Quite recently, a lot of reports have been coming in where users are unable to download a file from their own Google Drive account and the “Failed – Forbidden” error is observed while trying to do so. In this article, we will discuss some of the reasons due to which this error might be triggered and also provide you with viable solutions to fix it completely.
What Causes the “Failed – Forbidden” Error?
After receiving numerous reports from multiple users, we decided to investigate the issue and devised a set of solutions to fix it completely. Also, we looked into the reasons due to which this problem is triggered and listed them as follows. Now that you have a basic understanding of the nature of the problem, we will move on towards the solutions. Make sure to implement these in the specific order in which they are presented to avoid conflict.
Solution 1: Turning Incognito Mode On
Chrome includes a handful feature where the user can turn on “Incognito” mode which prevents the browser from tracking the user’s internet activity. This is useful because in this situation it will prevent the website from tracking other users on the browser. In order to activate incognito mode:
Solution 2: Disabling Other Accounts
Google Drive sometimes experiences a glitch where the download is prevented if multiple users are logged into the browser while initiating it. Therefore, it is recommended that you log out of all other accounts on the computer before trying to download the file from Google Drive. For that:
Solution 3: Using Shareable Link
There is a workaround to this situation where the user can obtain a link which can be used to directly download the file in question. In order to do that:
Solution 4: Disabling Hardware Acceleration
There have been reports of the Hardware Acceleration feature causing issues with downloads through Google Drive. Therefore, in this step, we will be disabling it completely. For that:
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