Merge and Combine PDFs in Google Drive

Vikas Solutions

PDF merging is the process of combining the pages of two or more PDFs and creating an altogether separate PDF document.

While merging two or more PDFs, you can choose to merge all pages or specific pages of your choice (for example, page # 2, 5, 7, etc.), or specific pages in a range (for example, pages # 5-10). The resultant file can have hundreds of pages combined from different sources.

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Merging & Combining PDFs in Google Drive

While merging and combining PDFs is an easy task for PDFs stored on your hard disk, there’s no native way to do so in Google Drive. At first, it may seem like an impossible task. There’s no context menu option nor toolbar icon in Google Drive that lets you merge PDFs together. However, there are third-party extensions available in the Google Web Store that do this job pretty well. The best thing is you don’t need to download any PDFs manually. The task is completed over-the-cloud.

Method 1: Using a Browser Extension PDF Mergy

Let’s take a look at a free extension PDF Mergy that does this job.

Steps:

  1. Open the Google Web Store and search for PDF Mergy.
  2. Click on Add to Chrome.
  3. Open Google Drive and navigate to the folder that contains two or more PDF documents you want to merge.
  4. Select the PDF documents you want to merge. You can select multiple PDFs at once by pressing and holding the Ctrl key of your keyboard. To select them in an orderly manner, press and hold the Shift key instead.
  5. After selecting your files, right-click your selection and choose Open with > PDF Mergy.
  6. PDF Mergy website will display the list of all the selected PDFs.
  7. Click on Merge to proceed.
  8. Once completed, choose a destination folder (for example, Google Drive or a local folder on your hard disk).

Benefits:

  • Free.
  • Simple drag & drop operation.
  • Can be disabled when not in use.

Method 2: Using an App Merge PDF Files

Merge PDF Files is another app available on the Google Workspace Marketplace. The app lets you merge two or more Portable Document Format (PDFs) into one.

Steps:

  1. Visit the Merge PDF Files page and click on Install.
  2. Open the Google Drive folder that contains the PDFs.
  3. Select the PDFs you want to merge/ combine.
  4. Click on Upload from Google Drive button.
  5. Your files will be uploaded to the developer’s server. After processing, you’ll be able to download the merged/ combined file.

Benefits:

  • Free.
  • No watermarks from the developer.
  • Can be disabled when not in use.

Bonus Tip: Find & Delete Duplicate PDFs on Google Drive

Did you know as you use Google Drive for prolonged periods, your activities cause a lot of data duplication. For example, a single Google Drive account may be synced with multiple devices at home (for example, desktop, computer, mobile, etc.). If there are identical copies of the same file available on multiple devices, your Google Drive account gets flooded with duplicate files.

You can delete duplicates and free-up a considerable amount of your online storage. An online service, Cloud Duplicate Finder, can help you not only delete duplicate PDF files but also other file types (such as Word Documents, Text Files, photos, videos, music, etc.).

  1. Visit the Cloud Duplicate Finder website.
  2. Register for a new account and login.
  3. You will be directed to the scan page. Click the Google Drive tab.
  4. Click on Add New Drive.
  5. Enter your Google account login credentials and give your consent to Cloud Duplicate Finder accessing your data through the Google Drive API.
  6. Select the folder(s) you want to scan. You can check multiple folders at once.
  7. Select Custom Files > Documents.
  8. Click on Scan.
  9. Wait for the results to accumulate. Once the results are accumulated, use the checkboxes to select or deselect files.
  10. You can also use the Select Duplicates button to retain newest/ oldest files in each group.
  11. Finally, click on Select Action > Permanent Delete Google Drive duplicates or Move to Folder.

Benefits:

  • Faster scan results.
  • 100% accurate scan that uses file hashing algorithms.
  • Automatically selects/ deselect files in groups.
  • Supports Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, Amazon S3, and Box Cloud.
  • Fully Web-based. No download is required.