Getting 403 from google drive api - node.js

Question

I am trying to access google drive using the node client. This will run on a server in a background process without user involvement. In preparation, I have done the following:
Created a service account
Enabled Drive API access on the account whose drive I am accessing
Shared a particular folder in the drive with the service account (called MyFolder below).
I am able to successfully authenticate as the service account and list files inside the directory. However, I am not able to download any of the files. When I try, I apparently get a 403 error. It's kind of buried in the error message but that appears to be the issue. Here is my code:
const fs = require('fs');
const { google } = require('googleapis');
const auth = require('./service-creds.json');
(async () => {
let jwtClient = new google.auth.JWT(auth.client_email, null,
auth.private_key, ['https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive']);
try {
const tokens = await jwtClient.authorize();
let drive = google.drive('v3');
const res1 = await drive.files.list({
auth: jwtClient, q: `name = 'MyFolder'`
});
const folder = res1.data.files[0];
const res2 = await drive.files.list({
auth: jwtClient,
q: `'${folder.id}' in parents`
});
// print out all files under MyFolder
res2.data.files.forEach(f => console.log(f.name, f.id));
const dest = fs.createWriteStream('./myfile.csv');
const file = res2.data.files[0];
const response = await drive.files.export({
fileId: file.id,
mimeType: file.mimeType,
auth: jwtClient
}, {
responseType: 'stream'
});
response.data.on('error', err => {
console.log(err);
}).on('end', () => {
console.log('done');
}).pipe(dest);
}
catch (err) {
console.log('The API returned an error: ', err);
}
})();
Here is part of the resulting error:
The API returned an error:
... at Gaxios.<anonymous> (/api-test/node_modules/gaxios/build/src/gaxios.js:73:27)
Response {
size: 0,
timeout: 0,
[Symbol(Body internals)]:
{ body:
Gunzip {
_readableState: [Object],
readable: true,
domain: null,
_events: [Object],
_eventsCount: 7,
_maxListeners: undefined,
_writableState: [Object],
writable: true,
allowHalfOpen: true,
_transformState: [Object],
bytesRead: 0,
_opts: [Object],
_chunkSize: 16384,
_flushFlag: 2,
_finishFlushFlag: 2,
_scheduledFlushFlag: 0,
_handle: [Object],
_hadError: false,
_buffer: <Buffer 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 34 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ... >,
_offset: 0,
_level: -1,
_strategy: 0 },
disturbed: false,
error: null },
[Symbol(Response internals)]:
{ url: 'https://www.googleapis.com/drive/v3/files/123abc123abc/export?mimeType=text%2Fplain',
status: 403,
statusText: 'Forbidden',
headers: Headers { [Symbol(map)]: [Object] },
counter: 0 } }
I have not been able to find anything in the error that states why the 403 is being thrown. It appears to be zipped up but I have not been able to successfully unzip any part of it.

Answer 1

You want to download a file of text/plain from Google Drive.
If my understanding is correct, how about this modification?
Modification points:
I think that the reason of your issue is to download the file of the mimeType of text/plain using the files.export method of Drive API.
When Google Docs (Spreadsheet, Document, Slides and so on) files are downloaded, you can do it by the files.export method of Drive API.
When you want to download the files except for Google Docs, please use the files.get method.
When I tried to download the file of text/plain using the files.export method, I could confirm that the same error occurs.
In order to reflect above points, please modify as follows.
Modified script:
From:
const response = await drive.files.export({
fileId: file.id,
mimeType: file.mimeType,
auth: jwtClient
}, {
responseType: 'stream'
});
To:
const response = await drive.files.get({
fileId: file.id,
alt: "media",
auth: jwtClient
}, {
responseType: 'stream'
});
Reference:
Download files