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

Python 3.x Problem Overview

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?

Python 3.x Solutions

Solution 1 - Python 3.x

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")

Solution 2 - Python 3.x

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

enter image description here

Solution 3 - Python 3.x

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.

Solution 4 - Python 3.x

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 )

Solution 5 - Python 3.x

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.

Solution 6 - Python 3.x

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)

Solution 7 - Python 3.x

!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

Solution 8 - Python 3.x

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.

Content Type	Original Author	Original Content on Stackoverflow
Question	tetedp	View Question on Stackoverflow
Solution 1 - Python 3.x	Shashank Mishra	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 2 - Python 3.x	Muhammad Ali Abbas	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 3 - Python 3.x	Ivan	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 4 - Python 3.x	Shubham Panchal	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 5 - Python 3.x	Sneha Valabailu	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 6 - Python 3.x	skaem	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 7 - Python 3.x	Aravind R	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 8 - Python 3.x	Bob Smith	View Answer on Stackoverflow