Three clicks. Ten seconds of waiting. Annoying, but fine.
This cat-and-mouse game has spawned dozens of GitHub gists, Python scripts, and even dedicated command-line tools ( gdown ) just to handle Drive’s anti-automation measures. Direct download links also raise privacy questions. If someone has a file’s FILE_ID —which is often guessable or exposed in browser history—they can download it without ever seeing the “request access” page, if the link sharing is set to “Anyone with the link.” direct download from google drive
Many people assume “link sharing” means you need to click the link and then the download button. Nope. The direct URL works too. Three clicks
A standard Google Drive share link looks like this: https://drive.google.com/file/d/FILE_ID/view direct download from google drive