Making a Google Drive File/Link Auto-Download

Last week I talked about how to make a Dropbox file/link auto-download and I had SO many questions about making a Google Drive file do the same thing, so I thought I'd just post about that today!

how to make google drive file links auto-download

Follow these steps: Copy your shareable link either from the desktop version or on the drive.google.com version

screenshot-2016-11-10-19-56-11

  1. So, in this example, my sharing link is
    https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AUt3lcnOpDAqMpBoq4k7bMOAH7negz6PWLc_MKgIqvI/edit?usp=sharing
    • Take note of the “file ID” that directly follows the part of the link that reads “file/d/”. In this example it is: 1AUt3lcnOpDAqMpBoq4k7bMOAH7negz6PWLc_MKgIqvI
    • Determine what type of file you’re sharing (is it a doc, PDF, JPG, spreadsheet, presentation, etc) and use the chart below to determine which link you need to use as a template:

Doc (.docx, etc)https://docs.google.com/document/d/FILE_ID/export?format=doc
PDF
(You can also use this link to turn a DOC file into a PDF on download)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/FILE_ID/export?format=pdf
Spreadsheet
(Will download as a spreadsheet)
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/FILE_ID/export?format=xlsx
Spreadsheet that will download as a PDFhttps://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/FILE_ID/export?format=pdf
Presentation
(Will download as a presentation)
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/FILE_ID/export/pptx
Presentation that will download as a PDFhttps://docs.google.com/presentation/d/FILE_ID/export/pdf
 
  • Replace the very end piece of the link above that reads “FILE_ID” with the FILE ID you copied in step #2.Your link will now look like (using the doc example link):  

    https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AUt3lcnOpDAqMpBoq4k7bMOAH7negz6PWLc_MKgIqvI/export?format=doc

    YOU'RE DONE!

    Whoever clicks that link will have the file it links to auto-download to their computer/desktop/etc.

When will this come in handy? When delivering files to your audience or clients! One way that I used ALL. THE. TIME. is that I use this (well, the Dropbox version) to deliver freebies to the people who opt-in to my list.

Learn how!

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