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emxsys/wget_google_drive_download.md

Last active July 15, 2025 20:18
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Download Google Drive files with WGET
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wget_google_drive_download.md

How to download files from Google Drive with WGET

Step 1. Get the ID of the file to download

  1. Get a shareable link from Google Drive by right-clicking the file and selecting Get Shareable Link.

  2. Examine the link to get the file's ID. Example:

    https://docs.google.com/open?id=[ID]

Step 2. Download the file with WGET

  1. Build the download URL using the ID obtained in Step 1. Example:

    https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=[ID]

  2. Run WGET with the URL. Usage: wget [OPTION]... [URL].... Example:

    wget -O [filename] --no-check-certificate -r 'https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=[ID]'

      Options used:
  -O, --output-document=FILE  writes document to FILE
  --no-check-certificate      don't validate the server's certificate
  -r                          recursive

These instructions were inspired by the Gist and comments at https://gist.github.com/iamtekeste/3cdfd0366ebfd2c0d805

@iamacarpet
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It looks like this has changed slightly, specifically for larger files.

I'm finding your above URL returns a HTML form rather than the file - the actual file can be fetched from this URL:

https://drive.usercontent.google.com/download?export=download&id=[ID]&confirm=t

@aw632
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aw632 commented Jul 15, 2025

This doesn't seem to work anymore. It just downloads a 2KB file which is probably the confirmation form, even with confirm=t set.

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