Can't download a folder shared with me with API.

Question

I'm trying to download files in a folder that was created by another user and shared with the group.

As I don't own the folder I can't seem to use any of the API calls under /files/

This also seems to cause any path options I provide to fail unless it's a path to my folders/files.

The only API call that even shows the folder is the sharing_list_folders. But it's it doesn't provide any way to then descend into a folder and list the contents to then download. I believe the folder is already considered mounted.

https://dropbox.github.io/dropbox-api-v2-explorer/#sharing_list_folders

Where do I go from here???

I'm able to see all the files and transcend the folder without any issue on the website so I don't understand why I can't access the files easily via the API.

I tried list_folder with recursive and mounted true but it doesn't list to the folder I'm trying to download as if it's not mounted and I've tried mount_folder with the shared id of the folder and it says it's already mounted.

Thanks for any guidance.

Greg-DB · Accepted Answer

You can use the API to access anything in the connected account that the account has access to and has mounted. The connected account doesn't need to be the owner.

Using the /2/files/list_folder[/continue] endpoints is the right way to list the contents of any particular path, and then you can use /2/files/download to download any needed file, or /2/files/download_zip to download an entire folder.

In this particular case, it sounds like the folder may be in the "team space". Note that by default, API calls operate in the "member folder" of the connected account, not the "team space", so anything outside the member folder will not be found by default. You can configure API calls to operate in the "team space" instead though. To do so, you'll need to set the "Dropbox-Api-Path-Root" header. You can find information on this in the Team Files Guide.