Google Drive to AWS S3: File Migration Guide

avatar
Written by
Updated on: March 17, 2025
Time to read: 6 minutes

Not sure how to transfer your Google Drive files to Amazon S3 and vice versa? This guide explores multiple methods to help you do exactly that.

One user-friendly solution that we always recommend is CloudMounter. It’s a simple and intuitive cloud storage manager that lets you copy and move files across multiple platforms with ease.

Table of Contents

Transfer Google Drive files to S3 or vice versa by download/upload

One of the simplest ways to move files from Google Drive to S3 (or vice versa) is to download them to your computer and then manually upload them to the other cloud storage platform. 

It’s a bit old-fashioned and can be time-consuming if you have a lot of files to move, but it’s straightforward and doesn’t require any extra tools or software.

Move files from Google Drive to AWS S3

Here’s how you can manually move files or backup Google Drive to S3:

1. First, sign into your Gmail account, click on the “Google apps” icon (right next to your profile picture), and select “Drive.”

2. Select all the files you want to move to Amazon S3 and then click on the three vertical dots at the top. Select “Download.” Alternatively, you can Control-click and select “Download.”

File downloading in Google Drive

3. The file will be downloaded to your computer as an archive. Unzip the files you need.

4. Head over to Amazon S3 and sign into your account.

5. Go to your preferred bucket and then click on “Upload.” Select the files or folders you want to transfer and then just wait for the transfer process to finish.

File uploading in Amazon S3 bucket

Migrate Amazon S3 data to Google Drive

Trying to move files the other way around? Here’s how you can transfer them from AWS S3 to Google Drive:

  1. First, log in to your Amazon S3 account, and go to the selected bucket.
    The Buckets window in Amazon S3
  2. In the “Objects” section, select the file you want to transfer and Control-click (or right-click) on it. Select “Download.”
  3. Once downloaded, log into your Google Drive account.
  4. Click on “New” and then select either “File Upload” or “Folder Upload.” After that, all you have to do is select the file you want to upload.
File uploading in Google Drive

As you can tell, this process can be very slow and you have to constantly switch between multiple tabs. Plus, when transferring files from Amazon S3, you can only move one file at a time since it doesn’t allow you to download multiple files/folders from a bucket.

Note: Another problem with this method is that you’ll need enough space on your computer to temporarily store the files before transferring them.

The easiest file integration between Google Drive and S3

If you’re tired of using the old-school download-and-upload file transfer method, we recommend using CloudMounter instead. It’s the easiest way to move files between Google Drive and Amazon S3.

It’s a cloud storage manager that allows you to mount AWS S3 as a network drive, so you can organize your files without any hassle. You won’t even have to mess around with S3 documentation to get it working. Once you use it, you’ll see how straightforward the whole process is.

How to transfer from Google Drive to S3 bucket with CloudMounter

Here’s how you can transfer files from Google Drive to AWS S3 with this tool:

  1. First, download CloudMounter on your Mac or Windows PC.
  2. Launch the software and a new “Connection” window will open up. Select Google Drive and Amazon S3 from the list of storage types you see.The connections window of CloudMounter on Mac

    The connections box of CloudMounter on Windows PC
  3. Then, fill in the connection details in the fields. Amazon S3 doesn’t use a username and password, it uses an access key ID and secret key, which you can find in the admin panel in Amazon services.
  4. Click on “Mount” for the desktop app to map your cloud storage as network drives.
  5. You’ll then be able to see each cloud platform as a local drive on your file manager.
  6. Now you can easily transfer files between drives, just like moving files from one folder to another in Finder or File Explorer.
Amazon S3 and Google Drive as drives in Finder
Google Drive and AWS S3 as drives in File Explorer

You can make any mounted AWS S3 bucket and its contents private or public using the context menu. Plus, sharing a file is easy. Simply copy the http link.

Share files via link with control-click in CloudMounter

This app has a ton of other useful features, so we highly recommend that you spend some time exploring everything it offers to get the most out of it.

Additional CloudMounter features

CloudMounter does more than just simplify file transfers between Amazon S3 and Google Drive. Here are some other benefits it offers:

  • Connect to your entire Amazon storage or choose specific S3 buckets
  • Supports all AWS regions
  • Works with Amazon S3-compatible storage
  • Manage all your cloud data in one place
  • Connect as many accounts as you need
  • Provides encryption for extra protection of your files
  • Available for both macOS and Windows

 

A couple of other features we recommend exploring:

  • Access to a wide range of cloud storage and web services
  • Remote access and management for FTP/SFTP servers
Note: Make sure your hard drive has enough space for temporary file storage when moving content from your cloud. For online documents like Google Docs or Sheets, the app just saves the links, which are small and easy to transfer between folders. Don’t forget that after copying such documents, you can’t open them. And if you move them from the cloud to your hard disk, they will also disappear from Google Drive.

Conclusion

Transferring files from Google Drive to Amazon S3 is a pretty straightforward process. You can do it manually by downloading files from one cloud storage service and then uploading it to the other one.

While this method is quite simple, it can take a lot of time. Instead, we recommend using CloudMounter. This software is a cloud storage manager that allows you to “mount” platforms like AWS S3 and Google Drive as local drives.

Once mounted, you can transfer files between the two clouds as easily as moving them between any regular drives.

Popular Articles
Cloud Storage Management How-to

Amazon S3 buckets: a full guide on what are they for, how to use them

November 28, 2024
Cloud Storage Management How-to

Best ways how to Upload to Dropbox any files

November 28, 2024
Cloud Storage Management

What is the best OneDrive for Business Mac App?

November 28, 2024