How do I download multiple files or an entire folder from Google Colab?

Question

Currently, I can download files as individual files with the command

files.download(file_name)

I also tried uploading them to the drive with the below code snippet but it is uploading them as individual files.

uploaded = drive.CreateFile({'title': file_name})
uploaded.SetContentString('Sample upload file content')
uploaded.Upload()
print('Uploaded file with ID {}'.format(uploaded.get('id')))

How can I download multiple files as a folder to my local computer? Or how can I upload these files as a folder to my google drive?

Answer 1

I have created a zip file:

!zip -r /content/file.zip /content/Folder_To_Zip

Than I have downloded that zip file:

from google.colab import files
files.download("/content/file.zip")

Answer 2

For example, if you have to download log folder:

!zip -r log.zip log/

-r represent recursive

while log.zip is destination zip file and log/ is source folder path

Answer 3

!zip -r /content/sample_data.zip /content/sample_data
# change sample_data.zip to your desired download name Ex: nothing.zip
# change sample_data to your desired download folder name Ex: ner_data 

Answer 4

I found that:

!zip -r ./myresultingzippedfolderwithallthefiles.zip ./myoriginalfolderwithallthefiles/

worked for me in colab.

Here . can be your home directory or the directory where your original myoriginalfolderwithallthefiles is and where myresultingzippedfolderwithallthefiles.zip will be created. Change the directories as needed.

Answer 5

In my case, I had to download an entire folder containing h5 files(for submitting a college project) of each model my notebook built. Easiest way I found to download this folder and hence all files in the folder is to drag and drop the folder into the "My Drive" folder in the same folder tree.

Obviously I later downloaded the folder from Google Drive.

Answer 6

You may use code to zip folders and download them using files.

#@title Utility to zip and download a directory
#@markdown Use this method to zip and download a directory. For ex. a TB logs 
#@markdown directory or a checkpoint(s) directory.

from google.colab import files
import os

dir_to_zip = 'dir_name' #@param {type: "string"}
output_filename = 'file.zip' #@param {type: "string"}
delete_dir_after_download = "No"  #@param ['Yes', 'No']

os.system( "zip -r {} {}".format( output_filename , dir_to_zip ) )

if delete_dir_after_download == "Yes":
    os.system( "rm -r {}".format( dir_to_zip ) )

files.download( output_filename )

Answer 7

Copy this code into a cell, and change the 2 fields filename and folders_or_files_to_save. It will zip all of the folders or files into a zipfile and save it in your Google drive

#@title save yo data to drive
filename = "kerasmodel" #@param {type:"string"}
folders_or_files_to_save = "keras_model.h5" #@param {type:"string"}
from google.colab import files
from google.colab import auth
from googleapiclient.http import MediaFileUpload
from googleapiclient.discovery import build

def save_file_to_drive(name, path):
    file_metadata = {
    'name': name,
    'mimeType': 'application/octet-stream'
    }

    media = MediaFileUpload(path, 
                  mimetype='application/octet-stream',
                  resumable=True)

    created = drive_service.files().create(body=file_metadata, media_body=media, fields='id').execute()

    print('File ID: {}'.format(created.get('id')))

    return created


extension_zip = ".zip"

zip_file = filename + extension_zip

# !rm -rf $zip_file
!zip -r $zip_file {folders_or_files_to_save} # FOLDERS TO SAVE INTO ZIP FILE

auth.authenticate_user()
drive_service = build('drive', 'v3')

destination_name = zip_file
path_to_file = zip_file
save_file_to_drive(destination_name, path_to_file)

Answer 8

Use tar to group files in a directory into a single file.

For example, here's a snippet that creates a directory, 3 files inside it, and a .tar archive containing the group:

!mkdir demo
!echo a > demo/a
!echo b > demo/b
!echo c > demo/c
!tar -cvf demo.tar demo/

The file to download would be demo.tar in this case. For more tips, search for creating and expanding tar archives.

Answer 9

Use the copy path for the folder which you want to download. Then:

from google.colab import files
files.download("path")

Answer 10

The following solution worked for me with low latency:

Step 1: Mount the google drive.

Step 2: Zip the content.

!zip -r destination_path_to_zip_file.zip source_path_to_zip

Step 3: Copy the zip file to the google drive.

!cp source destination

Step 4: Download the file.

Answer 11

1. If Drive and Colab Notebook both are your private:

   • a) Mount the Drive,
   • b) travers the path to your folder, click on "..." in front of the file name and use the path to the file/folder

2. If You want to download a special folder without mounting Drive:

   • a) make a zip file of your folder (for single file no need for zipping)

   • b) !gdown --id zip_file_id 'like this id 1ZxqBjXlF0H6.....'

   • c) for file_id

     1-- -----use Get Link or Share of your ziped file --- 2-- -------ID part of your file share link-------