Google-drive – Google Drive gets stuck on creating a zip file when I try to download an entire folder

If you're comfortable using Google Scripts the following from Amit works well for me. I've looped it with an array of folder names grabbed from a spreadsheet to deal with lots of content.

function start() {

var sourceFolder = "source";//name of the source folder
var targetFolder = "target";

var source = DriveApp.getFoldersByName(sourceFolder);
var target = DriveApp.createFolder(targetFolder);

if (source.hasNext()) {
copyFolder(source.next(), target);
}

}

function copyFolder(source, target) {

var folders = source.getFolders();
var files   = source.getFiles();

while(files.hasNext()) {
var file = files.next();
file.makeCopy(file.getName(), target);
}

 while(folders.hasNext()) {
var subFolder = folders.next();
var folderName = subFolder.getName();
var targetFolder = target.createFolder(folderName);
copyFolder(subFolder, targetFolder);
}  

}

Downloading as zip archive is the default behavior for multiple file download in Google Drive.

1. Select multiple files and/or folders
2. Right click selection and choose Download...
3. In windows that appears, review your selection and click Download...
4. Wait for the progress to finish
5. Your download will start automatically (if it does not - click the link)