How to Download Shared Documents from Google Drive to Local Drive

How to Download “Shared with Me” Folder Documents from Google Drive

With the advancement towards digital world, it has become necessary to share and exchange files from one person to another person at different locations for many purposes. It is quite easy to share a small sized file just by attaching it on an email message. However, when user needs to share large sized files, they cannot simply attach it on the email, which is why Google has come up with solution i.e. Google Drive. Let us discuss how the Google Drive functions and how user can export all files from G Drive’s Shared Folder. In this blog, you will learn how to download shared documents from Google Drive to your local drive.

Brief about Google Drive

Google Drive is a free-web based service developed by Google that allow users to store files online as well as access them anywhere using cloud. It gives free online storage space offering 15 GB size where user can share documents, spreadsheets, presentations, images and many more. Using Drive does not require users to email or save files to USB drive; instead, it just needs internet connection to access them from any system.

How are files & folders shared in Google Drive?

Any user can share different files and folders to make other users access them for functions like edit, view or comment on them. For sharing, user needs to click on New Tab, click on File Upload option to select the files. Select the file and click on Share option to share it with any desired.

When the recipient tries to access those files, it will be stored on ‘Shared with me’ folder in their Google Drive. This folder lets user see the files and folders that has been shared with them. It gives preview of all the files such as file name, owner of the file, shared date, etc.

Why Should We Download All Files from Google Drive Shared Folder?

As we know that G-Drive is a cloud-based service, it means internet connection is necessary to have access of the files in Drive. However, there may be many situations where extracting/ exporting the shared files from Google Drive can be helpful:

• Absence of internet connectivity making the files in G-Drive inaccessible
• Issues may arise if the storage space allocated for Google Drive is exceeded
• Sometimes, Google Drive may not be able to sync because folders are missing
• Saving/ exporting a copy of files from Google Drive gives offline access on any system

How to Download Shared Documents from Google Drive

User can go for any of the below discussed methods to extract shared documents from Google Drive and save to your PC.

Manually Backup Shared Documents: Though Google Drive works as an online storage folder, user can also save the files and folders on Local drive, which was shared to them by other users by downloading them using the steps below:

1. Go to Gmail website and login to Gmail account
2. To access the shared files, go to drive.google.com on new browser tab.
3. Google Drive screen will be displayed and select Shared with me folder.
4. All the documents or files that has been shared to user will be shown.
5. Select some desired files or select all files in the folder using Shift + Ctrl button.
6. After selecting files, right-click and select Download option.
7. All the files will be saved in compressed file (.zip) format.
8. The files can be uncompressed to access them individually.

Limitations of using Manual Approach:

• The files and folders shared will be backed-up in compressed format.
• User needs to follow extra step for uncompressing the files first.
• Time consuming and not so user-friendly interface.

Using Third Party Approach

Another alternative is to use a third party application that supports following features:

• Export multiple shared files from Google Drive at a time.
• Save extracted files in any desired location specified by the user.
• Advanced Options like Delete after download and Apply filter supported.
• Along with Google Drive Data, Emails can also be backed-up.
• Management of Internet Bandwidth for smooth export process.
• Keeps the original formatting of all the Google Drive files after download.
• Easy to use and fast procedure of saving shared files.
• All the shared files are saved in uncompressed format.

One such efficient tool is Gmail Backup application. The software works effortlessly helping user to download all the files from Google Drive as well as emails from Gmail account and save them locally.

Let us learn how the Tool works:

1. Launch the application after its installation.
2. Add the correct credentials of Gmail and click on Login.
3. Go to Backup Tab & unselect the sections like Email, Calendars & Contacts, as they do not need to be downloaded from G-Drive. Only choose Document section.
4. Select the desired location to save the files clicking on Browse button.
5. Options like Delete after download and filter can be applied, if required.
6. Click on Start button to initiate the download process.
7. Progress can be seen showing document count downloaded.
8. A notification will be displayed after completion of download.
9. Go to the destination path and all the files will be downloaded.

Conclusion

Though Google Drive is a beneficial cloud-based service with free 15GB storage, however sometimes user may need to download the files and folders that have been shared to users. The blog explains the procedure to download shared documents from Google Drive to store them locally on the user’s system. Along with that, it also explains the need and way to download files using either manual or third party methods. To learn how to download shared documents from Google Drive to your local drive, user can refer this content to ease the task.