How to Play Google Drive Videos and Audio on Your Website

Do you want to play your videos, podcast episodes or music from Google Drive right on your website? You can easily do this with DriveHub.

The Media Player module streams your audio and video files straight from Google Drive, with a neat playlist underneath. Your media stays in Drive, so it doesn’t eat up your hosting space, and new files you add to the folder show up in the playlist on their own.

Here is an easy, step-by-step guide to help you set it all up!

Step 1: Install DriveHub and Connect Google Drive #

First, make sure DriveHub and DriveHub Pro are installed and your Google account is connected:

• From your WordPress admin, click on Plugins > Add New.
• Search for DriveHub, click Install and then Activate.
• Install and activate DriveHub Pro as well. Our guide on how to install and activate DriveHub Pro shows each step.
• Follow the setup screen to add your Google account.

Read our step by step setup guide to avoid any confusion.

Step 2: Create a Media Player Module #

The next step is to create a module for your player:

• Go to DriveHub > Modules.
• Click on Add module.
• In the Select module type window, click on Media Player under Display files.

• Click on the name at the top of the editor and give your player a name, for example Studio Video Library.

New to modules? Our guide on how to create your first DriveHub module walks through the editor in more detail.

Step 3: Pick Your Videos and Audio (Source Tab) #

In this step, you choose what plays in the player:

• Stay on the Source step (it opens first).
• Under Video Playback Type, pick how videos play:
• Embed Player: Uses Google Drive’s own player. It plays smoothly and puts very little load on your server, but the file needs to be shared publicly in Drive.
• Direct Media: Streams the file through your website, so you don’t have to change its sharing settings in Drive. It can take a little longer to start.

• Turn on Allow Popout if you want a button on the player that opens the file in Google Drive’s own viewer.
• Turn on Merge Selected Folder Files if you pick more than one folder and want all their files in one playlist.
• Scroll down to Select Files and tick the folders or files you want to play, for example your Videos folder or Podcast folder. The panel on the right shows (1) Items Selected.

You’ll also see two more switches at the top of this step:

• Use Private Files: Plays the files from each logged-in user’s own private folder instead. Our guide on how to give each user a private Google Drive folder explains this.
• Use ACF field Files: Takes the files from an ACF field on the page where the player is placed.

The player only picks up audio and video files, so it’s fine to choose a folder that also holds other files.

Step 4: Choose Which Files Play (Filter Tab) #

Here, you can narrow down the playlist:

• Click on Filter on the left.
• Allowed Extensions: Switch Allow all off, then type the file types you want, like mp4, mp3, and click Add. While Allow all is on, every audio and video type plays.
• Allowed Names: Switch its Allow all off, then type file names to play only those. You can use wildcards, for example episode* plays every file that starts with “episode”.
• Maximum Item Count: Type the most files you want in the playlist, for example 20. Leave it empty to show all of them.

Step 5: Set the Player Size (Advanced Tab) #

• Click on Advanced on the left.
• Under Module Container, set a Width (like 100% or 900px) and a Height for the player. Leave them empty to let the player size itself to your page.

Step 6: Choose How the Player Plays (Advanced Tab) #

Still on the Advanced step, scroll down to set how the player behaves:

• Autoplay: starts playing as soon as the page opens. Some browsers keep the sound muted until the visitor clicks on the page.
• Loop: plays the same file again when it ends.
• Previous / Next Buttons: shows the buttons that skip to the file before or after. They are on by default.
• Rewind / Forward Buttons: adds buttons that jump 10 seconds back or ahead.
• Playlist: turn this off to hide the playlist and show only the player.
• Open on Load: shows the playlist as soon as the page opens.
• Show / Hide Button: lets visitors open and close the playlist. Turn it off to keep the playlist always open.
• Position: puts the playlist at the Bottom, on the Left or on the Right of the player.
• Style: shows the playlist as a Grid of thumbnails or as a List.
• Play Next Automatically: starts the next file when one ends.

Step 7: Choose Who Can Watch (Permissions Tab) #

Here, you can decide who gets to use your player:

• Click on Permissions on the left.
• Scroll down and turn on Password Protection if you want to keep the player private, then type a password. Visitors need to enter it before the player shows.
• Under Visibility, use Display For to show the player to Everyone or only to people who are Logged In to your website.

The player has no preview or download buttons, so you won’t find those cards on this tab. You can leave Usage Limits off too.

Don’t forget to click the Save module button at the top right when you are finished! (On a module you have saved before, this button says Save changes.)

Step 8: Publish the Player #

Once you’re happy with all the settings, put the player on a page:

• Click on Embed at the top right.
• Click on Copy shortcode and paste it into any page or post, or hover over Add to a page to let DriveHub add it for you.
• Publish the page.

You can also add the player with the block editor or the Classic Editor.

Now open your page. Your first video shows up with a big play button, and the rest of your files wait in the playlist below it:

Visitors can click any item in the playlist to play it, use the Previous and Next buttons to move along, and hide or show the playlist with the playlist button. When one file ends, the next one starts by itself. Audio files, like your podcast episodes, play in the same player, with a wide cover image above the controls:

Benefits of Using DriveHub for Your Media #

• Save hosting space: Big video and audio files stay in Google Drive.
• Always up to date: Drop a new episode in the folder and it joins the playlist.
• Two ways to play: Use Google’s player, or stream without making files public.
• Keep it private when you need to: Protect the player with a password or show it to logged-in users only.

With DriveHub, your Google Drive videos and audio play right on your website in just a few minutes.

Related guides:

• How to Add a Google Drive File Browser to Your Website
• How to Let Visitors Upload Files to Google Drive
• How to Show Google Drive Images in a Slider Carousel
• How to Add a Google Drive Search Box to Your Website
• How to Let Clients Review and Approve Photos (File Proofing)