I’m trying to figure out how to upload files to Google Drive using their API but I’m having trouble understanding the documentation. The official docs don’t make it clear how to properly send the file content in the HTTP POST request body. I can handle the authentication part fine, but when it comes to actually transmitting the file data, I’m getting confused about the format and structure needed. Has anyone successfully implemented file uploads to Google Drive through their API? I need to understand the correct way to structure the request payload and headers. Any working examples or step-by-step guidance would be really helpful since the official documentation seems to skip over the important details about handling the actual file content during the upload process.
Had the exact same problem last year. Resumable uploads saved me - way better than multipart for big files. The docs don’t really explain this, but resumable gives you solid error handling and won’t break if your connection drops. Here’s how it works: POST to the upload endpoint with just metadata, grab the session URI it returns, then PUT your file data to that URI. The gotcha is you need X-Upload-Content-Type in that first request matching your file type. So much easier than wrestling with multipart boundaries, and when things break, you actually get useful error messages.
The main thing that got me was using the wrong endpoint. You need “/upload/drive/v3/files” instead of the regular “/drive/v3/files”. The upload one handles file content - the regular one’s just for metadata.
Make sure you add “uploadType=multipart” to your URL. I wasted hours debugging because I kept hitting the wrong endpoint and couldn’t figure out why my files weren’t uploading.
Also, your boundary string in the Content-Type header has to match exactly what you use in the request body. Sounds obvious but it’s easy to screw up when copy-pasting examples.
for sure! use multipart upload, set content-type to multipart/related. put metadata json and your file data in separate parts. it helped me fix this exact issue last month!