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Files uploaded via API cannot be found on web app

bill-hannah-pushpay

Starting yesterday, we started having problems viewing files that were uploaded via the API.

The .Net API client reports that the upload was successful, and using the .Net API to download the file is successful.

However, when trying to find the document online, the file cannot be found.

This is happening for all files being uploaded to the account.

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Greg-DB

I just tested uploading a file using the Dropbox .NET SDK and I received a successful response and found the uploaded file at the relevant path in the connected account on the Dropbox web site.

Can you double check that you're signed in to the same account on the web site that you're connected to via the API?

Also, make sure you're looking in the correct location in the connected account. Be sure to make note of the relevant path and root, especially if you're on a team with the "team space" configuration. You can find more information on that here.

bill-hannah-pushpay

Yes, we are looking at the correct account & using the correct API key.

On our end, we have changed nothing - any file uploaded by our web app a few days ago can be seen. Files uploaded in the past 48 hours cannot be seen. However, the files exist - both files uploaded in the past that show on the Dropbox site, as well as files uploaded after the problem began.

The files can be retrieved via the API. Just cannot be seen on the Dropbox site.

Greg-DB

Thanks for following up. I'll be happy to look into this more specifically, but I'll need some more information. Please reply with:

the steps to reproduce the issue, including relevant code snippet(s) and parameter value(s), but don't include any access or refresh token(s)
the text of the output
an example of how you're checking for but not seeing the uploaded files in the expected location, such as a screenshot of what you're seeing on the Dropbox web site

Feel free to open a ticket with API support here if you'd prefer to share privately.

bill-hannah-pushpay

Found the root cause of the problem. The main problem was poor communication from Dropbox.

The problem was caused by Dropbox failing to notify us that our team account had been moved to Team Spaces.

We were scheduled to be migrated weeks ago, but it was postponed by the Dropbox team and no new date was communicated to us.

Further, the documentation provided in the initial communications from Dropbox were vague and misleading.

For our use of Dropbox, we upload files to a shared folder, then create a link in a web app to the file that was uploaded. The URL in the link is an absolute path. The documentation provided to us (https://help.dropbox.com/plans/upcoming-business-team-changes) states "If you’re using absolute file paths, they may perform incorrectly. These can be turned back on as soon as the upgrade is complete." This is very misleading. What I have now found is that, while existing links to uploaded files will continue to work, uploaded files post upgrade can only be referenced with relative paths. There is also no explanation of what a "relative path" is vs what an "absolute path" is. Trying to use an absolute path in a link based on the path used by the API client will result in an error stating that the folder does not exist post migration in the web client.

Further, because we were unaware of the migration, no users were added to the shared space so as far as we could determine, the files were uploaded and could be downloaded using the same path by the API client, but for some reason we could not determine were not able to be found in the Web client.

Also, now we have some files in the pre-migration shared folder, and some files in the shared space making determination of file location going forward confusing.

Greg-DB

Thanks for the feedback! I'm sorry to hear about the trouble here, but I'm glad to hear you did find the issue. I'll pass this feedback along to the team.

If you haven't already, I recommend reading the Team Files Guide, as it covers how to interact with the team space using the API. By default, API operations, including uploads, will default to operating in the "member folder", but you can configure calls to work in the "team space" if desired as described in that guide.