Looking for Android Google Drive API tutorial or code examples
I’ve been working on an Android app and need to add cloud storage functionality. Currently I’m using Dropbox integration which works great with their mobile SDK, but I want to switch to Google Drive instead.
The problem is that most documentation and examples I find online are focused on web applications rather than native Android development. I’ve checked the official Google Drive API docs but they don’t have clear Android-specific implementations.
Has anyone successfully integrated Google Drive API into their Android project? I would really appreciate if someone could point me to working code samples or step-by-step tutorials that show how to:
- Authenticate users with Google Drive
- Upload files from Android device
- Download and sync files
- Handle permissions properly
Any help or resources would be awesome!
I made the transition from Dropbox to Google Drive about six months ago for my app. Initially, the OAuth2 setup with the Google Sign-In SDK proved to be the most challenging aspect. Focusing on getting that working first will simplify the subsequent calls to the Drive API, which are fairly straightforward. Personally, I opted for using the REST API directly rather than the client libraries, as it provided greater control over file operations. One crucial thing to note is that Google Drive has specific MIME type requirements for uploads which can be a bit tricky. Additionally, keep in mind that the permission model differs significantly from Dropbox; understanding the difference between file-scoped and drive-scoped access is key. If you encounter any implementation hurdles, I recommend checking out the Google Developers samples on GitHub, as they can be incredibly helpful beyond simply reading the documentation.
Honestly, just grab a sample project from Google’s GitHub repo and reverse engineer it. That’s what I did when I got stuck with this last year. The Drive API isn’t bad once you get the auth setup working, but their Android docs are pretty confusing.
The Google Drive REST API v3 docs have some solid Android examples buried in the client library section. I wasted weeks on outdated v2 examples before figuring this out. Use the latest Google Play Services Auth library - don’t touch the old GoogleApiClient stuff. Here’s what saved me hours: request the right OAuth scopes upfront. I only asked for basic profile access at first and couldn’t understand why file operations kept breaking. You’ll also need proper error handling for network timeouts and quota limits since mobile connections suck. The Drive API handles big file uploads pretty well with resumable uploads, but add progress callbacks or your users will hate you.
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