move_batch API Request getting "relocation_error" "conflict" status

Question

First let me start off by saying that I am not a coder. I just see patterns and typically figure out how to make things work.

I'm using Zapier to do a number of automations. One task that I'm needing automated is the moving of all files from one folder to another. Zapier does not have a clickable function to do this, so I have to use the "API Request in Dropbox" function. It took me a little while to get it sorted out. It appears to me that the API call is being submitting successfully to Dropbox. However, no files are being moved.

I'm getting the following response body:
{".tag": "async_job_id", "async_job_id": "dbjid:AABI_8Adka7HHdIhvnANDgxZMG9kXDqa6_M1KyZTm30Jbhz2aiVxD8VFgfzmP_mtp6rDex6Tnrl9oWhAaUVLdXmV"}
When I POST to https://api.dropboxapi.com/2/files/move_batch/check_v2 with the job id info the response body is:
{".tag": "complete", "entries": [{".tag": "failure", "failure": {".tag": "relocation_error", "relocation_error": {".tag": "to", "to": {".tag": "conflict", "conflict": {".tag": "folder"}}}}}]}
 Here is a 3 min loom video to show what I'm doing:  https://www.loom.com/share/8f1cadacb3634626992fb16756830c78?sid=138733a3-3762-4513-af8d-0f74c9391616  ---------To provide as much info as possible, here are the logs for the initial move_batch_v2 API post. I just copied and pasted from the "test results" window in zapier. I notice some of the label info is doubled when pasting below.:::
🔍 Full Response Data 🔎🔍_full_response_data_🔎https://zapier.com/engine/hydrate/14153715/.eJwtzUEOgyAQheG7zBpbERBw13M0DbE4NkSLRiCtMd69aLr93-SbDezkI_po4jojNHADAs6H2HqLxnXQ8JrqspaKgE0hTu8UcDkHyqlgkgoCrbVTysRRmdKCSgK9w7Ezvn0faO9GDBkePu3yCtBsZzHz5PLvJYf7BgOu-TKwq9S8qkpkBZdCFLxXZaEF1kVpqVCK0qeuVLb-9IIhjfESvxH2x77_ANO2QGI:1rsd3y:JGN2MYxbCi7lkPlrO_G9x0RKoos/requestrequestRequest MethodmethodPOSTRequest Urlurlhttps://api.dropboxapi.com/2/files/move_batch_v2Request Querystringquerystring Request HeadersheadersRequest Headers Content Typecontent-typeapplication/jsonRequest Bodybody{ "allow_ownership_transfer": false, "autorename": false, "entries": [ { "from_path": "/Greater Than Consulting/Offers/SocialBusinessBot/Clients/RV Shepherd/Topic 1 Used", "to_path": "/Greater Than Consulting/Offers/SocialBusinessBot/Clients/RV Shepherd/Topic 1" } ] } datadataRequest Data Allow Ownership Transferallow_ownership_transferfalseRequest Data Autorenameautorenamefalseentriesentries11from_pathfrom_path/Greater Than Consulting/Offers/SocialBusinessBot/Clients/RV Shepherd/Topic 1 Usedto_pathto_path/Greater Than Consulting/Offers/SocialBusinessBot/Clients/RV Shepherd/Topic 1responseresponseResponse Statusstatus200Response HeadersheadersResponse Headers Cache Controlcache-controlno-cacheResponse Headers ConnectionconnectioncloseResponse Headers Content Encodingcontent-encodinggzipResponse Headers Content Typecontent-typeapplication/jsonResponse Headers DatedateFri, 05 Apr 2024 06:28:34 GMTResponse Headers ServerserverenvoyResponse Headers Transfer Encodingtransfer-encodingchunkedResponse Headers VaryvaryAccept-EncodingResponse Headers X Content Type Optionsx-content-type-optionsnosniffResponse Headers X Dropbox Request IDx-dropbox-request-id4cdb7db0c2314dd3a586d95167b5e410Response Headers X Dropbox Response Originx-dropbox-response-originfar_remoteResponse Headers X Frame Optionsx-frame-optionsSAMEORIGINResponse Headers X Server Response Timex-server-response-time68Response Bodybody{".tag": "async_job_id", "async_job_id": "dbjid:AABI_8Adka7HHdIhvnANDgxZMG9kXDqa6_M1KyZTm30Jbhz2aiVxD8VFgfzmP_mtp6rDex6Tnrl9oWhAaUVLdXmV"}datadataResponse Data Tag.tagasync_job_idResponse Data Async Job Idasync_job_iddbjid:AABI_8Adka7HHdIhvnANDgxZMG9kXDqa6_M1KyZTm30Jbhz2aiVxD8VFgfzmP_mtp6rDex6Tnrl9oWhAaUVLdXmV

Greg-DB · Accepted Answer

You can see what the result/error means by referring to the documentation, and clicking through the nested types as needed. For instance, from the /2/files/move_batch_v2 documentation, this 'failure/relocation_error/to/conflict/folder' for the entry in the complete.entries means that the entry was not moved because there's a folder in the way.

That is, in this case, the item at "/Greater Than Consulting/Offers/SocialBusinessBot/Clients/RV Shepherd/Topic 1 Used" was not moved to "/Greater Than Consulting/Offers/SocialBusinessBot/Clients/RV Shepherd/Topic 1", because there's already a folder at the path "/Greater Than Consulting/Offers/SocialBusinessBot/Clients/RV Shepherd/Topic 1".

I see that you said you're trying to make something for the "moving of all files from one folder to another". Note however that the Dropbox API does not directly offer a way to do that. I'll pass this along as a feature request, but I can't promise if or when that might be implemented.

The Dropbox API, such as the /2/files/move_batch_v2 endpoint, allows you to specify one or more items themselves to move. For instance, if "/Greater Than Consulting/Offers/SocialBusinessBot/Clients/RV Shepherd/Topic 1 Used" refers to a folder, then specifying that as the "from_path" when calling the /2/files/move_batch_v2 endpoint would move that folder itself (including its contents), not just all of the contents of that folder.

And the "to_path" would need to be the full path (including both the parent folder path as well as the file or folder name of the destination inside that parent folder) of where you want the item moved to.

So, if you want to move all of the files inside one folder to be inside another already existing folder, you would need to send a list of entries with an object containing a "from_path" and a "to_path" with the full path for each file you want to move when calling the /2/files/move_batch_v2 endpoint. The API v2 Explorer can be useful for prototyping/testing calls like this. You can click "Add" multiple times to create multiple objects in the "entries" list, and fill those in and click "Show Code" to see what the resulting code would look like.