So what is the use of a folder id?

[gilbertwulff]

I've been looking at ways to determine if a folder still exist on a dropbox account. I've noticed that there is two different ids being returned. One being just "id" and the other being "sharedFolderId". I cant find an api where id is being used at the moment or can you point me to a api that is using it?

I'm trying to figure out the most effiecient way to grab a folder's info rather than just using path (alpha/get_metadata/{path})(user might have moved the folder path), therefore we were thinking of using the "id" returned and use it to look for the folder. Is there an api i can use to get a folder's metadata by using its id?

[gilbertwulff]

Extra note:

It would be an api like sharing/get_folder_metadata/{sharing folder id} but in my case i would need to use the "id" instea of "sharingfolderid" because "sharingfolderid" is not returned in the files/list_folder api

[Greg-DB · Accepted solution]

The 'id' can be used with various endpoints, in place of the file path. In many cases, you can just pass in the 'id' string in the 'path' parameter. For example, you can pass the 'id' as the 'path' value when calling /2/files/get_metadata. That's an easy way to check if a file or folder exists.

The /2/sharing/get_folder_metadata endpoint only operates on shared folders though, so it does require a shared folder ID, not just an 'id'.

You can get the shared folder ID directly from the FolderMetadata object though, e.g., as returned by /2/files/get_metadata or /2/files/list_folder[/continue]. That's included as sharing_info.shared_folder_id in the FolderMetadata object.

[UserAccount]

I have just tried as you stated, pass the id in the path param. But unfortunately the request fails, with a message that the path has not been found?

Is this changed now and no longer supported?
Response sample:

{"error_summary": "path/not_found/...", "error": {".tag": "path", "path": {".tag": "not_found"}}}

[Здравко]

Hi @UserAccount,

Are you sure you have tried with real folder id (as received from corresponding API call) and not some malformed path? 🤔

[Greg-DB]

@UserAccount The API still supports these IDs. As Здравко mentioned, make sure you're using the correct value, e.g., as returned by the API itself. Also make sure you're calling using an access token that has access to the item, and that you're using the correct root, if applicable. etc. I recommend reading the File Access Guide and Team Files Guide for more information on interacting with files and folders via the API.