Why does my Go program download an empty zip file when I try to download a public file from Google Drive?

Downloading Public Files from Google Drive in Golang

When attempting to download a publicly shared zip file from Google Drive, you may encounter an issue where a blank "file.zip" is created instead. This is due to a potential bug involving either Google Drive or Go.

The root of the problem lies in the fact that the initial download URL provided by Google Drive redirects to a second URL containing an asterisk (*) character as a delimiter. However, when Go attempts to fetch this URL, it encodes the asterisk as *, changing the URL to:

https://doc-00-c8-docs.googleusercontent.com/docs/securesc/ha0ro937gcuc7l7deffksulhg5h7mbp1/8i67l6m6cdojptjuh883mu0qqmtptds1/1376330400000/06448503420061938118/%2A/0B2Q7X-dUtUBebElySVh1ZS1iaTQ?h=16653014193614665626&e=download

Unfortunately, Google responds with "403 Forbidden" to this encoded URL, suggesting that the * encoding is not being successfully interpreted as an asterisk.

To resolve this issue:

1. Obtain the Corrected URL: Use a web browser or a tool like cURL to access the initially provided download URL and follow the redirects until you reach the final URL containing the asterisk, which should look something like:

https://doc-00-c8-docs.googleusercontent.com/docs/securesc/ha0ro937gcuc7l7deffksulhg5h7mbp1/8i67l6m6cdojptjuh883mu0qqmtptds1/1376330400000/06448503420061938118/*/0B2Q7X-dUtUBebElySVh1ZS1iaTQ?h=16653014193614665626&e=download

2. Manually Encode the Asterisk: Manually encode the asterisk (*) character in the corrected URL using percent-encoding. This results in the following URL:

https://doc-00-c8-docs.googleusercontent.com/docs/securesc/ha0ro937gcuc7l7deffksulhg5h7mbp1/8i67l6m6cdojptjuh883mu0qqmtptds1/1376330400000/06448503420061938118/%2A/0B2Q7X-dUtUBebElySVh1ZS1iaTQ?h=16653014193614665626&e=download

3. Use the Corrected URL: Update your Go code to use the manually encoded URL. This should allow you to successfully download the zip file from Google Drive.

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