Make a Copy of Folders in Google Drive with Google Scripts

In Google Drive, there’s no easy way to clone a folder. You can make a copy of individual files but there’s no command for creating duplicate folders that are a mirror of another folder. Fortunately, there’s Google Script to the rescue. The only downside is that the script execution may time out if you are trying to copy a large folder with several sub-folders and files.

function start() {
  var sourceFolder = 'source';
  var targetFolder = 'target';

  var source = DriveApp.getFoldersByName(sourceFolder);
  var target = DriveApp.createFolder(targetFolder);

  if (source.hasNext()) {
    copyFolder(source.next(), target);
  }
}

function copyFolder(source, target) {
  var folders = source.getFolders();
  var files = source.getFiles();

  while (files.hasNext()) {
    var file = files.next();
    file.makeCopy(file.getName(), target);
  }

  while (folders.hasNext()) {
    var subFolder = folders.next();
    var folderName = subFolder.getName();
    var targetFolder = target.createFolder(folderName);
    copyFolder(subFolder, targetFolder);
  }
}

Amit Agarwal is a web geek, solo entrepreneur and loves making things on the Internet. Google recently awarded him the Google Developer Expert and Google Cloud Champion title for his work on Google Workspace and Google Apps Script.

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