From January 2nd, 2024, Google Drive will no longer require third-party cookies to be enabled to download files, the search giant has announced. The change comes as Google prepares to (finally) disable third-party cookies by default in its Chrome browser, following similar moves by other browser makers like Mozilla and Apple to improve privacy.
The change should fix an annoying issue in Drive that can prevent users from being able to download files if third-party cookies are disabled. If you encounter the issue, the advice of this Google support page is to manually create an exception for Google Drive to allow third-party cookies.
Google’s blog post doesn’t explain why Google Drive currently relies on third-party cookies, but there’s speculation that it’s because the service uses a separate domain (googleusercontent.com) to host content uploaded by users as a security measure. The cookies are then used to verify that you have permission to download a given file. We’ve contacted Google to ask about this, and will update this post with any response.