BigQuery external table on Google Drive: "Permission denied while getting Drive credentials" using service account in TablePlus

[tainguyenuts]

Summary
When connecting to BigQuery via TablePlus querying an external table linked to Google Drive results in a permission denied error.

Access Denied: BigQuery BigQuery: Permission denied while getting Drive credentials.

Root Cause
This issue is caused by the service account not having the required Google Drive access scopes to read data from Drive into BigQuery.

Suggested Fix
Update the service account or authentication flow in TablePlus to include the following OAuth scope when using BigQuery:
https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.readonly
This scope allows BigQuery to access the Google Drive file used in the external table.

Environment
App: TablePlus
Database: BigQuery
Platform: MacOS

Additional Context
This error does not occur when using the BigQuery web UI or CLI with properly scoped credentials. It appears to be a limitation or missing support in how TablePlus handles BigQuery service account authentication.
Have same issue in Table Plus Windows TablePlus/TablePlus-Windows#730