Why?

When you click "Download" on a Google Drive folder, Drive splits large folders into multiple ~2 GB ZIP files. You then have to download each one, extract them separately, and reassemble — tedious and error-prone.

gdrive-zip talks directly to the Drive API, downloads every file itself, and writes a single ZIP archive (zip64-enabled, no size cap). One command. One file.

Features

Quick Start

1. Install

pip install gdrive-zip

Or run directly from source:

git clone https://github.com/SanjayKumar301/gdrive-zip.git
cd gdrive-zip
pip install -e .

2. One-Time Setup (~5 minutes)

gdrive-zip uses the Google Drive API, which requires a free OAuth2 credential from your Google Cloud account. You only do this once.

gdrive-zip --set-credentials ~/Downloads/credentials.json

3. Run

# Download a shared folder (paste the URL directly)
gdrive-zip https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1AbCDeFGhIJkLmNoPQRsTuVwXyZ

# Specify a custom output filename
gdrive-zip https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1AbCDe... my_archive.zip

# Use a raw folder ID instead of a URL
gdrive-zip 1AbCDeFGhIJkLmNoPQRsTuVwXyZ

# Pass a custom credentials file on the fly
gdrive-zip <FOLDER_URL> --credentials /path/to/credentials.json

# Download to a directory instead of a ZIP
gdrive-zip https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1AbCDe... --no-zip

# Check configuration directory & status
gdrive-zip --config-dir

# Check the version
gdrive-zip --version

The first time you run it, a browser window will open asking you to sign in to Google and approve read-only Drive access. After that, authentication is cached in your global config (~/.gdrive-zip/token.json) — you won't be prompted again.

Usage Reference

usage: gdrive-zip [-h] [--credentials PATH] [--set-credentials PATH]
                  [--config-dir] [--no-zip] [--version]
                  [FOLDER] [output]

positional arguments:
  FOLDER                Google Drive folder URL or bare folder ID
  output                Output filename (default: drive_download.zip) or
                        output directory when --no-zip is used (default:
                        drive_download)

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --credentials PATH    Explicit path to credentials.json
  --set-credentials PATH
                        Copy credentials.json into ~/.gdrive-zip/ for global
                        use
  --config-dir          Show the ~/.gdrive-zip/ config directory path and
                        status
  --no-zip              Download files to a local directory instead of
                        creating a ZIP archive
  --version             show program's version number and exit

How It Works

gdrive-zip <folder_url>
    │
    ├─ OAuth2 login (browser, one-time only)
    │
    ├─ Drive API: recursively list all files & subfolders
    │
    ├─ For each file:
    │     ├─ Regular files  → get_media()
    │     └─ Google Docs/Sheets/Slides → export_media() → .docx/.xlsx/.pptx
    │
    └─ Write everything into a single ZIP (zip64, no size cap)

File Structure (after cloning)

gdrive-zip/
├── drive_folder_downloader.py   # Main script / entry point
├── credentials.example.json     # Template — copy to credentials.json
├── requirements.txt
├── pyproject.toml
├── LICENSE
└── README.md

Note: credentials.json and token.json are excluded from git via .gitignore. They are never committed.

Supported Google-Native Types

Requirements

• Python 3.8+
• A free Google Cloud project with the Drive API enabled
• credentials.json (see One-Time Setup)

Dependencies (installed automatically via pip):

google-auth
google-auth-oauthlib
google-api-python-client
tqdm

Troubleshooting

Contributing

Pull requests are welcome! Please:

1. Fork the repo
2. Create a feature branch: git checkout -b feature/my-feature
3. Commit your changes: git commit -m "Add my feature"
4. Push and open a PR

For major changes, open an issue first to discuss what you'd like to change.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.