How to use Google Takeout to export and download your data from Google Drive

Google Takeout is Google's way of giving you control of your privacy and data. It's no secret that Google collects quite a bit of data on you based on (to name a few) search history, maps, YouTube, and more. If you're like most of us here at Android Central, you probably use Google Drive a lot. Downloading all the data (read: files) you've collected over the years can take a long time to do manually. But you can download as much or as little as you need, all in one shot with Google Takeout. We'll show you how!

How to download your data from Google Drive with Takeout

1. Go to takeout.google.com
2. Log in to the website with the same Google account you want to download data from.
3. Now, you can select the Google products you want to download. In this case, we want to limit the download to Google Drive contents, so first click Deselect All.

1. Scroll down and place a checkmark in Drive. Optionally, click the button under Drive that says Multiple formats.

1. Here, you can configure what formats your downloads will cover. This mainly deals with Google Drive proprietary formats such as documents coming from Docs, Sheets, etc. You can choose the Microsoft equivalent (Docx for Docs, PPTx for Presentations, etc.), or you can choose to download them as PDFs. Once you have made your selections, click OK.

1. Optionally, click All Drive data included.
2. Here, you can choose which folders to download. The more folders you select, the longer the export will take. If you want to deselect any folders, you first need to deselect "Include all files and folders in Drive." Note: You can only select and deselect top-level folders. You cannot go into the folder tree to deselect subfolders. It's all or nothing. Click OK.

1. Once you have selected all the options you want, scroll to the bottom and click Next Step.

1. Here, you can configure various options like how the takeout will deliver, how often the files will export, and the export's file type and maximum size. Note: If you choose a size, and your export is larger than the size you chose, your export will be broken into multiple files to download. Click Create export.

1. Once the export is complete, you'll receive an email notification. Note: Depending on how much you're exporting, this can take hours or days. You can return to the site to download the export. At the top, click Manage Exports.

1. Click Show exports.

1. Here, you can download the files of the export. Once again, if the export is bigger than the maximum size, your export will be broken up into parts. Click Download for each part.

Takeout is a great way to download mass quantities of data from Google Drive. If you want to be more selective about what you download, you can still do so manually in Google Drive. But if you want to download a large portion of your Drive all at once, this is the best way to do it.