Google Sheets – How to Backup .gsheet Permanently Before Closing Google Account

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I had a little startup where I purchased a domain name and connected it to a Google Drive account (for work). Using Google Drive I added all the documents related to work (i.e., accounting, etc). My start-up ended and so I want to end my ownership of that domain as well as end my Google Drive account membership (which is paid).

I already synchronised Google Drive on my local machine, but I noticed that all the 'documents' that are of type Google Sheets or Google Docs are simply links to the Google document on the cloud. (I can't access them without internet, and when I do access them it verifies that I'm logged in with the appropriate Google account.) This is bad news because this means that I won't be able to access those documents once I no longer have a membership with the said Google account.

How can I permanently backup all these Google documents so that I can access them offline and without having the membership with the corresponding Google account?

Best Answer

There are three options:

  1. Share your files and folders with an account out of the domain and then copy the files from that account.
  2. Download your data using the feature formerly named "Google Takeout".
  3. Download each file.
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