I’m working on uploading data to Google Drive using an InputStream instead of a file. Most tutorials show how to use FileContent which works fine, but I need to work with InputStreamContent since my data comes from a stream.
The problem is that when I try to upload without setting the length parameter, I get this error:
java.lang.IllegalArgumentException
at com.google.common.base.Preconditions.checkArgument(Preconditions.java:72)
at com.google.api.client.googleapis.media.MediaHttpUploader.getMediaContentLength(MediaHttpUploader.java:315)
I could read the entire stream into a byte array first to get the size, but that seems wasteful for large files. The documentation suggests the length is optional (defaults to -1), but apparently it’s required. Is there a better way to handle this?
yeah this caught me too when i switched from files to streams. what worked for me was checking if my inputstream supports mark/reset - if it does you can read through once to count bytes, then reset and upload. not perfect but avoids loading everything into memory like byte arrays do.
You’re encountering a common issue with Google Drive’s resumable upload mechanism. The length parameter isn’t truly optional with InputStreamContent, despite what the documentation suggests; the uploader needs to know the content size for proper chunking and resumable upload handling.
In my experience, one workaround is to obtain the content length from the original data source, such as HTTP response headers or blob sizes. Alternatively, you can use InputStreamContent.setCloseInputStream(false) and wrap your stream in a CountingInputStream to track bytes read, although this requires some buffering. For streams with unknown lengths, consider a temporary file approach or a different upload strategy. The Drive API enforces this requirement for reliability reasons, which can be frustrating when dealing with streams.
I ran into this exact same situation about six months ago. The approach I ended up using was implementing a custom InputStream wrapper that buffers chunks while keeping track of the total size. Instead of loading everything into memory at once, I created a ChunkedBufferInputStream that reads and buffers the data in configurable sized chunks (I used 8MB chunks). This lets you calculate the total length during the first pass while keeping memory usage reasonable. Once you have the length, you can create a new InputStreamContent with the proper size parameter. It’s more complex than the simple solutions but works well for large streams where memory is a concern. The key is finding the right balance between buffer size and memory usage for your specific use case.