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Request Id: eb653fb08d0e425eb445cc599c6e9e7d
Dear Dropbox Support,
We are encountering an issue when attempting to interact with Dropbox using SqlBak, our database backup software that uploads files to Dropbox as a destination. We would appreciate your assistance in diagnosing and resolving the problem.
Recently, we encountered the following error:
2025-03-10 11:25:50.7245|DEBUG|4|SqlBak.Destination.Dropbox.Impl.DropboxFileHandler|ExecFunc. Begin.
2025-03-10 11:26:06.1106|WARN|4|SqlBak.Destination.Dropbox.Impl.DropboxFileHandler|ExecuteWithRetry. AttenmpNo: "1"; RetryAfter: "".|Dropbox.Api.ApiException`1[Dropbox.Api.Files.SearchError]
at Dropbox.Api.DropboxRequestHandler.<Dropbox-Api-Stone-ITransport-SendRpcRequestAsync>d__12`3.MoveNext()
--- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---
at System.Runtime.ExceptionServices.ExceptionDispatchInfo.Throw()
at SqlBak.Destination.Dropbox.Impl.DropboxFileHandler.ExecuteWithRetry[T](CancellationToken cancellationToken, Func`2 getTask, Int32 ё1retryCount, Func`2 canRetry); Request Id: eb653fb08d0e425eb445cc599c6e9e7d
Could you please help us understand what might be causing this error and suggest any possible resolutions?
If you need any additional details, we will provide as much information as possible.
Looking forward to your response.
Best regards,
Oleg
7 Replies
- DB-Des
Dropbox Engineer
Hi Oleg M,
Are you still experiencing issues? If so, please reply with:
- steps to reproduce the issue, including relevant code snippet(s), but don't include any access or refresh token(s)
- additional different 'X-Dropbox-Request-Id' response header values encountering the issue
- the actual text of the error message being returned, if any
Hello,
We may not have expressed ourselves clearly in our previous message.
We are the developers of the software sqlbak.com and sqlbackupandftp.com. This is software for database backups and uploading backups to cloud storage, including Dropbox.
We have thousands of customers using Dropbox without any issues. However, recently, two unrelated customers contacted our support team regarding problems when selecting Dropbox as a storage destination in our application.
We asked these customers to contact your support team, but they were redirected back to us.
To work with Dropbox, we use the .NET library provided by your company.
One of the requests our software executes is a file search request by pattern. This request is necessary to delete old backups.
For our customers experiencing issues, calling the search method from the Dropbox library returns an error (stack trace attached). However, for some reason, the error contains an empty message, so we are unable to determine the cause of the failure.
We cannot reproduce this issue on our end, and 99% of our customers do not experience any problems.
We suspect that it might be related to search requests being executed too frequently or the returned file list being too large, which could lead to Dropbox blocking or throttling these requests. However, we are not sure. If this is indeed the case, could you confirm it? If there are any limits, please specify them, and we will adjust our search API call frequency accordingly.
2025-03-10 11:26:06.1106|WARN|4|SqlBak.Destination.Dropbox.Impl.DropboxFileHandler|ExecuteWithRetry. AttenmpNo: "1"; RetryAfter: "".|Dropbox.Api.ApiException`1[Dropbox.Api.Files.SearchError]
at Dropbox.Api.DropboxRequestHandler.<Dropbox-Api-Stone-ITransport-SendRpcRequestAsync>d__12`3.MoveNext()
--- End of stack trace from previous location where exception was thrown ---
at System.Runtime.ExceptionServices.ExceptionDispatchInfo.Throw()
at SqlBak.Destination.Dropbox.Impl.DropboxFileHandler.ExecuteWithRetry[T](CancellationToken cancellationToken, Func`2 getTask, Int32 ё1retryCount, Func`2 canRetry); Request Id: eb653fb08d0e425eb445cc599c6e9e7d
If you need any additional information, please let us know. We will do our best to provide it both from our side and from our customers (if they consent).
- DB-Des
Without an actual error message it would be hard to know where or why you are being rate limit'ed — if that is the case here.
As general information, regarding rate limits:
The Dropbox API does have a general rate limiting system that applies to all account types, but we don't have specific rate numbers documented for that. Also note that not all responses with a 429 or 503 status code indicate explicit rate limiting, but in any case that you get a response with 429 or 503 status code the best practice is to retry the request, respecting the Retry-After header if given in the response, or using an exponential back-off, if not. It appears as though your implementation is already written to respect the Retry-After header however.
You can also refer to the error documentation and Error Handling Guide for more information.
Hello,
Thank you for your response.
The error message is not being returned by your library, which leaves us quite puzzled.
However, we have observed this “empty” error appearing consistently for multiple clients since March 22 when executing search requests.
From our perspective, it seems that Dropbox has introduced limitations on mass API search calls.
We already handle Retry-After, and we are considering improvements. However, since we are using your .NET libraries to work with the API, implementing workarounds is not very convenient for us.
We can add exponential retries and try to reduce the number of search requests our application sends. However, updating all our clients is not feasible.
If you could temporarily roll back these restrictions, that would be extremely helpful—at least until we can implement and roll out improvements.
One of the key aspects of our software is that clients configure scheduled backup jobs that interact with Dropbox. Some clients schedule multiple jobs to run at the same time, which can lead to a high volume of search requests at once.
With client approval, we could provide you with user accounts that are experiencing these issues. Perhaps you could analyze the logs on your side to determine the exact cause and which limits are being exceeded. If this is appropriate, please let us know what information we should provide (e.g., the registered email of the affected accounts?).
We have also encouraged our mutual clients to contact Dropbox support, but they are receiving a template response:
```
Thank you for reaching out to Dropbox Support. My name is Lindsay, and I am more than happy to assist you.
From my understanding you’re looking into an error you are getting on a third party app.
Dropbox has an open API - which means that anyone can create custom solutions that integrate with Dropbox accounts. The problem you’re experiencing appears to be caused on another app or service you’re using, not on Dropbox. We’re unable to provide support for third-party apps or services.
The best way for you to get assistance with the problem is to reach out to the company that makes the app or service for support. They'll be a better resource for you to review this in more depth. Though I realize you have already been in touch with them.
As it sounds like the developer of this integration suspects this may be an issue on Dropbox's end, please request that they reach out to our developer support here:
http://www.dropbox.com/developer
This way, our team can better understand the specifics of the third-party app, analyze the requests made to Dropbox, and review the feedback the third-party app is receiving
```
We would appreciate any assistance in resolving this issue.
Best regards,
SQLBackupAndFTP Team
Hello,
I just wanted to check in — is there any update regarding the API issue?
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Best regards,
SQLBackupAndFTP Team
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