I’m working on a project where I need to transfer around 30k images from Google Drive to AWS S3. I already have all the file IDs stored on my local machine. The problem is that when I try to fetch these images through Google Drive API, I keep hitting quota limits after just 20-30 requests. Even though I added a 2 second delay between each API call, I still get 403 errors. The official quota should allow 1000 requests per 100 seconds per user, but somehow I’m still exceeding it. Has anyone dealt with this kind of bulk download before? What’s the most efficient approach to handle this without running into rate limits? I need to get this done in a reasonable timeframe.
Hit the same quota issues migrating our company’s image archive last year. Google’s gotten way more aggressive with per-project limits, not just per-user ones. Fixed delays didn’t work - I switched to exponential backoff with jitter. Start at 1 second, double it each time you get a 403, and add some randomness so you don’t get thundering herd problems. Check if other operations are eating your quota too if you’re sharing the project. I created multiple service accounts across different projects to spread the load - throughput improved massively. Also helped to batch metadata requests separately from file downloads since they hit different quota buckets. Took a week instead of the day I planned, but ran hands-off once I fixed the retry logic.
That 2-second delay won’t work with Google’s rate limiting. Their quotas use token bucket algorithms that’ll deny requests even when you think you’re under the limit - it’s not evenly distributed like you’d expect. I hit the same wall migrating a client’s media library and found out Google has undocumented burst limits too. Here’s what actually worked: set up a queue with multiple worker threads that watch the response headers for retry-after values. When you get a 403, back off way longer than feels right - I’m talking 30-60 seconds, not quick retries. Try using batch API for metadata first, then download files one by one. The real kicker is Google’s infrastructure changes by region and time of day, so your effective quota shifts constantly during the process.
I’ve done bulk transfers like this - the quota limits are brutal. Google Takeout worked way better for me than the API when moving large batches. If you’re stuck with the API, split your file IDs across multiple Google projects with different credentials. Also worth checking if you’re getting throttled at the IP level, not just API level.
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