I need to grab a file from Google Drive directly to my Linux server. The file I want is accessible through a sharing link but I’m not sure how to use wget with it.
I got a 404 error message. Can wget work with Google Drive URLs? What’s the correct URL format I should use? Are there other command line tools that might work better for downloading files directly from Google Drive to a remote server without having to download locally first?
Google Drive links don’t work with wget or curl because they redirect through Google’s auth system. You need to change the URL format to bypass the preview page. For public files, modify https://drive.google.com/file/d/FILE_ID/view to https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=FILE_ID. Then use wget:
For files over 25MB, Google requires confirmation due to a virus scan. It’s more reliable to use gdown for such files. Install it via pip and run gdown https://drive.google.com/uc?id=FILE_ID. This tool manages redirects and confirmations seamlessly.
Had this same problem with automated deployments on production servers. That URL trick works for small files, but Google Drive gets weird with larger files and different sharing settings. I switched to rclone and haven’t looked back. Run rclone config once to authenticate, then just use rclone copy in your scripts. It handles all the auth stuff automatically and doesn’t care about file size. Takes a few minutes to set up but you’ll save hours when Google inevitably breaks their download URLs again.
btw heads up - file permissions can bite you with this method. Google Drive loves screwing with sharing settings, so you’ll end up with partial or corrupted downloads. Quick tip: always check your file size after wget runs. If it’s way smaller than it should be, the share link isn’t actually public.