Pydrive error: No downloadLink/exportLinks for mimetype found in metadata

Question

I am trying to download a simple text file from google drive automatically with the pydrive module for python. I keep getting the following error:

Traceback (most recent call last): File "C:\GIS\AVGOPS\Scripts\GoogleDrive_Test.py", line 20, in item.GetContentFile(r'C:\Users\pfilyer\Desktop\googedrive\' + item['title']) File "C:\Python27\ArcGIS10.4\lib\site-packages\pydrive\files.py", line 210, in GetContentFile self.FetchContent(mimetype, remove_bom) File "C:\Python27\ArcGIS10.4\lib\site-packages\pydrive\files.py", line 43, in _decorated return decoratee(self, *args, **kwargs) File "C:\Python27\ArcGIS10.4\lib\site-packages\pydrive\files.py", line 265, in FetchContent 'No downloadLink/exportLinks for mimetype found in metadata') FileNotDownloadableError: No downloadLink/exportLinks for mimetype found in metadata

Any suggestions?

import pydrive
from pydrive.drive import GoogleDrive

from pydrive.auth import GoogleAuth

gauth = GoogleAuth()
gauth.LoadCredentialsFile(r"C:\Users\XXXXX\.credentials\drive-python-quickstart.json")
drive = GoogleDrive(gauth)

print "Auth Success"

folder_id = '0BxbuUXtrs7adSFFYMG0zS3VZNFE'
lister = drive.ListFile({'q': "'%s' in parents" % folder_id}).GetList()
for item in lister:
    print item['title']
    item.GetContentFile(r'C:\Users\XXXXX\Desktop\googedrive\\' +    item['title'])

Answer 1

You are possibly trying to download a google document, spreadsheet or whatever else which is not a ordinary file.

I got exactly the same error a few moments ago, when I tried to download a file of mimeType: application/vnd.google-apps.document. The document has to be exported to other format before downloading. Check this:

import pydrive
from pydrive.drive import GoogleDrive

from pydrive.auth import GoogleAuth

gauth = GoogleAuth()
gauth.LoadCredentialsFile(r"C:\Users\XXXXX\.credentials\drive-python-    quickstart.json")
drive = GoogleDrive(gauth)

print "Auth Success"

folder_id = '0BxbuUXtrs7adSFFYMG0zS3VZNFE'
lister = drive.ListFile({'q': "'%s' in parents" % folder_id}).GetList()
for item in lister:
    print(item['title'])
    # this should tell you which mimetype the file you're trying to download 
    # has. 
    print('title: %s, mimeType: %s' % (item['title'], item['mimeType']))
    mimetypes = {
        # Drive Document files as PDF
        'application/vnd.google-apps.document': 'application/pdf',

        # Drive Sheets files as MS Excel files.
        'application/vnd.google-apps.spreadsheet': 'application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet'

    # see https://developers.google.com/drive/v3/web/mime-types
    }
    download_mimetype = None
    if file['mimeType'] in mimetypes:
        download_mimetype = mimetypes[file['mimeType']]
        file.GetContentFile(file['title'], mimetype=download_mimetype)

        item.GetContentFile(r'C:\Users\XXXXX\Desktop\googedrive\\' + item['title'], mimetype=download_mimetype)
    else: 
        item.GetContentFile(r'C:\Users\XXXXX\Desktop\googedrive\\' + item['title'])

This should work.

Answer 2

When you upload documents to google drive, make sure the 'Convert documents to Google docs editor format option is unchecked in google drive settings. This ensures that your uploaded file is in the same format as the one in your local (e.g., .csv, .txt, etc.). For me, this worked.