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!
Follow these steps: Copy your shareable link either from the desktop version or on the drive.google.com version
- 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 PDF | https://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 PDF | https://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!
