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list_folder does not return recursive folder listing

API document says:

recursive Boolean If true, the list folder operation will be applied recursively to all subfolders and the response will contain contents of all subfolders. The default for this field is False.

I am trying to list a folder with recursive=True, but the response does not return the contents of the sub-folders.

Here is the folder structure:

/Team Folder

/Team Folder/file.txt

/Team Folder/sub-folder

/Team Folder/sub-folder/file.txt

When I call list_folder on '/Team Folder' with recursive set to True, I do not get the content of 'sub-folder' in response. The response only includes sub-folder not its contents.

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Comments

Greg-DB

Can you share the code and parameter values you're using? That should offer some better context so I can advise on this.

Feel free to open an API ticket if you'd prefer to share privately. Thanks!

rk90

Here's a sample that may help you understand how I am making the request:

def list_folders(namespace_id):
    url = 'https://api.dropbox.com/2/files/list_folder'
    headers = {"Dropbox-API-Path-Root": json.dumps({".tag": "namespace_id", "namespace_id": namespace_id})
    body = {"path": f"ns:{namespace_id}", "recursive": True, "limit": 2000}
    response = session.post(url, headers=headers, json=body)
    listing = response.json() #And I don't get the recursive listing.

Greg-DB

Thanks! That's helpful. There are two things to note here:

Are you getting "has_more": true in the response? If so, you'll need to call back to /2/files/list_folder/continue as covered in the /2/files/list_folder documentation. The nested entries may be on the subsequent pages that would be returned by /2/files/list_folder/continue.
You're specifying "namespace_id" in both the "Dropbox-API-Path-Root" header as well as the "path" value. It may not make a difference for the actual question here, but you only need to include it in one or the other. (If you set the "Dropbox-API-Path-Root" to the namespace ID, you can just use "" as the path.)

rk90

Thanks Greg!

Yes, 'has_more' is True and when I call `list_folder/continue` with the cursor, I still don't get the recursive folder listing. That is only the child folder is returned in response not its contents. It was working last week.

As for "Dropbox-API-Path-Root", the only reason I am using is if I don't use it, then some some folder entries appear without path_display field. I understand that field is optional in case the folder is not mounted, but I am listing the team folders' contents as admin so it mount should not even come in picture coz I am not accessing the folder through user's namespace.

Greg-DB

Thanks for following up. I was able to reproduce the behavior of not seeing the nested entries on the first page, but they are getting returned on the second page for me. (It's worth pointing out though that the exact number of pages is not guaranteed; you always need to check the 'has_more' in the result, even on responses from /2/files/list_folder/continue itself. If you're still getting 'has_more=true', make sure to keep calling back to paginate through all of the results.)

If this isn't working for you, we'll be happy to investigate, but we'll need some more information. Specifically, it would be helpful to see the actual code/request you're making, including the namespace ID value, and the output you're getting. (Be sure to redact the access token of course, and any other private information.) Please feel free to open an API ticket instead if you prefer to share privately.