Some time ago, I faced one of the most frustrating problems I have ever had with documents. I had two very large PDFs stored in Google Drive, each of them with more than 700 pages, and I realized I could no longer download them. They were shared with me years ago, and I had already lost access to the original account. The only option Google left me was to open them in "View Only" mode.
At first, I thought this would be a minor problem. There are so many tools and browser tricks available online, it felt like I would find a quick fix. But the reality was very different.
- Some tools exported only part of the file, losing entire pages or images.
- Others had strict limits, working only for 20 pages at a time. Imagine doing that for a 700-page file.
- The worst ones required me to manually scroll through every single page, and often they would lose pages from the beginning of the document. For a file with hundreds of pages, that was simply impossible and unreliable.
After hours of frustration, I reached the point where I realized that if I truly wanted to save these documents, I had to build my own solution.
From frustration to solution
My idea was simple: if the browser can display the PDF in "View Only" mode, then it must be possible to capture everything that is rendered and rebuild the document locally.
The challenge was that Google Drive only loads the pages you are currently looking at. For large PDFs, that means only a small portion is in memory at a time. To export the entire file, a tool would need to handle all pages sequentially, capture them, and then assemble the result into a single PDF.
That became my project, and after some work, I created what is now Drive PDF Exporter.
What Drive PDF Exporter does
Drive PDF Exporter is a Chrome extension that integrates directly into your browser. Once installed, it shows a small panel whenever you open a PDF in Google Drive.
From there, using it is very simple:
- Open any Google Drive PDF in "View Only" mode.
- Enter a file name if you want (optional).
- Click Download.
The extension takes care of the rest. It loads the full document page by page, retries automatically if something fails to load, and then rebuilds the PDF locally on your computer.
It is not instant, because the tool must actually load every page to ensure accuracy, but the result is a complete and clean export. No missing pages. No corrupted formatting. No need for manual scrolling.
Demo Video
Key features
- Works with Google Drive "View Only" PDFs.
- Saves the entire document without losing pages or images.
- Handles very large PDFs without requiring manual scrolling.
- Works directly in your browser, without external servers.
- Compatible with Chrome and Chromium-based browsers such as Brave, Edge, and Opera.
Why this matters
Without this tool, I would have permanently lost access to two documents that were extremely important to me. It was not just about convenience. It was about having a reliable way to preserve information that I no longer had any other way of retrieving.
If you have ever tried to export a "View Only" Google Drive PDF, you probably know how frustrating it can be when existing tools fail or force you to waste hours. That is exactly the problem I wanted to solve.
Important notes
- This tool works only with PDFs stored on Google Drive.
- Everything runs locally in your browser, nothing is uploaded externally.
- Large files may take time to process because every page is rendered to ensure nothing is lost.
⚠️ Disclaimer
This tool was created to solve a personal and legitimate problem. It is intended for responsible, personal use only. Please respect document owners and applicable policies. I do not condone, encourage, or take responsibility for any malicious or unauthorized use of this tool.
👉 If you want to check it out, the extension is available here: Drive PDF Exporter
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