Blocking Google Drive: How to save your data to your computer

In the spring of 2022, a non-illusory threat of blocking loomed over many foreign services. Not without Google products. At the end of February, Roskomnadzor demanded from Youtube video hosting to stop blocking channels in Ukraine, and on March 14, the State Duma spoke about the ban on the service. Therefore, it is now impossible to exclude the possibility of blocking the Google Drive file storage on the territory of the Federation. In our material, we will explain how to save Google Drive documents even before its possible restriction or complete blocking.

Why Google Drive may be disabled in Our Country

So far, there has been no information that some state structures are calling on the owners of the Google Drive service to stop actions in the prohibited territories of Our Country. There are no obvious prerequisites for blocking the service by the country’s authorities right now.

However, earlier Google disabled the registration of new Google Cloud users (services for running applications and websites) from Our Country¹. Therefore, we can assume that one day users from Our Country may encounter the fact that Google Drive does not work.

Step-by-step instructions for saving data from Google Drive to a computer

For this, a convenient and simple Google Takeout service is provided.². It allows you to configure the download of all data from Google products. We explain how you can save Google Drive documents in just a few minutes.

Saving data in normal mode

1. On the Google Takeout website, you need to find the “Disk” service and click on the checkmark next to it. 
2. After that, you can choose which file formats you need to download. If you don’t know what you need, choose all. 
3. Press “Next”.
4. Then you need to select the “Method of obtaining” – we leave the option “By link”. 
5. In the “Frequency” column, select “Once”. 
6. Leave the rest of the export options unchanged. 

After some time (depending on the number of files), a letter will be sent to your Google account with a link to the saved files that can be downloaded to your computer. There may be several files in the letter – if the amount of data is large.

Alternatives to Google Drive

As an alternative to the foreign Google Drive, it would be best to consider the services organized by companies. The chance of their complete blocking is lower than that of their foreign counterparts. There are official applications of these services for all modern platforms.

Yandex.360

A convenient service from developers, which in the current conditions can be called “ Google”. All users are offered 10 gigabytes of space in the cloud. An additional 100 gigabytes will cost 69 rubles per month. For 199 rubles a month, the user will receive a terabyte of space and the ability to create mail on a beautiful domain. The maximum storage can be expanded up to 50 terabytes.

Mail.ru cloud

Another good alternative to foreign cloud storage. New users are allocated 8 gigabytes of space. The size, of course, can be increased. 32 gigabytes will cost 59 and 53 rubles when registering with iOS and Android, respectively. 64 gig – 75 rubles. 128 additional gigabytes will cost 149 rubles, and terabytes – 699.

SberDisk

Relatively fresh service (was launched in September 2021) from a well-known bank. Users here are provided with 15 gigabytes of space. An additional 100 gigabytes will cost 99, and a terabyte at 300 rubles per month. With a paid subscription, the conditions will be more favorable.

Popular questions and answers

For our readers, we have prepared answers to popular questions related to a possible situation when Google Drive is not working due to blocking. Helped us with this Development Director of the news aggregator Media2 Yuri Sinodov.

Sources of

1. https://www.businessinsider.com/google-cloud-stops-accepting-new-customers-in-Our Country-2022-3?r=US&IR=T
2. https://takeout.google.com/