How to Move Files from Google Drive to Desktop | 3 Free Ways

Quick Search:

• User Case: How do I Copy a File from Google Drive to the Desktop?
• Why Move Files from Google Drive to Desktop?
• How to Move Files from Google Drive to Desktop/Mac
• In the End

User Case: How do I Copy a File from Google Drive to the Desktop?

Why Move Files from Google Drive to Desktop?

Google Drive is a cloud-based storage for you to save photos, videos, documents and other files, allowing you to access them anywhere from cell phones, computers and tablets. Using Google Drive has many advantages, such as easy file sharing and convenient online editing. Once you get started on Google Drive, you have a free 15GB of storage space (Google Drive shares the 15GB free space with Google Photos and Gmail).

In terms of much data people have in their daily life, it’s easy to run out of Google Drive’s 15GB of free storage. Hence, moving files from Google Drive to desktop is a good way to free up storage on Google Drive if you don’t want to pay for more storage space. Apart from that, there are other benefits you can obtain if transferring files from Google Drive to desktop.

Anyway, the reasons mentioned above just force us to move files from Google Drive to desktop. And then, we will discuss 3 useful ways to achieve this task in this article.

How to Move Files from Google Drive to Desktop/Mac

In this section, 3 FREE and easy solutions are provided to help you download files from Google Drive to desktop. Whether you’re using a tablet, computer or Mac, all can refer to the following content to move files from Google Drive to desktop.

Way 1: By Using MultCloud 

If you want to avoid situations such as Google Drive not downloading and working, then how to move Google Drive files to the desktop? The easiest way is using a third-party application – MultCloud. MultCloud is a brilliant cloud file manager, which allows you to manage many cloud drives in only one place. Currently, it supports Google Drive, Flickr, OneDrive, MEGA, Dropbox, Google Photos, FTP and so on.

Benefits you can get by using MultCloud:

Now, you may wonder how to migrate files from Google Drive to desktop with MutlCloud? Here’s what you should do:

Step 1: Register a MultCloud account for free. Or, you can tap “Try without signing up” to get a temporary account.

Step 2: Go to Add Cloud on the left taskbar, and add Google Drive to MultCloud by following the guidance showing to you.

Step 3: Locate the file you want to download from Google Drive, right-click it to select Download.

Way 2: How to Move Files from Google Drive to Desktop by its Web App 

If there are a few files to be downloaded from your Google Drive to desktop, you can simply visit the official website of Google Drive to download them. Here are the detailed steps you should follow:

Step 1: Visit Google Drive and sign in with your Google account.
Step 2: Select the files you want to move from Google Drive to your desktop. Even though Google Drive doesn’t offer you the feature called one-click selecting all, you can press Control/Command on your keyboard and left-click the file one by one. Then you can right-click to download these files at once.

Way 3: By Using Drive for Desktop

In addition to transferring files from Google Drive to desktop through its web app, you can also achieve this goal by using Google Drive desktop app if you have already installed that app on your devices. Now, you can refer to the guidelines below to learn how to transfer files from Google Drive to desktop by Google Drive’s desktop app.

Step 1: Go to the Google Drive desktop app and log in with your Google account.
Step 2: Click the Google Drive icon and select Preferences.

Step 3: Go to Google Drive and click Open in Explorer. Then you will see a Google Drive folder.

Step 4: Locate the file or files you want to move from Google Drive to desktop, and then drag and drop it/them to your desktop.

In the End

As you can see from the article, the solutions on how to move files from Google Drive to a desktop are very easy and simple. After reading, you can choose to download files from Google Drive to your desktop according to your situation: by Google Drive’s web app, desktop app, or a little helper – MultCloud. On top of downloading files, if you want to know how to upload PDF to Google Drive, MultCloud can work it out effectively as well. 

Additionally, other basic features like sharing, deleting, renaming, copying, etc. are available too. Advanced features such as cloud-to-cloud transfer, sync, and backup are also supportive. MultCloud supports more than 30 cloud drives in the market. When you want to move files from Dropbox to Google Drive, you can use the Cloud Transfer feature. Without downloading and uploading, you can easily migrate files between clouds on the web. Meanwhile, scheduled transfers are also offered to run tasks at regular intervals.