How to move files and folders using google drive API?

Question

I am trying to use Google drive API to carry out simple tasks like

Moving files across folders.
List item

Moving folders.

As far as I could find Google drive API does not provide a way to move files across folders.

With /parent and /children API parent folder of a file can be specified but it does not work for a folder. Moreover the parent attribute associated with a file does not move it under that folder. It just associates a parent attribute with the file(which is not at all useful for my case)

score 36 · Answer 1 · edited Mar 11 '21 at 17:35

36

Drive API V3 has this:

Moving files between folders

To add or remove parents for an existing file, use the addParents and removeParents query parameters on the files.update method.

Both parameters may be used to move a file from one folder to another: https://developers.google.com/drive/v3/web/folder#inserting_a_file_in_a_folder

edited Mar 11 '21 at 17:35

Lee Taylor

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answered Jun 17 '16 at 12:04

intotecho

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This should be made the accepted answer. The current accepted answer relates a previous version of the API. – John Jun 21 '17 at 15:36

pinoyyid · Accepted Answer · 2017-02-08T00:03:45.843

12

To move FILE-A from FOLDER-1 to FOLDER-2, you can use the delete and add calls at https://developers.google.com/drive/v2/reference/parents to remove FOLDER-1 as a parent and add FOLDER-2.

You can also do a Patch on the file with the updated parents array.

edited Feb 08 '17 at 00:03

answered Oct 08 '12 at 10:05

pinoyyid

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thanks a lot..I was using the add parent option but was removing the old parent from the parents[]. – NitinJ Oct 08 '12 at 10:30
patch the parents field in a file used to work but now it's not working anymore. Too bad as it was a one step method to do the same thing. – Martin Oct 24 '12 at 23:03

Hafez Divandari · Answer 3 · 2016-04-08T15:48:31.523

Here is the one step method to move file to the new folder using Patch and the PHP client library:

/**
 * Move a file.
 *
 * @param Google_Service_Drive_DriveFile $service Drive API service instance.
 * @param string $fileId ID of the file to move.
 * @param string $newParentId Id of the folder to move to.
 * @return Google_Service_Drive_DriveFile The updated file. NULL is returned if an API error occurred.
 */
function moveFile($service, $fileId, $newParentId) {
  try {
    $file = new Google_Service_Drive_DriveFile();

    $parent = new Google_Service_Drive_ParentReference();
    $parent->setId($newParentId);

    $file->setParents(array($parent));

    $updatedFile = $service->files->patch($fileId, $file);

    return $updatedFile;
  } catch (Exception $e) {
    print "An error occurred: " . $e->getMessage();
  }
}

Update: If you want to use Drive API v3, use below code documented here:

/**
 * Move a file.
 *
 * @param Google_Service_Drive_DriveFile $service Drive API service instance.
 * @param string $fileId ID of the file to move.
 * @param string $newParentId Id of the folder to move to.
 * @return Google_Service_Drive_DriveFile The updated file. NULL is returned if an API error occurred.
 */
function moveFile($service, $fileId, $newParentId) {
  try {

    $emptyFileMetadata = new Google_Service_Drive_DriveFile();
    // Retrieve the existing parents to remove
    $file = $service->files->get($fileId, array('fields' => 'parents'));
    $previousParents = join(',', $file->parents);
    // Move the file to the new folder
    $file = $service->files->update($fileId, $emptyFileMetadata, array(
      'addParents' => $newParentId,
      'removeParents' => $previousParents,
      'fields' => 'id, parents'));

    return $file;
  } catch (Exception $e) {
    print "An error occurred: " . $e->getMessage();
  }
}

I was getting crazy cause it seems that you need to use a new file and not an existing one when using the update method. How's that??? — xarlymg89, Apr 16 '21 at 07:20

score 4 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 12 '14 at 16:53

4

You can actually still do it in one step really just set the request as so in Javascript:

Body must have:

body.parents = [{ 'id': parentId }];

Request should be:

var request = gapi.client.request({
  'path': 'drive/v2/files/'+fileId,
  'method': 'PUT',
  'params': {'uploadType': 'multipart', 'alt': 'json'}, 
  'headers': { 
    'Authorization': TOKEN
  },
  'body': body
});

And then to execute:

request.execute(function(resp) { });

answered Feb 12 '14 at 16:53

Christopher Robot

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I should note, this is what I utilize to move a file or folder and re-associate a new parent to it without having to remove first and then append the new parent after. This works for me and does it all in one step. – Christopher Robot Feb 12 '14 at 16:55
I'm trying to construct the http request whithout any api client. What api method are you using in this code? I want to test it in the Oaut2 Playground web of google in order to code my own api client for Python3 – Trimax Mar 24 '14 at 13:55
Because I am doing a PUT, it's basically just an update. Closest API method to that would be: https://developers.google.com/drive/v2/reference/files/update – Christopher Robot Apr 03 '14 at 23:50

Francisco Luz · Answer 5 · 2019-11-26T19:45:43.770

This sample code uses Google Drive API v3.

Gfk = Google File Key ( can be the id of either a file or a folder ).

Methods:

moveTo | Moves a file/folder from its first parent folder to a given destination folder. The file/folder gets removed from its original first parent folder;
addParents and removeParents | Only adds or removes one or move parents. addParents does NOT remove any original parent, only adds.

class Gfiles {
    private $service;

    public function setService(\Google_Client $client) : self {
        $this->service = (new \Google_Service_Drive($client))->files;
        return $this;
    }

    public function moveTo(string $gfk, string $to_gfk) : \Google_Service_Drive_DriveFile {
        $body = new \Google_Service_Drive_DriveFile();
        // Gets the first parent. You should further implement this if you wish a different behaviour.
        $from_gfk = $this->service->get($gfk, ['fields' => 'parents'])->parents[0];

        $this->service->update($gfk, $body, ['addParents' => $to_gfk]);
        $this->service->update($gfk, $body, ['removeParents' => $from_gfk]);
        return $this->service->get($gfk, ['fields' => 'parents']);
    }

    /**
     * $parents_gfk expects an array like ['gfk parent 1', 'gfk parent 2'].
     */
    private function updateParents(string $method, string $gfk, array $parents_gfk) : \Google_Service_Drive_DriveFile {
        $body = new \Google_Service_Drive_DriveFile();
        $parents = join(',', $parents_gfk);

        $this->service->update($gfk, $body, [$method => $parents]);
        return $this->service->get($gfk, ['fields' => 'parents']);
    }

    public function addParents(string $gfk, array $parents_gfk) : \Google_Service_Drive_DriveFile {
        return $this->updateParents('addParents', $gfk, $parents_gfk);
    }

    public function removeParents(string $gfk, array $parents_gfk) : \Google_Service_Drive_DriveFile {
        return $this->updateParents('removeParents', $gfk, $parents_gfk);
    }
}

you can do addParents and removeParents in one call to update, no need to invoke it twice — masterxilo, Jan 23 '21 at 14:33

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Jan 12 '14 at 10:04

I have used this code:

        File file =  driveService.files().get(fileId).execute()
        File targetFolder = driveService.files().get(folderId).execute()
        ParentReference newParent = new ParentReference()
        newParent.setSelfLink(targetFolder.getSelfLink())
        newParent.setParentLink(targetFolder.parents[0].getSelfLink())
        newParent.setId(folderId)
        newParent.setKind(targetFolder.getKind())
        newParent.setIsRoot(false)
        def parentsList = new ArrayList<ParentReference>()
        parentsList.add(newParent)
        file.setParents(parentsList)
        File updatedFile = driveService.files().update(fileId, file).execute()

This code does not execute as written. I'm going to submit an update to it. — hsanders, Jul 25 '14 at 15:57

How to move files and folders using google drive API?

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