Direct download from Google Drive using Google Drive API

Question

My desktop application, written in java, tries to download public files from Google Drive. As i found out, it can be implemented by using file's webContentLink (it's for ability to download public files without user authorization).

So, the code below works with small files:

String webContentLink = aFile.getWebContentLink();
InputStream in = new URL(webContentLink).openStream();

But it doesn't work on big files, because in this case file can't be downloaded directly via webContentLink without user confirmation with google virus scan warning. See an example: web content link.

So my question is how to get content of a public file from Google Drive without user authorization?

Answer 1

Update December 8th, 2015 According to Google Support using the

googledrive.com/host/ID

method will be turned off on Aug 31st, 2016.

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I just ran into this issue.

The trick is to treat your Google Drive folder like a web host.

Update April 1st, 2015

Google Drive has changed and there's a simple way to direct link to your drive. I left my previous answers below for reference but to here's an updated answer.

1. Create a Public folder in Google Drive.
   
   
2. Share this drive publicly.
   
   
   
   
3. Get your Folder UUID from the address bar when you're in that folder
   
   
4. Put that UUID in this URL
   
   https://googledrive.com/host/<folder UUID>/
5. Add the file name to where your file is located.
   
   https://googledrive.com/host/<folder UUID>/<file name>

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Which is intended functionality by Google
new Google Drive Link.

All you have to do is simple get the host URL for a publicly shared drive folder. To do this, you can upload a plain HTML file and preview it in Google Drive to find your host URL.

Here are the steps:

1. Create a folder in Google Drive.
   
   
2. Share this drive publicly.
   
   
   
   
3. Upload a simple HTML file. Add any additional files (subfolders ok)
   
   
   
   
4. Open and "preview" the HTML file in Google Drive
   
   
   
   
5. Get the URL address for this folder
   
   
   
   
6. Create a direct link URL from your URL folder base
   
   
   
   
7. This URL should allow direct downloads of your large files.
   
   

[edit]

I forgot to add. If you use subfolders to organize your files, you simple use the folder name as you would expect in a URL hierarchy.

https://googledrive.com/host/<your public folders id string>/images/my-image.png

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What I was looking to do

I created a custom Debian image with Virtual Box for Vagrant. I wanted to share this ".box" file with colleagues so they could put the direct link into their Vagrantfile.

In the end, I needed a direct link to the actual file.

Google Drive problem

If you set the file permissions to be publicly available and create/generate a direct access link by using something like the gdocs2direct tool or just crafting the link yourself:

https://docs.google.com/uc?export=download&id=<your file id>

You will get a cookie based verification code and prompt "Google could not scan this file" prompt, which won't work for things such as wget or Vagrantfile configs.

The code that it generates is a simple code that appends GET query variable ...&confirm=### to the string, but it's per user specific, so it's not like you can copy/paste that query variable for others.

But if you use the above "Web page hosting" method, you can get around that prompt.

I hope that helps!