How to download a shared file from Google Drive in R

A tutorial on how to download a shared file with ‘anyone with the link’ access rights from Google Drive in R.

Introduction

To download a shared file with “anyone with the link” access rights from Google Drive in R, we can utilize the googledrive library from the tidyverse package. The method described here will utilize the file ID copied from the shared link. Typically googledrive package is used to work with a Google Drive of an authenticated user. However, since we are downloading a publicly shared file in this tutorial, we will work without user authentication. So, please follow the steps below.

Step 1: Copy the file ID from the share link.

Below is a share link from my Google Drive pointing to an R data frame.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vj607etanUVYzVFj_HXkznHTd0Ltv_Y4/view?usp=sharing

This string 1vj607etanUVYzVFj_HXkznHTd0Ltv_Y4 is the file ID that we will use to download.

Step 2: Download the file using an authenticated connection.

if(!require(googledrive)) install.packages("googledrive")
library(googledrive)

drive_deauth()
drive_user()
public_file <-  drive_get(as_id("1vj607etanUVYzVFj_HXkznHTd0Ltv_Y4"))
drive_download(public_file, overwrite = TRUE)

File downloaded:
• hdstim-example-data.rds <id: 1vj607etanUVYzVFj_HXkznHTd0Ltv_Y4>
Saved locally as:
• hdstim-example-data.rds

The downloaded data frame.

library(DT)
datatable(head(readRDS("hdstim-example-data.rds")))

Show 102550100 entries

Search:

	cluster_id	sample_id	condition	patient_id	stim_type	merging1	CD45	CD7	CD19	pPLCg2	CD4	IgD	CD20	CD25	pSTAT5	CD123	AKT	pSTAT1	CD27	pP38	CD24	pSTAT3	CD11c	CD14	CD56	IkBa	pCREB	CD16	CD38	CD8	CD45RA	CD3	pERK1_2	HLA_DR	pS6	CD127	ncount
1	79	CHI-011_1_2_A	CHI	CHI-011	A	CD11c CD14 CD38	3.11045985421461	2.60148450148647	0.0511450206524779	0.715850432612773	1.60813176535096	0	0	0	1.89939855959742	0.253135536308388	0.00369789949684945	2.77331385345949	0.818611130642736	0.0708149411973731	0.0901644255041056	1.72235731390904	3.40026665462511	3.60282931883905	0	2.47972008953098	2.66213996356576	0.0950055541308778	2.31739627910986	0.2970177575127	0.193044912034295	1.78627826892672	0.0423608708300761	2.76745995134643	0	0.328853956585871	1659
2	70	CHI-011_1_1_A	CHI	CHI-011	A	CD11c CD14 CD38	3.756624119687	1.96048766745817	0	1.51468188723134	0.891298069339495	0	0	0	1.89740531143859	1.18031265876627	1.42019379932966	2.93516801403964	0.288584492803405	0.559664627192441	0.00285677018361897	2.03777931774125	4.03268409388972	3.72725122856332	0	3.05787535046539	3.15170556980942	0	0.988323168803844	0.151289230433248	1.14117991839873	1.7993181167102	0.0332365590723134	3.87372990643494	0	0.269252468564148	1659
3	69	CHI-011_3_10_A	CHI	CHI-011	A	CD11c CD14 CD38	2.91172235059654	1.31056430339826	0	0	0.663531561388978	0	0	0	1.56083906701903	1.14908639988457	0	2.5077399892511	0.41501690804668	0.711616749962613	0.511134647868454	1.2700510284353	3.0127038002041	3.23658833838627	0.849363667161433	1.32520533309986	2.39801188953494	0	1.73054962242106	0.34647837052365	0	1.5975398105791	0	1.91760799908439	0	0	1659
4	69	CHI-011_3_10_A	CHI	CHI-011	A	CD11c CD14 CD38	2.91947229958479	1.37664270971998	0	0	0.613685355494012	0.0400610034810615	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1.66051446554381	0.0942685197420495	0	2.81608677589958	1.92574695650221	0	1.3148934902373	3.69386784866135	0	2.50562978108194	0	0	0.0230695735225738	0	0.511052067275238	0.506312435220727	0	1659
5	79	CHI-011_4_12_A	CHI	CHI-011	A	CD11c CD14 CD38	2.86243065529249	1.73146179281805	0	0.669274125232149	2.00600285681816	0	0	0	2.6283066495904	0.60203455150163	0.292015878088941	3.45956660590574	0.397712653480103	2.30527976834	0.311234857890093	1.65866992641687	2.77497552695861	3.37962998140363	0	1.46992626340919	3.43625900221516	0.939884898249729	0.494880999733125	0	0.0967478007059818	0.443138595036129	0	3.3273032053323	0	0.605908439695913	1659
6	70	CHI-011_2_6_A	CHI	CHI-011	A	CD11c CD14 CD38	3.55471947848649	2.64596916043389	0.934134878137762	2.00748803888894	1.08640795105961	0.144533362423892	1.02057586670544	0	1.31582184236677	1.31237331717289	0.747486538463715	2.94476517349483	0.717444487617541	0.696557609808028	0	2.49664130943363	4.03455731237916	3.41817022500882	0.627406323811345	2.11677383380288	3.16288601115814	0	0.756875322111951	0	0.0639216025738452	1.42091355155696	0.545795251581206	4.55268565548227	0.279160588121949	0.286081128375009	1659

Showing 1 to 6 of 6 entries

Previous1Next

Citation

BibTeX citation:

@online{farmer2022,
  author = {Farmer, Rohit},
  title = {How to Download a Shared File from {Google} {Drive} in {R}},
  date = {2022-10-14},
  url = {https://dataalltheway.com/posts/003-how-to-download-a-shared-file-from-googledrive-in-r},
  langid = {en}
}

For attribution, please cite this work as:

Farmer, Rohit. 2022. “How to Download a Shared File from Google Drive in R.” October 14, 2022. https://dataalltheway.com/posts/003-how-to-download-a-shared-file-from-googledrive-in-r.