If you’ve ever tried to download a folder from Google Drive, you know the drill: Google Drive doesn't actually let you download a folder as a single .zip file directly from the web interface. Instead, it forces you to download each file individually or sync via Backup and Sync.
from google.colab import drive drive.mount('/content/drive') Run the following script to zip a specific folder: zip google drive folder
print("Zip created successfully!")
Google Drive desperately needs a native "Create Zip Archive" button. Until then, the "Download" workaround is the quickest hack for 90% of users. Do you have a favorite script or tool for managing Drive compression? Let me know in the comments below! If you’ve ever tried to download a folder
This method uses your local bandwidth and hard drive space. If the folder is massive (50GB+), your browser might crash. Use Method 2 for huge folders. Method 2: Using Google Colab (The Developer Way) If you are a data scientist or developer, or you need to zip a folder already in the cloud without downloading it to your local machine first, use Python in Google Colab. Until then, the "Download" workaround is the quickest
with zipfile.ZipFile(zip_path, 'w', zipfile.ZIP_DEFLATED) as zipf: for root, dirs, files in os.walk(folder_path): for file in files: zipf.write(os.path.join(root, file), arcname=os.path.relpath(os.path.join(root, file), os.path.join(folder_path, '..')))
import zipfile import os folder_path = '/content/drive/MyDrive/Target_Folder_Name' zip_path = '/content/drive/MyDrive/Compressed_Folder.zip'