There's no problem downloading a folder you've created yourself, or even if you're sharing it with someone else who has a Google Drive account. (They just have

There's no problem downloading a folder you've created yourself, or even if you're sharing it with someone else who has a Google Drive account. (They just have to add the folder to their own Drive account first, then they can download or sync it locally) The issue is sharing, say, a folder of PDFs or images with someone who doesn't have a Google account or one associated with their employer. They can view the entire collection and even download individual files in it piecemeal. They cannot download the entire folder as one can with Dropbox, Box, et al. I'm sure they do this to save on bandwidth and to push Drive adoption & account sign-ups, but it's very inconvenient for commercial use, especially when it's possible to do on free tiers of other competing services.