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ncw's avatar
ncw
Collaborator | Level 8
10 years ago
Solved

Is it possible to set client_modified on an existing file in v2 API?

Being able to set client_modified on an existing file would be really helpful for rclone. I looked through the API methods and couldn't see a way but I'm hoping I missed it! Thanks   Nick
API
  • Greg-DB's avatar
    Greg-DB
    8 years ago
    Just to be clear, I've sent this feature request along, but I can't promise if/when it might be implemented.
Greg-DB's avatar
Greg-DB
Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
8 years ago

ncw Thanks for the context! There isn't a way to that on the Dropbox API unfortunately, but I'll send it along as a feature request.

ncw's avatar
ncw
Collaborator | Level 8
8 years ago

Related to that...  If you actually want to upload a the same file with a different `client_modified`, you have to delete the existing file first.

 

If you don't delete the existing file first, then the upload succeeds, but somehow it has the old `client_modified`, not the new one you just specified in your upload.

 

I suspect this is upload process checking the hash and noting that the file content is the same after the upload and deciding not to do anything further with the data.

 

You can work around this by deleting the file first (which is what rclone does) but this isn't ideal as it makes data loss more likely if the transfer of the new file fails.

 

I'm not sure whether this is part of the same feature request, or whether it it a seperate bug report!

 

If you think it should be a bug report I'm happy to write it up in more detail with some HTTP API transactions to show exactly what is going on.

 

Thanks

 

Nick

  • Greg-DB's avatar
    Greg-DB
    Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
    8 years ago

    ncw That behavior is expected. From the /2/files/upload WriteMode docs:

     

    "If the target path refers to a file with identical contents, nothing gets written; no conflict."

    • ncw's avatar
      ncw
      Collaborator | Level 8
      8 years ago

      I see - thank you for explaining. I don't like this design choice, but it is documented so I'll live with it :-)

       

      Looking forward to an API to set the client_modified time!

       

      Thanks for your help Greg-DB

      • Greg-DB's avatar
        Greg-DB
        Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
        8 years ago
        Just to be clear, I've sent this feature request along, but I can't promise if/when it might be implemented.

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