# Removing the Google Sheets/Drive integration from OpenRefine **URL:** \ **Category:** Community announcements\ **Created:** [November 11, 2024, 10:02am UTC](https://forum.openrefine.org/t/removing-the-google-sheets-drive-integration-from-openrefine/1880 "2024-11-11T10:02:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![antonin\_d](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.openrefine.org/antonin_d/32/32_2.png) [@antonin\_d](https://forum.openrefine.org/u/antonin_d)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2024, 10:02am UTC](https://forum.openrefine.org/t/removing-the-google-sheets-drive-integration-from-openrefine/1880/1 "2024-11-11T10:02:11Z")
Dear all, As you might have noticed, the latest OpenRefine versions have lost their ability to integrate with Google Sheets and Google Drive out of the box. We had to do this to address [a security issue](https://github.com/OpenRefine/OpenRefine/security/advisories/GHSA-3pg4-qwc8-426r), as it was possible to extract OpenRefine's Google API credentials from our releases and potentially use them to impersonate the project or access data from Google accounts for malicious purposes. Unfortunately, I am not aware of any way to make this functionality work again out of the box in a secure way. The Google Sheets and Drive integration can still be used, but it requires you to acquire your own Google API credentials, which is [a rather complicated process](https://github.com/OpenRefine/OpenRefine/wiki/Google-Extension). Because I think it's confusing to advertise this Google integration in the tool while it requires so much upfront configuration, I have proposed to remove the integration from OpenRefine, by migrating to an external extension. Users would still be able to install the extension themselves and acquire API credentials to restore this functionality: > > > As mentioned in #6931, I think it would be worth un-bundling the gdata extension…, because the setup required to use it (getting Google API credentials) is unfortunately way too involved for most of our users (including myself). > > A draft of the standalone repository is now at: > https://github.com/wetneb/refine-gdata-extension > I have extracted it from this repository, preserving commit history and attribution. I have added a few changes on top to make it build as a standalone Maven project. > > I would propose to migrate the repository to the OpenRefine organization if this PR is merged. > > I have locked the Weblate translations for this module, so that we don't lose translations in the migration process. > > List of follow-up actions: > \* \[\] update the README of the extension to reflect its current state > \* \[\] migrate issues from https://github.com/OpenRefine/OpenRefine/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3Agoogle to the new repository > \* \[\] migrate \[the wiki page with instructions to get the Google API credentials\](https://github.com/OpenRefine/OpenRefine/wiki/Google-Extension) to the README of the extension (for instance) > \* \[\] make a first release of the extension > \* \[\] re-enable Weblate integration, pointing to the new repository > \* \[\] enable dependabot too > \* \[\] add the extension to https://openrefine.org/extensions Since that's a significant move, I thought it would be worth advertising here. Let us know what you think! ---
**Author:** ![thadguidry](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.openrefine.org/thadguidry/32/653_2.png) [@thadguidry](https://forum.openrefine.org/u/thadguidry)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2024, 11:09am UTC](https://forum.openrefine.org/t/removing-the-google-sheets-drive-integration-from-openrefine/1880/2 "2024-11-11T11:09:40Z")
Agree this should move out to it's own repo to let the community and those interested, pick it up and work on it if they need it. ---
**Author:** ![Martin](https://dub1.discourse-cdn.com/flex017/user_avatar/forum.openrefine.org/martin/32/7_2.png) [@Martin](https://forum.openrefine.org/u/Martin)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2024, 8:57pm UTC](https://forum.openrefine.org/t/removing-the-google-sheets-drive-integration-from-openrefine/1880/3 "2024-11-14T20:57:36Z")
I have left my comment in the related PR