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Transfer Dropbox Backups using Dropbox APIs
Hello, Specifically, I have several backups stored in Dropbox Backup (some exceeding tens of terabytes), and I’m interested in utilizing the Dropbox API to automate the process of downloading th...
Greg-DB
Dropbox Community Moderator
Dropbox Community ModeratorLooking at this code, there are a few things to note:
- You're only calling /2/files/list_folder but not /2/files/list_folder/continue. You're not guaranteed to get everything back from just /2/files/list_folder; you need to check the returned has_more value and implement support for /2/files/list_folder/continue as well. Please check the linked documentation for more information.
- You're only checking the directly folder ("path": "") contents, and not any of its children ("recursive": False). You'd only get items directly in the folder but not anything any deeper. You'd need to call back again with the relevant subfolder, or otherwise use the recursive mode to get nested entries.
I'm also facing the same problem. Both /2/files/list_folder and /2/files/list_folder/continue return no Dropbox Backup files. I tried with Dropbox API Explorer
Request parameter "path" is empty, and "recursive" is "true".
The call returns all the files except the Dropbox Backup ones. "has_more" is "false".
I can provide more info if necessary.
But to my knowledge, Dropbox Backup files are not reachable from the API.
- DB-Des
Hi josuegomes,
Please ensure you are using an access token for the account where the backups are stored. If you are traversing the files and folders of the corresponding account, using /files/list_folder[continue] until
has_moreisfalse, the back up folder(s) should be included in the response. Typically, the folder for backed up data is the name of the backup. For example, a backup named "Mac" would have path "/Mac".Yes, I'm using an access token for an account where the backups are stored.
At https://www.dropbox.com/backup/all I can see the files under PC name (screenshot attached)
However, as I stated before, using Dropbox API Explorer I don't see those files.
See attached the output of the list_folder request with recursive set as true.For some reason I can't attach the files here. So here is the link to the shared folder with the files.
- Greg-DB
Thanks for following up and apologies for the confusion. I looked into this more and confirmed that Dropbox Backup files may not be accessible via the API depending on which version of Dropbox Backup you’re on. The updated version of Dropbox Backup uses a different implementation that stores the files in a different way, so if you’re connected to the correct account via the API but aren’t seeing your Backup files, you’re likely running the updated Backup and so won’t be able to use the API to access them; please use the web site to do so instead. We’ll send this along as a feature request for API functionality for accessing the updated Dropbox Backup storage, but I can't promise if or when that might be implemented.
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