How-To

How To Upload Web Files to Google Docs the Easy Way

By Austin Krause

Updated November 10, 2020

When you want guaranteed access to a file on the internet, saving it to your Google Docs is a pretty sure bet.  If the file is already online (perhaps on your blog or…) however did you know you can save a few steps by just uploading the file to Google Docs rather than downloading it to your PC then upload it again to Google?  In this groovyPost, I’ll show you how it works in just a few simple steps.

Step 1 – Copy the URL

In order to directly upload to Google Docs, you will need to have the exact URL of the file.  For example, below I’m going to upload a PDF from the web address: https://assets.groovypost.com/files/groovyTestPDF.pdf

You’ll generally know that your URL is the actual location of the file because of the file extension at the end of the address; in this case .pdf.  Once you have it Copy the URL address.

Step 2

Login to https://docs.google.com and Click the Upload button.

Step 3

Scroll down the file upload page and Click Select files to upload.

Step 4

An explorer window should pop-up, in the File name box Paste in the exact URL address of your internet file.  Once inserted, Click Open.

Step 5

Now you’ll be back on the file upload page, check to make sure that your file is listed and then Scroll down to the bottom and Click Start upload.

Done!

Your file should now be saved on Google Docs just like any other file that you’ve added to it.  This should come in handy for quickly backing up “limited time only” e-books, files, photos, and just about anything else you can think of.