The best Chromebooks and top ChromeOS tablets these days have evolved to be closer to some of our favorite Windows laptops. Higher-end Chromebooks now come with more storage and speedy fast SSDs. But if your Chromebook is a budget one that doesn't have a lot of storage, and you're always downloading big files, you might want to switch your Chromebook over to download those files to your Google Drive so they'll be saved in the cloud instead. Luckily, this is easy. All you have to do is tweak a few settings in the Google Chrome browser.
How to automatically send Chromebook downloads to Google Drive
Sending Chromebook downloads to Google Drive requires you to visit the Google Chrome settings page. From here, you'll change the default location where downloads are saved.
- In Google Chrome, click the three-dot menu in the window's top right corner.
- Choose Settings.
- Click Downloads in the sidebar.
- You should see an option that says Change. Click it.
- Select Google Drive in the window that pops up.
- Click My Drive.
- Click Open.
That's it! Now, every time you download a file from Google Chrome, it will automatically save to your Google Drive. You also can configure Chrome to ask you where you'd like to save each file before you download it. Just click the button under the Chrome downloads setting menu where it says Change.
You can also make these files from your Google Drive available offline. Just have to go back to Google Drive. Click My Drive in the Files app, right-click the item you want to use offline, and select Available offline. This won't work for all file types, though, and you'll know the file is offline if you see a mark next to it.
How to manually copy downloads to Google Drive
If you're uncomfortable changing the default download location to Google Drive, you can always manually copy the files. With this, you can have a copy on your Google Drive and then delete the original hard copy from your Chromebook to free up space. Unfortunately, you have to do a bit of copy and pasting, the old-school way.
- Open the ChromeOS Files App.
- Select Downloads.
- Find the files you want to copy and select them.
- When the files are highlighted in blue, press Ctrl + C on your keyboard.
- Go to the Google Drive section in the ChromeOS Files App.
- Choose My Drive.
- Press Ctrl + V on your keyboard to paste the file here or into any folder.
You'll see a notification letting you know files are being copied. Once you've copied the file over, you can delete the original file from your Chromebook to free up space. Just go back to Downloads, highlight the file, and click the trashcan icon at the top of the screen to delete it.
So, that's it! This is how you can send Chromebook downloads to Google Drive, both automatically and manually. My Chromebook has a 256GB SSD which is usually enough for my needs, but I still like using this second trick, so I can save space on my device and manually copy over bigger files that might take up a lot of storage.