If the folder is larger than 2 GB, Google Drive might struggle to provide a direct download link even on the web UI, often splitting it into multiple files. For API usage, you are subject to rate limits: 1,000 requests per 100 seconds.
the files into a ZIP archive locally using your programming language of choice. google drive api download folder as zip
If you are downloading very large files, using io.BytesIO() (loading into memory) might cause errors. For large files, it is recommended to download directly to a local temporary file ( f = io.FileIO(file['name'], 'wb') ) before adding it to the zip archive. 5. Alternative - Google Drive Desktop App If the folder is larger than 2 GB,
import io import os import zipfile from googleapiclient.discovery import build from googleapiclient.http import MediaIoBaseDownload from google_auth_oauthlib.flow import InstalledAppFlow # 1. AUTHENTICATION & SETUP SCOPES = ['https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.readonly'] FOLDER_ID = 'YOUR_FOLDER_ID' # <--- Change this OUTPUT_ZIP_NAME = 'downloaded_folder.zip' def get_service(): flow = InstalledAppFlow.from_client_secrets_file('credentials.json', SCOPES) creds = flow.run_local_server(port=0) return build('drive', 'v3', credentials=creds) def download_folder_as_zip(folder_id, zip_name): service = get_service() # 2. LIST ALL FILES IN FOLDER query = f"'{folder_id}' in parents and trashed = false" results = service.files().list(q=query, fields="files(id, name, mimeType)").execute() files = results.get('files', []) if not files: print('No files found in folder.') return # 3. DOWNLOAD & ZIP LOCALLY with zipfile.ZipFile(zip_name, 'w') as zipf: for file in files: # Skip subfolders if not needed, or add recursive logic if file['mimeType'] == 'application/vnd.google-apps.folder': print(f"Skipping subdirectory: {file['name']}") continue print(f"Downloading: {file['name']}") request = service.files().get_media(fileId=file['id']) fh = io.BytesIO() downloader = MediaIoBaseDownload(fh, request) done = False while not done: status, done = downloader.next_chunk() # Write downloaded file to zip zipf.writestr(file['name'], fh.getvalue()) print(f"Successfully created {zip_name}") if __name__ == '__main__': download_folder_as_zip(FOLDER_ID, OUTPUT_ZIP_NAME) Use code with caution. Key Considerations and API Limitations If you are downloading very large files, using io