.

5. Create the OAuth Client ID

1. APIs & Services → Credentials → Create credentials → OAuth client ID.

2. Application type: Web application.

3. Under Authorized redirect URIs, paste the exact URL shown in the plugin’s setup guide. To find it: in WordPress, open Customer Cloud Gallery → Settings, scroll to the Google Drive section, and expand Google Drive — step-by-step. The redirect URI is shown in a code block — copy it as-is.

   

4. Click Create. Google shows the Client ID and Client Secret — keep that dialog open.

6. Paste credentials into the plugin

1. Back in WordPress at Customer Cloud Gallery → Settings, find the Google Drive section.

2. Paste the Client ID and Client Secret into the corresponding fields.

3. Click Save credentials.

4. Click Connect Google Drive.

5. Google shows its consent screen and (the first time) the “This app isn’t verified” warning. Click Advanced → Go to [your app] (unsafe). This is expected for self-hosted OAuth apps used only by you.

6. Approve the requested scope. Google redirects you back to WordPress and shows Connected.

   

Common mistakes

Error 403 “access_denied” when authorizing. You skipped the Publish App step on the OAuth consent screen, or your Google account isn’t on the test-users list. Either publish the app (recommended) or add yourself as a test user.

“redirect_uri_mismatch” error. The redirect URI in your Google Cloud OAuth client must match the URL shown in the plugin exactly — same scheme (http vs https), same domain, same path, no trailing slash difference. Copy-paste from the plugin field, don’t retype.

Connection works today, breaks after a week. You forgot to click Publish App on the OAuth consent screen. Test-mode refresh tokens are valid for 7 days only. Publish the app and reconnect.

Next step

Create your first gallery: First gallery. If you’d rather use Dropbox instead of (or in addition to) Drive, see Dropbox setup — you can connect both providers and pick per gallery.