diff --git a/dvc/tree/gdrive.py b/dvc/tree/gdrive.py
index 5e34fa4551..abf48d17ab 100644
--- a/dvc/tree/gdrive.py
+++ b/dvc/tree/gdrive.py
@@ -381,6 +381,9 @@ def _gdrive_download_file(
         # it does not create a file on the remote
         gdrive_file = self._drive.CreateFile(param)
 
+        gdrive_file.FetchMetadata(fields="fileSize")
+        size = gdrive_file["fileSize"]
+
         with Tqdm(
             desc=progress_desc,
             disable=no_progress_bar,
@@ -388,7 +391,13 @@ def _gdrive_download_file(
             # explicit `bar_format` as `total` will be set by `update_to`
             bar_format=Tqdm.BAR_FMT_DEFAULT,
         ) as pbar:
-            gdrive_file.GetContentFile(to_file, callback=pbar.update_to)
+            if size:
+                gdrive_file.GetContentFile(to_file, callback=pbar.update_to)
+            else:
+                # PyDrive doesn't like downloading empty files
+                # https://github.com/iterative/dvc/issues/4286
+                with open(to_file, "w"):
+                    pass
 
     @contextmanager
     @_gdrive_retry
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 875ab04d1d..064cb12618 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ def run(self):
     "networkx>=2.1,<2.5",
     "pydot>=1.2.4",
     "speedcopy>=2.0.1; python_version < '3.8' and sys_platform == 'win32'",
-    "flatten_json>=0.1.6",
+    "flatten_json>=0.1.6,<0.1.8",
     "tabulate>=0.8.7",
     "pygtrie==2.3.2",
     "dpath>=2.0.1,<3",