Top 9 Fixes for Google Drive No Connection Error on Android and iPhone

Usually, the Google Drive app works like a charm on the desktop to help you view and manage your files. Things are different for Google Drive app on your phone. At times, the Google Drive app may show a ‘No connection’ error and fail to load on your Android or iPhone.

There’s no need to switch to your browser to use Google Drive. To help out, we have listed a few tips that should get Google Drive to connect and work as expected on your phone.

1. Check Your Internet Connection

Before you troubleshoot the Google Drive app, it’s a good idea to ensure your internet connection works properly. For that, run a quick internet speed test to assess the data connectivity (mobile or Wi-Fi) of your phone. If your internet seems slow or inconsistent, consider switching to a different connection and try again.

2. Enable Mobile Data for the Google Drive App (iPhone)

You can enable or disable mobile data access for each app on an iPhone. If you have inadvertently disabled mobile data access for the Google Drive app, it will display the ‘No connection’ error when your iPhone is not connected to a Wi-Fi network.

To enable mobile data access for the Google Drive app, open the Settings app. Scroll down to tap on the Drive app and enable the toggle next to Mobile Data. Return to the Google Drive app and check if the issue is still there.

3. Turn Off Data Saver Mode

Although enabling data saver mode on your phone can help reduce data usage, it can sometimes prevent your apps from connecting to the internet entirely. You can disable your phone’s data saver mode to see if that solves the problem.

Android

Step 1: Open the Settings app and tap on Connections.

Step 2: Tap Data saver and turn off the toggle next to Turn on now.

iPhone

Step 1: Open the Settings app on your iPhone and tap on Wi-Fi.

Step 2: Tap the info icon next to your Wi-Fi network and turn off the toggle next to Low Data Mode in the following menu.

Step 3: If you’re using Google Drive on mobile data, return to the Settings page and tap Mobile Data.

Step 4: Tap Mobile Data Options and turn off the toggle next to Low Data Mode.

4. Remove and Re-Add Your Account

At times, Google Drive may fail to connect to its servers due to authentication issues with your account. If that’s the case, removing your account from the app and adding it back should solve your problem.

Step 1: Open the Google Drive app, tap your profile picture in the top right corner, and select ‘Manage accounts on this device.’

Step 2: Select your Google account from the list.

Step 3: Tap the Remove account button. Select Remove account again to confirm.

Return to the Google Drive app and add your account again. After that, check if it loads correctly.

5. Correct the Date and Time on Your Phone

Is your phone set to an incorrect time or date? That could prevent apps like Google Drive from exchanging data with the servers and trigger various errors. To fix this, you can enable automatic date and time feature on your phone.

Android

Step 1: Open the Settings app on your phone and tap on General management.

Step 2: Tap on Date and time and enable the toggle next to ‘Automatic date and time’ in the following menu.

iPhone

Step 1: Open the Settings app, tap on General, and select Date & Time.

Step 2: Turn on the toggle next to Set Automatically.

6. Temporarily Disable VPN

Issues with your VPN connection can also cause anomalies, leading you to believe there’s a problem with the Google Drive app. To overrule this possibility, try disabling your VPN connection temporarily and restart the Google Drive app to see if it works.

7. Check the Google Drive Server Status

There’s a chance that Google Drive is acting up on your phone due to server-side issues. In that case, you won’t be able to fix the connection error in the Google Drive app from your end. You can visit a website like Downdetector and check for a problem with the Google Drive servers.

Visit Downdetector

If the servers are down, the connection error in Google Drive should go away after some time.

8. Clear App Cache (Android)

Outdated or overwhelming cache data can affect Google Drive’s performance, leading to the ‘No connection’ error. You can try purging the existing cache data associated with the Google Drive app to see if that helps.

Step 1: Long-press the Google Drive app icon and tap the ‘i’ icon from the resulting menu.

Step 2: Go to Storage and tap the Clear cache option.

9. Update the App

If Google Drive is still not connecting, there may be an issue with the app itself. You can update the app to its most recent version to see if that solves the problem. Use the following links to update the Google Drive app on your Android or iPhone and then try using it again.

Google Drive for Android

Google Drive for iPhone

Connected Again

While Google Drive is one of the most reliable cloud storage services, it can sometimes malfunction. Thankfully, fixing the ‘No connection’ in the Google Drive app isn’t too difficult if you apply the solutions mentioned above.