How to Data Transfer Between Accounts in Bulk

[kevinxu212]

I'm trying to transfer large amounts of data (files/folders) between accounts before an account is deleted. So say user A is to be deleted soon, I want to move user A's files to a format where user B can access them.

I'm looking at two approaches, but have questions in both?

• using copy_reference/get and copy_reference/save to manually transfer every file and folder
  • The issue is request batching. I don't want to make 1000s of calls if there are 1000s of files/folders I need to change the reference for.
• Making a shared folder from which user B will have access to user A's files. Moving all of user A's files to the shared folder.
  • I'm not sure how to move files in bulk to a shared folder or how to maintain the right folder / file directory structure.

Are there any approaches I might be missing? Any data migration apis? If not, what would be the best approach and how can I address some of these questions?

[Greg-DB · Accepted solution]

The Dropbox API doesn't offer a way to process copy references in batch, but I'll pass this along as a feature request. I can't promise if or when that might be implemented though. 

That being the case, using shared folders may be a better option. For instance, you can share folders using /2/sharing/share_folder and /2/sharing/add_folder_member, or you can move entire folders and their contents, into a shared folder for instance, using /2/files/move_v2. You can also move items, files or folders, in bulk using /2/files/move_batch_v2.

If the account is a member of a Business team though, there is an option to transfer the member's files when deleting the account. You can find information on that in the help center here.

[kevinxu212]

The last bit about "if the account is a member of a Business team though" is most helpful. Thank you!