I’m working on a website where visitors need to be able to upload documents and images. My goal is to save all these uploaded files into one main Google Drive folder that belongs to me. The important thing is that people using my site should not need to sign in with their own Google accounts or go through any permission steps. They should just be able to pick a file and upload it straight to my Drive storage. I want to know if this kind of setup is actually doable with the current Google Drive API. Has anyone managed to implement something similar where anonymous users can upload content without any login process?
Another route worth considering is using Google Apps Script as a web app endpoint. I implemented this approach for a document collection system where anonymous users needed to submit files without any authentication hassle. You create a standalone Apps Script project, write a function that receives POST requests with file data, and deploy it as a web app with execution permissions set to anyone. The script can then save uploaded files directly to your Drive folder using the built-in DriveApp service. The main advantage here is that you avoid dealing with service account credentials and OAuth flows entirely since Apps Script runs under your Google account context. However, there are some limitations on file size and execution time that you need to work around, and the upload process requires converting files to base64 which can be memory intensive for larger files.
This is definitely possible through service account authentication with the Google Drive API. You’ll need to create a service account in your Google Cloud Console, generate credentials, and configure your backend to handle uploads using those credentials rather than requiring user authentication. The key is setting up your server-side application to act as the intermediary - users upload to your server, then your server pushes those files to your Drive using the service account permissions. Make sure to set proper folder permissions on your target Drive folder and implement file validation on your end to prevent abuse. I’ve used this approach for a client feedback portal and it works reliably, though you’ll want to consider storage limits and potential security implications of anonymous uploads.
yeah i did this for my photography site last year. basically you gotta use google forms with file upload enabled and connect it to a drive folder. way easier than messing with apis and service accounts imo. just embed the form on your site and all uploads go straight to your designated folder automatically. no coding required tbh