Online-only files are displayed with a cloud graphic overlaying the thumbnail anything that you’ve made available for offline use will remove this cloud icon. Any changes you make will be updated once you regain Internet connection. If you’re expecting to be without Internet connection, for example you’re preparing for a flight, then you can select certain files or folders for offline access by right-clicking on them. That’s the key benefit of opting to use the software rather than relying on an Internet browser. You don’t need to download files if you’re using the desktop client so long as you have Internet access, because any changes you make will be automatically updated. The latter provides the best clarity if you’re unsure which documents belong where.

Your Google Drive files will actually appear in your File Explorer windows just as if they’re stored on your computer, and you can choose to either set up a specific folder on your hard drive or create a new drive for the Internet-connected account.

After downloading it, you’ll need to sign in just once and then it’ll handle all the syncing for you. If you prefer not to have to navigate to your browser every time and log in to your Google account, then the desktop client may be better suited to your needs. Google Drive: How to download files on Windows If you’ve been given access to an entire folder, you can either download files individually or use the ‘Download all’ shortcut button. For Google-compatible files like Docs, you’ll need to find ‘Download’ in the ‘File’ menu. For view-only files like PDFs and images, you’ll find a ‘Download’ button in the upper right-hand side corner. How you download the file will depend on what sort of file it is. If you don’t have a Google account but you want to make a copy of something that someone has sent you, you’ll need to make sure that they’ve given you the right permission to download the file. Google Drive: How to download files online without an account Once complete, the zipped folder containing multiple documents will start to download. A single file will automatically download to your computer, but if you select more than one, Google Drive will begin to zip them to help reduce their overall size and, as such, speed up the download - you can check this progress in the bottom right corner. You can either right-click and press download, or press the ‘three dots’ icon and press download.

Download all data from google drive