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Google Drive error: Error while hydrating data from Google Drive: The app returned "File not found"

  • 26 June 2024
  • 9 replies
  • 177 views

Hi,

 

Google Drive is returning an error when doing a ‘Find a Folder’ search.  This is on a Zap which has been operating flawlessly for over a year, and is also a function that I use multiple times across different zaps every day.  I’m confident that it’s not a Zap configuration issue - unless something has changed at the Google End.  This is using the new Google Drive Zapier App, not the legacy Google Drive App.

My first guess is that there’s been a change at the Google end, as unlikely as that sounds.

Troubleshooting so far has been:

  • Checking that the connection is active - it is
  • Rerunning the Zap in edit mode - same error appears
  • Confirming that the folder actually exists on the Drive - it does
  • Specifying the Drive that it looks at - My Drive, which is the default anyway
  • There is no Parent Folder to specify

Any help gratefully received - for now I’ve specified the folder instead of looking for it, but would be good to know what has caused this issue…

Thanks.

 

Failed to find a folder in Google Drive

Error while hydrating data from Google Drive: The app returned "File not found: 1UE1ntB6j8oCvUghZ0fyugyU-EUtOEgSt".

Click on the Troubleshoot tab below or learn more in our help center.

9 replies

ken.a
Userlevel 7
Badge +6

Hi there @NoelMac,

Welcome to the Community! 🎉

Before we dig deeper into this, would you mind sharing a detailed screenshot of how your Zap is configured? Also, please share the “Action” section of the Google Drive action step that shows all of its fields. Like so:

46dd6c0979e3d815d621b8da43084ef1.png
(view larger)

Please don't include personal information in the screenshot, or be sure blur out any personal information.

Thanks!

N

Hi - thanks for your reply.

This is a different zap to the one i mentioned above, but the same error type.  It’s looking at a folder on the ‘My Drive’ and I can confirm that the folder exists.  This is using the newer of the Google Drive apps on Zapier.

It is a sub-zap - but that shouldn’t really make any difference as it has run without issues for many months.

Here’s the Action config...

 

And here’s the test result…

 

and here’s the folder showing in the ‘My Drive’ on Google.

 

ken.a
Userlevel 7
Badge +6

Hi @NoelMac,

Thanks for the screenshots and additional details.

I don’t see any issues with your Google Drive action setup. However, have you tried switching to the Legacy version of the Google Drive app just to see if the error will persist?

I'll be keeping an eye out for your response!

N

Hi Ken - thanks for your response.

Unfortunately, I don’t seem to have the Drive legacy app version available to me anymore - I guess it has been discontinued as being available to add to Zaps?

Regards,

Noel.

ken.a
Userlevel 7
Badge +6

Thanks for the update @NoelMac!

Have you tried publishing the Zap and checking if it still runs into the same error when published live?

I'll be keeping an eye out for your response!

N

The same error is still present.  Publishing to live doesn’t help, and creating a new Zap doesn’t help (I thought it might be an issue limited to sub-zaps, but apparently not).

I’ve also tested for folder names of one word against two word names, and different folders - the results are consistent in that an error messages says “

Failed to find a folder in Google Drive

Error while hydrating data from Google Drive: The app returned "File not found: ". followed by a string of characters that look like a folder ID.  The chararcter string returned varies depending on the folder searched for, but doesn’t match the ID of the folder being searched for.

If I search for a folder name that I know does not exist, I get a different error message which is more in line with what I would expect.

Failed to find a folder in Google Drive

Error from halted execution: Nothing could be found for the search.”  

It’s as if the Google Drive connection is looking for a file instead of a folder.

SamB
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +11

That’s very strange @NoelMac! I’ve just made a new folder in my own Google Drive and recreated the setup shown in your screenshots but I couldn’t get it to produce that “Error while hydrating data from Google Drive: The app returned "File not found:...” error, it was able to find it successfully. I even moved the folder into another folder to see if that caused the error but it didn’t.

As it was working for you previously, and the error appears to be referencing the ID for the folder which may suggest that it did in fact find it, I wonder if this might be a permissions related issue. Have the permissions for the connected Google account changed at all? 🤔

To test that theory, can you create a brand new folder in your Google Drive for testing purposes and set the Find a Folder action to search for it to see if it’s able to find it? I’m thinking that if it’s permissions related then if you create a folder (assuming it’s your own Google Drive account that’s connected to the Zap?) then search for it, it should have the necessary permissions and be able to find that folder. Which would indicate that the permissions for the other folders might need to be looked at.


Looking forward to hearing from you on this!

N

Hi SamB - thanks for your reply.

As far as I can tell, the problem only occurs  when the folder being searched for exists on the My Drive root - i.e., not contained in another folder - and possibly when that folder has been created by a forms application.  Note that if I’m searching for a sub-folder in that same folder where the sub-folder was also created by the forms application then the zap works and finds the subfolder - but I have to hardcode the parent folder into the Parent Folder field on the Zap action.

I’ve double and triple-checked the permissions and I don’t believe that’s the problem - as evidenced by being able to select the folders through the drill down on the parent folder selection, and also by being able to access sub-folders and files in the same folder structure.

For context, I was using a ‘utility’ subzap froom multiple zaps, so was passing the folder name being searched for.  Subsequent steps in the subzap drilled down through a couple of other sub-folders - which are created by a trigger application - and then retrieving some files from that final nested folder transferring them to a shared Google Drive and setting sharing permissions.

This is a relatively common need because the forms software I use puts media into a specified folder on the My Drive root.  Different forms use different folder names, so I was using the ‘utility’ subzap to handle all of these by passing the specific folder name for the specific form being used at that time.

My work around has been to duplicate the subzap for each calling zap, and ‘hardcoding’ the folder on the root My Drive - by omitting that step altogether, and specifying the Parent Folder in the next step’s action where I look for the subfolder.  It means I have multiple zaps to maintain and call so it’s not ideal, but I guess it’s not the end of the world either - it’s just frustrating that something that was working, now is not.

Following your suggestion - when I run a new Zap to a) create a folder on the My Drive root, and then b) look for the folder just created, it works.

If I then add a step 3 and look for the pre-existing folder on the My Drive root that has been created by the forms application (and has previously worked in the utility zap) then it fails.

If I amend that 3rd step and add the folder it can’t find into the Parent Folder field and search for a sub-folder (also created by the forms application), it works.

Doing a bit more testing - it does seem to be limited to the one folder at the moment - named ‘Training Records’.  Test zaps are finding other folders on the root My Drive which were also created by the same forms application - but I haven’t tested all them, just an assortment to confirm that zaps using Drive’s Find a Folder are working for a) folders on the root, b) that were created by the forms application, c) that have a mix of single word and multiple word names.

Hope all that makes sense.

 

SamB
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +11

Thanks for getting back to me @NoelMac with those helpful details of all the testing you’ve carried out so far on this, it’s much appreciated! 

Hmm, as it appears to likely be limited to that “Training Records” folder itself as it’s able to find the other folders that were also created by the forms application I wonder if replacing that folder will resolve things.

Can you rename the “Training Records” folder to something else, like “OLD Training Records” for example. Then create a new version of that “Training Records” folder and move the contents of the old folder over to that new folder. Then test the Zap to see if it’s able to find the new version of that folder?

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