I’m working with Google Drive API folder monitoring and running into an issue. When I add a new file to my monitored directory, the webhook sends me a notification with X-Goog-Resource-State: update but I can’t figure out which specific file triggered this event.
Here’s what I’m receiving in the headers:
X-Goog-Resource-Id - I thought this might be the new file ID, but when I try to fetch it using get() I receive a 404 error
X-Goog-Resource-Uri - This points to the monitored folder itself
X-Goog-Channel-Id - This is for the notification channel
X-Request-Id - Just a random UUID
None of these seem to tell me which file was actually added. Do I really need to pull the entire file list from the folder every time I get an update notification and then compare it against my stored list? This seems inefficient but I’m not sure what other options I have.
Has anyone dealt with this before? What’s the proper way to handle this scenario?
Yeah, this is a known pain point with Drive API push notifications. The webhook just says “hey, something changed” but won’t tell you what. Hit the same issue building a sync tool last year. You’re right about fetching folder contents - that’s what you’ll need to do. You can speed things up though. Use the fields parameter to grab only what you need (files(id,name,modifiedTime)) and pageToken for big folders. I’d also store the modifiedTime from your last sync to spot recent changes faster. The comparison thing feels clunky but it’s how everyone does it. Every production app I’ve worked with handles it this way - just pair it with decent caching.
yeah, i get it! it’s kinda annoying not being able to pinpoint the file just from the headers. checking the folder and comparing is a must. lots of folks keep a local cache to make it less taxing on the api.
Yeah, this drives everyone crazy with Drive’s push notifications. The webhook system stays vague on purpose - they don’t want file details in headers that could get intercepted. I dealt with this same nightmare and found a timestamp approach works best. Save your last notification time, then when you get pinged, query the folder with modifiedTime set right after your last check. Way less work since you’re only checking recent changes instead of scanning everything. Heads up - you’ll sometimes get multiple notifications for one change, so add a short delay to batch them together. The comparison method is standard here. Even Google’s docs show this pattern.