Google-drive – How to view Google Drive files from connected apps

The gdoc and gsheet files are, as you've discovered, simply pointers to the online version(s) of the file(s). (This only happens if you have the Google Docs app on your PC or Mac, of course.)

The only way to make local backups of the files so that they contain your actual data would be to convert them to a different format. Converting a gdoc to a Word file and keeping it in the same directory would give you what you want, but converting files certainly isn't automatic.

Is it necessary, though? Google Drive/Docs is already keeping revision information, plus anything you delete goes to the "Trash" and doesn't get really deleted for 30 days (at least).

Of course, things might be a bit different for Google Apps. Certainly part of your agreement with Google is the ability to get to backups of your data in cases of vandalism/hacking/etc., no?

You might also look into the Data Liberation Front to see what data you can extract, although I don't know if that would be useful in your case.

I tried to download my own files in bulk, and was successful. What I can think the problem is:

• The 96 files you tried to download amounted to a total file size of more than 2GB, which is the limit.
• An error might have occurred on Google's part as they try to compress your files. This can be quite common on such a busy site.
• Most likely it was temporarily, and you can now download files in bulk again.

What I can suggest is to split the whole batch into smaller groups (I recommend 10-15). This can reduce the amount of stress on Google servers and you can get all your files down like how you wanted it to be.

Like what OnenOnlyWalter pointed out, you can use Google Takeout if the 96 files are almost the whole collection that you have on Google Drive. It would be easier this way and you can delete what you don't need from your download.