Leaving a job and want my personal files off the company Google Drive onto a USB stick before my account closes. 40GB across many folders. Downloading one by one is painful and zip downloads keep failing. Reliable way?
How to save Google Drive files to a USB drive?
Solved Cloud & Migration
AJ
Andrew Jackson October 8, 2020
2 replies
5,180 views
Reviewed by moderators
Browser zip downloads choke on large selections, that is the failure you are hitting.
1
Best: install Google Drive for Desktop, sign in, let it sync the folders, then copy from the synced folder to your USB. Reliable and resumable.
2
No install allowed: Google Takeout. Select Drive, request an export, Google emails you download links in manageable split archives rather than one giant failing zip.
3
Confirm your account actually owns the files. Files owned by the company that were shared to you will not export, and only leave with the account that owns them.
Drive for Desktop synced everything, copied to USB clean. Checked ownership too. Solved.