I’m building automated tests for my Google Drive API integration and running into some weird timing problems. Here’s what happens: when I add a new permission to a file and then quickly fetch all permissions for that same file, sometimes the permission I just created doesn’t show up in the results.
This feels like it might be related to eventual consistency where changes take time to propagate across Google’s servers. But I can’t find anything in their official docs that mentions delays or consistency models. Has anyone else experienced similar behavior? Is there a recommended way to handle these timing issues when working with Drive API operations?
Google doesn’t officially document this timing issue, but it’s absolutely real. Found this out the hard way building bulk permission tools for enterprise clients. The delay varies based on file size and server load - sometimes it’s instant, other times you’re waiting 5+ seconds. Here’s what fixed it for me: add a verification step after each permission operation. Don’t assume the change worked - query the specific permission ID that should’ve been created. Google’s API gives you the permission ID when you create it, so target that exact resource instead of pulling all permissions. Pro tip: use the ‘fields’ parameter to shrink response size when polling. Makes verification calls faster and helps avoid rate limits during retry loops. For automated tests, I cap retries at 5 with 1-second intervals - catches 99% of consistency delays without slowing tests down.
Had this exact issue during integration testing - drove me crazy until I figured it out. The inconsistency gets worse with shared drives vs personal drives in my experience.
What worked for me: skip fixed delays and use conditional waits instead. After creating permissions, I do one quick verification call. Only if that fails do I start the retry loop. Cuts down on unnecessary waiting when the API’s fast, but still handles the slow propagation cases.
One weird thing - using the supportsAllDrives parameter consistently seemed to help reliability, though I’m not sure why. Also check if you’re hitting rate limits - that’ll make the timing issues way worse and more frequent than they really are.
I’ve encountered this exact issue while working with the Google Drive API, and it can be frustrating. What you’re experiencing is indeed a matter of eventual consistency, which isn’t well-documented by Google. I’ve noticed that changes typically take about 2-3 seconds to reflect, but under heavy traffic, it might take longer. To mitigate this, I implemented a retry mechanism that uses exponential backoff. This means after creating a permission, I keep polling the permissions endpoint with increasing delays until I see the updated permission or until a timeout occurs. Additionally, leveraging the Drive API’s revision system can help identify when changes are fully propagated. Just remember that immediate consistency can’t be assumed; always check to confirm that essential operations have succeeded.
Yeah, Google Drive API has these consistency quirks. I’ve hit this headache multiple times building automated workflows.
Polling works but it’s clunky and burns through API calls. Better approach: build an automation layer that handles timing issues automatically.
I switched to Latenode for Google Drive integrations because it has built-in retry logic and delay mechanisms. Set up workflows that wait for operations to complete before moving to the next step. No more manual polling or guessing timeouts.
For permissions, create a flow that adds the permission, waits a set time, then verifies it exists before continuing. Verification fails? It retries with exponential backoff automatically.
Best part: no writing retry and error handling code yourself. Just configure delays and retry policies in the visual editor.
This saved me tons of debugging time on flaky API behaviors.
Ugh, this has burned me so many times! Google’s infrastructure has some weird caching that messes with API responses. I just add a 500ms delay before verification calls instead of spamming retries. Works most of the time and doesn’t kill your quota.