How to upload multiple files without getting blocked C#

Question

Hello, I'm currently coding an application wich will be used by 23 persons/computers at the same time. There may be some offline, but at some point it could be 23.

I don't know if this is the best way of doing this, but I need to update a file in dropbox, with the current datetime, so I would know the last connection time of the 23 clients.

Each client writes to an individual file, so I can read the files separately and then I'll know which ones are online.

All the 23 instances of the app writes after each 60 seconds, but I'm getting this message: too_many_write_operations/

Why? and how can I solve it?

Greg-DB · Accepted Answer

The 'too_many_write_operations' error indicates "lock contention". That's not explicit rate limiting, but rather a result of how Dropbox works on the backend. This is a technical inability to make a modification in the account or shared folder at the time of the API call. This error indicates that there was simultaneous activity in the account or shared folder preventing your app from making the state-modifying call (e.g., adding, editing, moving, or deleting files/folders) it is attempting. The simultaneous activity could be coming from your app itself, or elsewhere, e.g., from the user's desktop client. It can come from the same user, or another member of a shared folder. You can find more information about lock contention here:

https://www.dropbox.com/developers/reference/data-ingress-guide

In short, to avoid this error, you should avoid making multiple concurrent state modifications. E.g., don't issue multiple such requests at a time, and use batch endpoints whenever possible. That won't guarantee that you won't run in to this error though, as contention can still come from other sources, so you may also want to implement automatic retries in your app.