I need help with downloading public files from Google Drive using command line tools. I want to grab a spreadsheet that’s shared publicly without needing any authentication or login credentials.
Here’s what I’m trying to accomplish:
wget -O document.csv "https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=1Ab3CdEfGhIjKlMnOpQrStUvWxYz123456"
The file I’m targeting is completely public and doesn’t require any Google account access. I just want to pull it down directly from the command line.
For context, here are the file details I’m working with:
"kind": "drive#file",
"id": "1Ab3CdEfGhIjKlMnOpQrStUvWxYz123456"
Is this possible with standard command line download tools?
I’ve hit this same problem tons of times. Google Drive’s public URLs are tricky because Google shows you a preview page instead of serving the actual file. You’ve got to tweak the URL to force a direct download. Skip the uc endpoint - it’s a pain. For CSV files from Google Sheets, use this format instead: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/FILE_ID/export?format=csv&gid=0. This skips Google’s preview completely. If you’re using wget, throw in the --content-disposition flag to keep the original filename. Way more reliable than wrestling with those uc endpoint redirects, especially for automated scripts.
Your approach works for smaller files, but Google Drive has quirks that’ll trip you up. Larger files get redirected to a virus scanning warning page, breaking direct downloads. Add the confirm=t parameter to bypass the download warning Google shows for files over 25MB. Your command becomes: wget --no-check-certificate -O document.csv \"https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=1Ab3CdEfGhIjKlMnOpQrStUvWxYz123456&confirm=t\". I’ve had better luck using curl with the -L flag to follow redirects - Google Drive bounces you through multiple URLs before serving the actual file. The --no-check-certificate flag avoids SSL issues that pop up with Google’s certificates.