Error downloading files from dropbox API

Seems like I was missing a leading "/" from my command but now it gives another error.

for dfiles in flist:
        dbx.files_download_to_file('/Users/fela/Downloads/dropbox/'+dfiles, '/'+dfiles, rev=None)

Error:

ApiError at /dropbox_auth_finish
ApiError('41b9e1718f4f92d51231197741ac31d5', DownloadError('path', LookupError('not_found', None)))
Request Method:	GET
Request URL:	https://localhost:8000/dropbox_auth_finish?state=NSz1ObeJgWL234R2kIXBMw%3D%3D&code=wPfEvSKsCIEAAAAAAAAZi9WtSCRKLq18aMUUfGQJY
Django Version:	1.11.3
Exception Type:	ApiError
Exception Value:	
ApiError('41b9e1718f4f92d51231197741ac31d5', DownloadError('path', LookupError('not_found', None)))
Exception Location:	/Users/fela/miniconda3/envs/clauks/lib/python3.6/site-packages/dropbox/dropbox.py in request, line 256
Python Executable:	/Users/fela/miniconda3/envs/clauks/bin/python
Python Version:	3.6.2

I figured it out. It seems that I need to enter the remote path name. For example, if I have a folder named "Camera", it should use /Camera/filename. But how do I get the list of folder name and files under that folder name (if I have multiple folders)? I could use files_list_folder which gives me the list of files but how can I get the hierarchy (folder structure)?

That's correct, the `path` parameter value for files_download_to_file should be the full remote (Dropbox) path of the file you want to download.

Using files_list_folder is the right way to list files and folders under any particular path. (Use the empty string "" as the path for root if that's what you're looking for.) 

If you want to list everything, included nested items, set recursive=true. Either way, be sure to check the resulting ListFolderResult.has_more to see if you need to call back to files_list_folder_continue to get more results.

Here is my code.

dbx = dropbox.Dropbox(oauth_result.access_token)
    result = dbx.files_list_folder("", recursive=True)
    flist = []

    def process_entries(entries):
        for entry in entries:
            if isinstance(entry, dropbox.files.FileMetadata):
                flist.append(entry.name)
                dbx.files_download_to_file('/Users/fela/Downloads/dropbox/'+entry.name, '/'+entry.name)

It gives me an error:

ApiError('9102ee3554ff1ef69453c208accc6568', DownloadError('path', LookupError('not_found', None)))

 Unless I use "/Camera". As you can see that I am using "" with recursive=True to go through the entire dropbox and list files. I am not able to download it unless I specify the folder name. How can I get the folder structure and files under them so I can download files from the root folder and all the subfolders under them?

Awesome! That works. Thank you

this example (Download file), do you have in github or similar plataform?

I don't have an example but if you follow the documentation from dropbox, it should walk you through it.

rhernandez8305 We do have some samples included with the Python SDK on GitHub. 

For instance, here are some download calls:

https://github.com/dropbox/dropbox-sdk-python/blob/master/example/updown.py#L157 
https://github.com/dropbox/dropbox-sdk-python/blob/master/example/back-up-and-restore/backup-and-restore-example.py#L55 

Another solution that might better fit your needs is to use the http api instead https://www.dropbox.com/developers/documentation/http/overview.

Specifically looking at the "files/download" endpoint. https://www.dropbox.com/developers/documentation/http/documentation#files-download

With the python dropbox sdk you download each file synchronously. In order to get some more efficency you can use some of the asynchronous functionality in python 3.7 (and some additional libraries) to try and download your files together.

Here is some example code that will save a list of files to your "/tmp" directory

import aiohttp
import aiofiles
import asyncio
import json
from tqdm import tqdm_notebook as tqdm

DROPBOX_URL='https://content.dropboxapi.com/2/files/download'

async def dropbox_async_download(session, path, prefix_path="/tmp"):
    
    ## Create headers to talk to dropbox api
    ## see https://www.dropbox.com/developers/documentation/http/documentation#files-download
    headers = {
        "Authorization": "Bearer %s"%os.environ["DROPBOX_ACCESS_TOKEN"],
        "Dropbox-API-Arg": json.dumps({"path": path})
    }
    
    ## Create async post request
    ## Open file asynchronously
    ## write chunks from server async to file
    i=0
    with tqdm(total=1000) as pbar:
        async with session.post(DROPBOX_URL, headers=headers) as response,\
                   aiofiles.open(prefix_path+path, "w")       as f:
                async for chunk, _ in response.content.iter_chunks():
                    await f.write(chunk.decode('utf-8'))
                    pbar.set_postfix(file=path)
                    pbar.update(1)
    print ("Done!", path)

async def dropbox_download_files(files):
    async with aiohttp.ClientSession() as session:
        coroutines = list(
            map(lambda f:dropbox_async_download(session,f),files)
        )
        return await asyncio.gather(*coroutines)

files = ["a.txt", "b.txt", "c.txt"]
loop = asyncio.get_event_loop()
loop.run_until_complete(dropbox_download_files(files)

Hope this helps!