Downloading multiple individual files from Google Drive?

Question

I quite often download multiple files from Google Drive at the same time. However, when I do this, it seems to force me to bundle them in a one .zip file, and download them together, which means I then have to unzip them. It's a minor inconvenience, but something I do many times a day. Is there any way to multi-select files and then download them individually?

I realise Google are somewhat hamstrung by browser features here - perhaps there is a browser plugin that could help (I primarily use Safari, but Chrome/Firefox could also be interesting options).

Answer 1

This is not doable because of the browser's restrictions since you can't download multiple files in one request and that's why Google (and many other services) is packing multiple files in one zip. I'm not sure if there is any plug-in (I doubt since it's very specific), but what you can do is to install the Google Drive on your computer and all of your files will be always synced, so there is no need to download.

Answer 2

Just had the same problem, except it was a shared folder sent to me that didn't even show the download all button or have the ability to save more than one file (in this case images) at once.

Just found Download Master, a plugin for Chrome, worked a charm—it scans the page for links and lets you filter by file type, it doesn't compress for downloads, so it downloads each file individually.

Answer 3

Google Drive web version does not support this. It always tries to return you 1 zip file.

But it is easy to make a JavaScript snippet which triggers the downloads separately.

var selecteds = document.querySelectorAll('[data-id][aria-selected="true"]');
selecteds.forEach(function (element) {
  var dataId = element.getAttribute('data-id');
  var frame = document.createElement("iframe");
  frame.src = `https://drive.google.com/uc?id=${dataId}&export=download`;
  frame.style = 'display: none';
  element.appendChild(frame);
});

Select your files, open the developer console, paste and run the above 8 lines.

---

This is always much faster and simpler as Google allocates much less resource for file compression than file transfer. If you use it frequently, you may further turn it into a button by building a simple browser plugin.

$(function () {
  var button = $('<div class="multiple-download">Multiple Downloads</div>');
  button.prependTo('[role="toolbar"]:has([data-tooltip="Preview"])');
  button.click(function () {
    var selecteds = $('[data-is-doc-name][data-id][aria-selected="true"]');
    selecteds.each(function () {
      var dataId = $(this).attr('data-id');
      var url = `https://drive.google.com/uc?id=${dataId}&export=download`;
      var frame = $(`<iframe src="${url}" frameborder="0" style="display: none"></iframe>`);
      frame.appendTo(this);
    });
  });
});