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Our company is switching from Google apps to Office 365. As I am one of the only using .gdocs documents I am tasked to convert them to .docx before we migrate by hand, or else I cannot open them anymore.

I know how to save a single document to the MS Word format, but this could be a bit cumbersome if I need to convert them one by one. Possible temporary solution is to move all the files to my private Google account for the time being, but eventually I would need to move and convert them anyways.

So my question is: Is there a way to mass migrate my .gdocs documents to a MS Word format?

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Use the download feature. Select the files you want to download. Choose the More and select Download...

A window will popup asking what format you want to download the files in. Make your choice, then click the blue download button.

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Note: this was found in Google Drive Help.

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  • I feel a bit stupid now, I googled but didnt try the help ;-) Its nice since it converts everything in all subfolders and creates a zip with the folder structure intact. Thanks a lot.
    – Niels van Reijmersdal
    Apr 24, 2014 at 13:59
  • Is this bulk download feature still available? .docx files are great for local backups as they can be opened universally by most apps.
    – AdamHurwitz
    Jun 30, 2022 at 16:42
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The download wizard in the Google Drive interface has been replaced now by a function that downloads an archive with all files in MS Office formats. That fits for your case, but for those wanting to choose the format:

You can use Takeout: The wizard-like interface where you can choose the export format is still available in Google Takeout:

  1. When configuring the archive to create, select only the "Drive" product.

  2. Click the "down arrow" icon in the line belonging to the Drive product to configure the formats to export in, and the folders to include.

Problems with this approach: You can only select folders from the root level of your Google Drive files. And more problematically, the export will only contain files you created, not files shared with you. So, not useful for most backup purposes.

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  • It would be a better answer if you provide some instructions on how to do this.
    – DavidPostill ♦
    Feb 12, 2016 at 0:46
  • @DavidPostill Done!
    – tanius
    Jul 6, 2016 at 19:07
  • Workarounds to the shared files issue: 1. Download the files manually. 2. Make copies of the files that you own prior to the Takeout export.
    – AdamHurwitz
    Aug 20, 2022 at 18:27

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