Google Drive is an awesome cloud storage service offered by Google. With a free Google Account, you can store up to 15 GB worth of files on Google’s server, and then access them from any device whenever you need them.
But sometimes, you need to download files from your Google Drive, maybe you want to download just one or two specific files to use on your computer, or maybe you want to download an entire backup of everything on your Google Drive. No matter the reason, if you want to find out how to download files from Google Drive, you’re in the right place.
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How To Download Google Drive Files
There are actually two different ways to download files from Google Drive. If you just want to download a few specific files, you’ll want to follow the first method where you go into Google Drive and choose the files you want to download.
But if you want to download a backup of all your files, skip ahead to the second method where you create a backup using Google takeout.
How To Download Something From Google Drive
To download one or a few files from Google Drive, you’ll need t0 go to drive.google.com and sign in to your Google Account if necessary.
Once you’re in Google Drive, find the file you want to download and single click on it so that it doesn’t open but it’s selected. Then click on the 3 dots in the top right-hand corner and click download.
That’s it, you’re done! The file will now download to your computer and appear in your downloads folder.
How To Download All Files From Google Drive
If you want to download all your files from Google Drive, you could use the steps above for every file, but there is a much easier way. Whether you want to download a backup of your Google Drive, or move all your files to your computer or a different cloud storage service, follow these steps to easily download all your Google Drive files.
First, go to myaccount.google.com and sign in to your Google account if necessary.
Once your there, click on “Data & Personalization” on the left-hand side of the screen.
Then scroll down the page until you find an option called “Download your data” and click on that.
You’ll now see a list of every Google service, if you leave all the boxes checked you will be able to download all the data that’s in your Google Account. But if you only want to download your Google Drive files, click on “Deselect all” near the top of the page.
Then scroll down the page until you find “Drive” and check the box next to it.
Once you’ve chosen what you want to download, scroll down to the very bottom of the page and click the “Next step” button.
Next, you’ll need to choose the delivery method, this is how you will receive the files. By default, it is set to “Send download link via email” which is the one to choose if you want to download the files to your computer.
But if you want to save the files to a different cloud storage service, you can choose to have the files saved directly to Dropbox, OneDrive, or Box.
Once you’ve chosen how you’re going to receive the files, you’ll now need to choose the frequency. By default, it will only export the files one time which is usually going to be the best option. But if you want to keep an up to date backup of your Google Drive files, you can set it to do this backup every 2 months for a year.
Now you’ll need to choose the file type and size, for the file type, zip file will probably be the best option. This doesn’t mean all your files will be turned into zip files, it means all your files will be put inside a zip file to make them it easier to download.
The file size is the maximum size you want one of the zip files to be. For example, I have 7 GB of files in my Google Drive so if I chose the 2GB option, I would get 3 2GB zip files and 1 1GB zip file. But if I chose the 50GB option, I would just have 1 7GB file.
It is really up to you which file size you choose but I would recommend choosing one of the larger size options as it’s easier to have fewer files to download.
Once you’ve chosen the file type and size, your now ready to create the export, click on the “Create Export” button in the bottom right-hand corner of the page and Google will start to prepare your files.
Once you click “create export”, you’ll receive an email letting you know Google is preparing your files. Now you’ll need to wait a while for your files to be ready, depending on how much stuff you have in your Google Drive, the time you have to wait could be anywhere from a few minutes to a few days.
Once your files are ready to be downloaded, you’ll receive an email to let you know. If you chose to have your files saved directly to a cloud storage service, there is nothing more you need to do, your files will all be there. But if you chose to download your files to your computer, the email you receive will have a link to download the files, so open the email and click on “Download your files“.
You’ll then need to re-enter your Google password for extra security and then your zip file will start downloading to your computer. If all your files fit into 1 zip file, all you have to do is wait for the file to download and all the files will be on your computer!
But if your files had to be split into multiple zip files, all the zip files will be listed on that page with a download button next to each of them, make sure you download each different zip file or else you won’t have all your files.
That’s it! All your files will now be downloaded in a zip file on your computer.
If you don’t know how to open a zip file, click here to find out how to open a zip file on a Chromebook, click here to find out how to open a zip file on a Windows computer, or click here to find out how to open a zip file on a Mac computer.
So there you have it, two different ways to download files from Google Drive.
