Does the 'rev' field in the metadata for a file change if the file is moved or renamed?

Oliver C.

I'm using the Webhooks API (and the core API) in my application. I need to determine if a file has been deleted from Dropbox or just renamed/moved. The /delta endpoint will only tell you when a path has been deleted/moved/renamed (no metadata), and then provide another entry if the path is new/moved/renamed (with new metadata)  After some experimentation it looks like the 'rev' field stays constant for files when I move and/or rename them (at least using the Linux Dropbox client). I'm wondering if I can rely on this always being the case, or whether I should use some other method? Other suggestions I've seen are to download the file to get a hash for it (and then comparing that with a previously stored hash), or doing a similar thing using the 'client_mtime' and 'bytes' fields in the metadata, neither of which are ideal for different reasons (e.g. client_mtime probably can't always be relied upon).

Greg-DB

You should not use the rev to track changes to files across moves/renames, and in fact the rev value is always expected to change when a file is moved or renamed. Be careful when comparing rev values by eye though, as subsequent values may differ only very subtly, e.g., by changing a single character slightly.

Anyway, API v1 unfortunately doesn't have a good way to track moves/renames like this. The other techniques one might try are not ideal, as you mentioned.

API v2 will, e.g., by offering IDs for files, but that's currently just a preview.