How to Download Files and Webpages Directly to Google Drive in Chrome

We’ve all downloaded files from the web to our computer. However, if you’d rather download files directly to your Google Drive account, there’s an extension for Google Chrome that allows you to do just that.

Google’s Save to Google Drive extension allows you to save downloaded files directly to your Google Drive account, as well as save webpages to Google Drive as images, HTML files, or even Google documents. If you’re using the Google Drive desktop client for Windows or macOS, you can save downloaded files directly to your local Google Drive folder and they will be uploaded to your Google Drive account automatically. However, using the Google Drive client uses space on your computer, which isn’t ideal if you’re low on space. The Save to Google Drive extension can also be useful If you’re using Ubuntu Linux, which does not have an official Google Drive client.

NOTE: The Save to Google Drive extension saves files to the Google account you are signed in to in Chrome. So, switch to the Google Chrome profile that corresponds to the Google Drive account you want to save files to before using this extension.

We’ll show you how to install, set up, and use the Save to Google Drive extension in Chrome for Windows, but it works the same way on Chrome for macOS and for most common Linux distributions, such as Ubuntu.

Install and Set Up the Save to Google Drive Extension

To install the extension, visit the Save to Google Drive extension page in Chrome and click “Add to Chrome”.

A confirmation dialog box displays asking if you want to add Save to Google Drive. Click “Add extension”.

A button for the Save to Google Drive extension is added to the toolbar to the right of the address bar.

Before using the extension, we’ll set up the options for it. To do this, right-click on the Save to Google Drive button on the toolbar and select “Options” from the popup menu. 

The options for the extension display on a new tab. By default, the extension is set to save files to the main My Drive folder in your Google Drive account. To change this, click “Change destination folder” in the Save to Folder section.

On the Select a Save to Folder dialog box, navigate to and select the folder in which you want to save files by default and click “Select”.

NOTE: You can still change the Save to Folder for each file you save to Google Drive. If you want to save most files to the same location, this setting makes it quicker to save files to your predefined location.

The Save to Google Drive extension also allows you to save a webpage as an image of the entire page (default), an image of the visible page, raw HTML source, a web archive (MHTML), or even as a Google Document. In the HTML pages section, select the format you want to use when saving webpages. If you’re downloading Microsoft Office files or comma-separated files, you can automatically convert these files to Google Docs format, by checking the “Convert saved link to Google editor format” box.

The Save to Google Drive extension also allows you to save a webpage as an image of the entire page (default), an image of the visible page, raw HTML source, a web archive (MHTML), or even as a Google Document. In the HTML pages section, select the format you want to use when saving webpages. If you’re downloading Microsoft Office files or comma-separated files, you can automatically convert these files to Google Docs format, by checking the “Convert saved link to Google editor format” box.

Once you’ve made your selections, click the “X” on the Options tab to close it.

Download a File Directly to Google Drive

To save a downloadable file to your Google Drive account, right-click on a download link and select “Save Link to Google Drive” from the popup menu.

The first time you save a file or webpage to Google Drive using the extension, a dialog box displays asking you to allow the extension to access and use the information listed. Click “Allow”.

The Save to Google Drive dialog box displays and the downloaded file is saved to your Google Drive account either to the main My Drive location or to the folder you specified.

You can also change the name of the downloaded file to whatever you want by clicking “Rename”.

Change the file name in the Rename box and click “Apply”.

Click “Close” to close the Save to Google Drive dialog box.

The webpage file is saved to your Google Drive account.

Save a Webpage Directly to Google Drive

To save a webpage to your Google Drive account in the format you chose on the Options page, click the “Save to Google Drive” button on the toolbar.

The webpage image, HTML, or Google Document file is uploaded to your Google Drive account either to the main My Drive location or to the folder you specified.

Once the file is uploaded, you can click “Rename” if you want to change the file name.

Change the name of the file (leaving the file extension alone) in the Rename box and click “Apply”.

You can change the location where the file will be saved in your Google Drive account by clicking the “(change)” link, which opens the Options tab again. If you click “(change)”, the Save to Google Drive dialog box automatically closes. If you’re not changing the location, click “Close”.

The webpage file is saved to your Google Drive account.

Due to security restrictions, when saving webpages using the Save to Google Drive extension, you cannot save chrome:// pages, such as chrome://extensions or chrome://flags, or Chrome Web Store pages.