GDL

A Google Drive video downloader that ignores the "download disabled" restriction.

Why This Exists

When an owner disables downloading on Google Drive, standard tools like gdown or rclone fail because the file download endpoint returns a 403 Forbidden error.

gdl bypasses this by grabbing the raw stream URL directly from the video player endpoint. It acts like a stream ripper, allowing you to download the video even if it is marked as "view only."

Requirements

• Python 3.6 or higher
• requests
• tqdm

Installation

1. Get the Script

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/dobbyncicode/gdl.git
cd gdl

Or simply download the gdl script file.

2. Install Dependencies

Install the required packages:

pip install -r requirements.txt

(If you don't have a requirements file, just run pip install requests tqdm)

Usage

python gdl "https://drive.google.com/file/d/VIDEO_ID/view"

Flags

Flag	Description
-o, --output	Custom output path (auto-creates missing directories)
-t, --threads	Parallel threads 1-16 (default: 4)
-v, --verbose	Show detailed logs and part progress

Examples

Download with default name:

python gdl "https://drive.google.com/file/d/abc123/view"

Custom path and filename:

python gdl "https://drive.google.com/file/d/abc123/view" -o ./videos/my_clip.mp4

Verbose mode:

python gdl "https://drive.google.com/file/d/abc123/view" -v

Notes

• Video Only: Currently supports video files. Images and PDFs are trickier because Google serves them in chunks.
• File Conflicts: If a file already exists, you will be asked to [S]kip, [O]verwrite, or [C]reate new.
• Auto Extension: If you do not provide a file extension, .mp4 is added automatically.

Contributing

Got an idea on how to bypass the restrictions for images, PDFs, or other file types? Found a bug? Pull requests and issues are welcome. Let's make this better.