How to Get Google Drive and Dropbox Direct Download Link

Gdrive and Dropbox Direct Download Link - Google Drive and Dropbox are two of the most popular free file hosting services today. Just like the other file hosting services, files uploaded in the Google Drive and Dropbox usually don’t have a direct download link. The link of each file hosted in them drives the users to a page to review the file before they download it. This article shows you how to “bypass” the “view page” and download the file from Google Drive and Dropbox directly.

Most Bloggers who provide downloads host their downloadable files in Google Drive, Dropbox, Mediafire, Zippy Share, and so on. None of these file hosting services will give us a direct link to the files. Some people prefer to put direct download links on their blogs to give more times to the users to download the files they need; some users may not be familiar with how to download the files so the direct download link must be helpful.

Actually, there is a direct link to the downloadable files hosted in Google Drive and Dropbox. However, the links are just “hidden” from the users. In order to get the direct link, users or bloggers need to modify the shareable link a little bit like I show below.

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How to get Google Drive direct download link

To get the direct link of a file hosted in Google Drive, the file permission must be set to anyone on the internet with this link can view. Without this permission, the direct link cannot be generated. Typically, the link of a public file hosted in Google Drive looks like this:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1God0Axi-jrx5sKSRMKxfhV3zuwRquOAm/view?usp=sharing

What you need to do is to copy the file ID which is located after the d/. In this example, the file ID is 1God0Axi-jrx5sKSRMKxfhV3zuwRquOAm. You also need to save the following URL path:

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=

Having both the URL path and the file ID, you just need to put the file ID at the end of the URL path, after the = sign. In this example, the direct link of the file is:

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=1God0Axi-jrx5sKSRMKxfhV3zuwRquOAm

The final URL above is the direct download link of the file hosted in the Google Drive. Now, let’s see how to get Dropbox direct link.

How to get Dropbox direct download link

Getting Dropbox direct link is a little bit easier. You just need to modify a small part of the URL. Here is how the link of a file hosted in Dropbox usually looks like:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hrclicknb9w3a32ads/writing%20blogging.pdf

All you need to do is to replace the www.dropbox.com into dl.dropboxusercontent.com so the link will look like:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/hrclicknb9w3a32ads/writing%20blogging.pdf

This is an easy method to get Google Drive and Dropbox direct download links. However, there is an easier way where you don’t have to replace anything. You can use Direct Link Generator that currently works both for Google Drive files and Dropbox files.

How to use Direct Link Generator

Here are the steps in using direct link generator.

1. Go to the Direct Link Generator page
2. Copy your URL (either Google Drive or Dropbox)
3. Paste on the textbox labelled Enter your URL
4. Select the Uploader (Google Drive or Dropbox)
5. Click the blue button
6. Copy the direct link from the textbox labelled Your Direct Link

That’s it. No need to modify the links by yourself. What do you think? Which one is easier for you? The Direct Link Generator will be updated to support more file hosting services like Mediafire, Zippy Share, and so on. Additionally, it is easy to get a direct download link from Mediafire; all you need is to hover your mouse on the download button (on the mediafire download page), right click the button, and copy the link address. If you have a request for a direct link, feel free to leave your request on the comment section below. Don’t forget to share this post. See you in the next article.