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I want to download all files from my Google Drive including folders and documents which were shared with me.

  • The problem is, whenever I use google Takeout it skips the shared elements.
  • Using the Desktop app to download all the files is not a solution either, since it doesn't convert the Google Documents to Microsoft-Office Documents.
  • last solution (even though it would loose the folder structure - since I dragged all the shared elements into my drive) was to manually download all shared elements by selecting all of them under the "shared with me"-section and using the download button under "more actions". However, this is not a solution either, since some files extent the max. size limit…

How can I download/export all the files while preserving the folder structures, including shared elements and converting Google Documents to Microsoft-Office Documents?

EDIT: A way to go/loop through each Google Document file automatically, which saves them as Microsoft-Office Documents next to the original files in the same folder would help as well! Then the Desktop app could do the rest.

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  • 1
    I believe you need to add the Shared files/folders to your Drive.
    – ale
    Sep 1, 2015 at 19:05
  • Well all of them were once added/dragged into some folder on my drive.
    – cocoseis
    Sep 1, 2015 at 19:07
  • I have posted an answer that will allow you to download your whole drive, including shared.
    – Roke
    Sep 13, 2015 at 15:44

2 Answers 2

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+50

I would try the following:

  1. Create a new folder in your Google Drive to move all your shared items into.
  2. Go to "Shared with Me" and add all the shared items from there to the new folder in your drive.
  3. Perform an export through Takeout and this should include the new folder you just made with all the shared items you added to it.

When I tested this manually, the shared items added to my drive did show up in the Takeout export.

If this doesn't work or you want to avoid having to add all your "Shared with Me" items to your drive, an alternative solution could be to use the rclone command line tool. Currently, it looks like the beta version of rclone supports accessing items from the "Shared with Me" section of the drive. rclone can then be used to download all these files and also supports downloading Google documents in more portable file formats (rclone defaults to using the docx, xlsx, pptx, and svg formats).

I don't think the existing answer here (which suggests downloading through the web interface) would work because, as mentioned in the question, certain files could hit the max size limit and then fail to download.

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  • For anyone working on +50GB datasets, rclone was the golden ticket in this answer. Still relevant in 2024. Works flawlessly for Shared Drives as well. Only for techies though, as the commandline and documentation would not be so accessible to mere mortals ;)
    – Wouter
    Jan 17 at 10:30
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I would do the following: Move all your folders on the google drive location so they are all in one folder like so: enter image description here

before (on top)

enter image description here

After (bottom image)

Notice in the second image how only the folder 'google drive' is in the drive folder. Also, all the files/folders in the original drive place are in the new folder. This way, you will be able to download the entire Google drive as a single zip folder

Now, you say you wanted to download the shared documents. Using this procedure you can move shared documents into the new 'google drive' folder you just made.

  1. go to the shared with new pane.
  2. Select all of the shared documents you want to download
  3. right click
  4. click add to my drive
  5. select your new folder.
  6. download it enter image description here Notice:
    A: Now there are 2 more folders, with both have an icon of a head on it. This means it is shared. B: the download option is available after right clicking on the folder.

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