Team admin has no permission to delete_v2 files

[_ic]

For some reason, I am unable to find a way to delete files in a shared folder (team, business account). Sample request and response:

curl -s -X POST https://api.dropboxapi.com/2/files/delete_v2 \
    --header 'Authorization: Bearer whatever' \
    --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
    --header 'Dropbox-API-Path-Root: {".tag": "namespace_id", "namespace_id": "123456789"}' \
    --data '{"path":"/whatever"}' \
    --header "Dropbox-API-Select-Admin: dbmid:whatever"
{
  "error_summary": "no_permission/",
  "error": {
    ".tag": "no_permission"
  }
}

The credentials are valid for the app (generated in the app console), and the admin account is a team admin (got the dbmid from the team member list API endpoint).

Any idea?

[Greg-DB · Accepted solution]

It looks like you may be attempting to use the "Dropbox-API-Select-Admin" header to delete something from a shared folder in a member's private folder. The /2/files/delete_v2 endpoint only supports the "Team Admin" mode for Dropbox-API-Select-Admin though, meaning it "can access content of team folders but not team member's private files.".

Instead, you should use the "Dropbox-API-Select-User" header and supply the member ID of one of the members of the shared folder.

[_ic]

Thank you for the feedback.

Swtiching to the Dropbox-API-Select-User header does work.

For anyone confused, the problem may be in the documentation. At time of writing, the documentation states:

> In contrast, Dropbox-API-Select-Admin allows access to and operations on any team-owned content, including unmounted content. This includes any team member's private files and folders as well as contents of any shared folders owned by a member of the team and team folders.

This really sounds like Admins can do anything, pretty much the usual understanding. But they cannot.

Also, the delete_v2 endpoint documentation states only 2 authentication options, again at time of writing: User Authentication, Dropbox-API-Select-Admin (Team Admin), which excludes the accepted answer.

The solution is as detailed by Greg K., ignoring the documentation.