Create a QR code for Google Drive

So you want to make a QR code to a google drive file? It’s actually quite easy, I’ll show you!

1. Upload the file and get the shared link

As shown in the video below the first thing is to upload your file (in this case a PDF) and create a sharable link.

2. Convert the link to a download link

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LZ09_aJnGy1aHY0DEuOEFGU4mon2ijir/view?usp=sharing

If we simply use the provided link (example above) it won’t download the file, but create a preview of it.

If we want a direct download we need to change it to that below:

https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=1LZ09_aJnGy1aHY0DEuOEFGU4mon2ijir

To summarise:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/<id>/view?usp=sharing
⬇️
https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=<id>

Note that the <id> part will be different for your file. The rest is the same.

3. Create the QR Code

To create a QR code there is a very good free website called: the-qrcode-generator.com. Here you simply paste the link and get your QR Code.

4. Make the QR code smaller and track clicks

If you want to have a smaller and cleaner QR code you can use a URL shortener like Cuttly to do so. With Cuttly the URL gets shorter and you can see how many people clicked on it. The new link and QR code then look something like this:

https://cutt.ly/CSonJs9