Quick & Easy Guide to Downloading a Backup from Google Drive

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Easy ways to download a Google Drive backup

Written by Hannah Dillon

Last Updated: July 30, 2025 Fact Checked

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• Using the Google Drive Website
|
• Using Google Takeout

|Show more |Show less

This wikiHow teaches you how to download a backup from your Google Drive. You can download backups of individual files or folders, or you can use Google Takeout to download your entire Google Drive easily. Read on to learn how!

Quick Guide: Downloading Google Drive Backups

In your Google Drive, navigate to the file you want to download. Right-click or control-click the file you want to download and select Download to download a zipped copy of the backup. Otherwise, go to the Google Takeout website and choose to export your Google Drive, then choose your export settings.

Steps

Method 1

Method 1 of 2:

Using the Google Drive Website

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1. 
   1
   Go to drive.google.com in a web browser. If you're not already signed in to your Google account, you should do so now.

   • Use this method if you want to download files you've previously backed up to Google Drive. For example, if you backed up your home computer to Google Drive, you can use this method to download those backed-up files.
   • This method works best if you want to download backed-up individual files or folders. If you want to download an entire backup of your Google Drive, jump down to Using Google Takeout method.
2. 
   2
   Navigate to the file or folder you want to download. You can look under "My Drive," "Computers," or "Shared Drives."
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3. 
   3
   Right-click the file, folder, or computer name you want to download. If you want to download multiple items at once, hold down either ⇧ Shift to select multiple items in a row, or Ctrl to select multiple items that aren't next to each other.
4. 
   4
   Click Download. If you're downloading a single backed-up file, the file will either download to your default download folder or prompt you to select a download folder and click Save.

   • If you're downloading multiple files or a folder, the files will be compressed into a single ZIP file—you can watch the progress at the bottom-right corner of the screen. When the file is ready, select a download location and click Save.
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Method 2

Method 2 of 2:

Using Google Takeout

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1. 
   1
   Go to takeout.google.com. Takeout is a Google service that allows you to download all or some of your Google data easily. You can use it to download a backup of your entire Drive in a few clicks.

   • Use this method to download a backup of your entire Google Drive at once.
   • If you're prompted to log in, do so.
2. 
   2
   Click Deselect all near the top of the screen. Next to "Select data to include," you'll see "## of ## selected." By default, Google will select all of your data to download, including the photos in your Google Photos account. If you're just looking to back up your Drive, click Deselect all under this header so your download isn't unnecessarily large.
3. 
   3
   Scroll down and check the box next to "Drive." Takeout will download all of the files that are stored in the "My Drive" folder and "Computers" folder.

   • Depending on how many files are in your Google Drive, this file has the potential to get really large. We don't advise using this method on a mobile data connection.
4. 
   4
   Edit your export settings (optional). You can edit how Google exports your Google Drive files before proceeding, if you wish.

   • Click Multiple formats and choose what format you want Google to export your documents as. You can choose the file type for documents, spreadsheets, uploads, and more.
   • Click Advanced settings. You can choose to include named, published, and uploaded versions of your additional files, as well as whether Google should include additional info for files and folders in the export.
5. 
   5
   Scroll to the bottom and click Next step. It's the blue button at the bottom right corner of the page.
6. 
   6
   Choose a destination. By default, Google will send you a download link via email. However, you can instead choose to send the backup to your Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, or Box.

   • Google will send the backup to the email associated with the Google account that you signed in to with Takeout.
7. 
   7
   Choose the export frequency. If you want to routinely get backups of your Google Drive, choose Export every 2 months for 1 year. Otherwise, leave the Export once option selected (as it's chosen by default).
8. 
   8
   Choose a file type and file size. You can choose what type of file Google will send your backup in, as well as how big the file should be.

   • Under "File type," you can choose ZIP and TGZ. ZIP files can be opened on almost any computer, while TGZ files need third-party software like 7-Zip on Windows. If you have a Mac or use Linux, you won't need to install anything extra to open a TGZ file.
   • Under "File size", you can choose 1 GB, 2 GB, 4 GB, 10 GB, or 50 GB. Depending on the size of your backup, the backup might be split into smaller files.
     • For example, if your Drive's backup is a total of 10 GB in size but you choose a maximum file size of 2 GB, Google will compress your Drive's backup into five 2 GB files.
9. 
   9
   Click Create export. Google will create your backup and send you the file it creates based on the settings you chose. Note that it may take some time to create the backup, depending on the size of your Drive.
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