How to use Google Takeout to export and download your data from Google Drive

Source: Harish Jonnalagadda / Android Central

Google Takeout is Google’s way of giving you control over your privacy and data. It’s no secret that Google collects quite a bit of data about you based on (just to name a few) search history, maps, YouTube, and more. If you’re like most of us here at Android Central, you probably use Google Drive a lot. Downloading all the data (read: files) you’ve collected over the years can take a long time to do manually. But you can download as much or as little as you need, all at once with Google Takeout. We’ll show you how!

How to download your data from Google Drive with Takeout

1. Go to takeout.google.com
2. Log in to the website with the same Google account you want to download data from.
3. Now you can select the Google products you want to download. In this case, we want to limit the download to Google Drive content, so click first deselect everything.

   Source: Adam Doud / Android Central

4. Scroll down and put a check in Drive. Optionally, click on the button under Drive that says Multiple sizes.

   Source: Adam Doud / Android Central

5. Here you can configure which formats your downloads cover. This mainly relates to Google Drive’s proprietary formats, such as documents from Docs, Sheets, etc. You can choose the Microsoft equivalent (Docx for Docs, PPTx for presentations, etc.), or you can choose to download them as PDFs. Once you have made your choices, click OK.

   Source: Adam Doud / Android Central

6. If necessary, click All Drive data included.
7. Here you can choose which folders to download. The more folders you select, the longer the export will take. If you want to deselect folders, you must first deselect ‘Include all files and folders in Drive’. Note: You can only select and deselect top-level folders. You cannot go to the folder tree to deselect subfolders. It’s all or nothing. Click OK.

   Source: Adam Doud / Android Central

   
   
8. When you have selected all the options you want, scroll down and click Next step.

   Source: Adam Doud / Android Central

9. Here you can configure various options, such as how the pickup will be delivered, how often the files are exported, and the file type and maximum size of the export. Note: If you choose a size and your export is larger than the size you chose, your export will be split into multiple files for download. Click Make an export.

   Source: Adam Doud / Android Central

10. You will receive an email notification once the export is complete. Note: Depending on how much you export, it can take hours or days. You can return to the site to download the export. Click at the top Manage exports.

    Source: Adam Doud / Android Central

11. Click Show export.

    Source: Adam Doud / Android Central

12. Here you can download the files of the export. Again, if the export exceeds the size limit, your export will be split into parts. Click To download for each part.

    Source: Adam Doud / Android Central

Retrieval is a great way to download large amounts of data from Google Drive. If you want to be more selective about what you download, you can still do it manually in Google Drive. But if you want to download a large chunk of your Drive at once, this is the best way to do it.