Upload of Large Files to Google Drive with the Google Drive API for Android (GDAA)

Question

I realize that similar questions have been asked before. However, none of them was answered.

My problem is the following:

To upload a file to Google Drive, you need to create DriveContents.

You either do this by creating them out of thin air:

DriveApi.DriveContentsResult driveContentsResult = Drive.DriveApi.newDriveContents(getGoogleApiClient()).await();
DriveContents contents = driveContentsResult.getDriveContents();

Or you do this by opening an already existing file:

DriveApi.DriveContentsResult driveContentsResult = driveFileResult.getDriveFile().open(getGoogleApiClient(), DriveFile.MODE_WRITE_ONLY, null).await();
DriveContents contents = driveContentsResult.getDriveContents();

You are now ready to fill the DriveContents with data. You do this by obtaining an OutputStream and by writing to this OutputStream:

FileOutputStream fileOutputStream = new FileOutputStream(driveContentsResult.getDriveContents().getParcelFileDescriptor().getFileDescriptor());

Now this is where the problem starts: by filling this OutputStream, Google Play services just copy the file I want to upload and create a local copy. If you have 0.5 GB of free space on your phone and you want to upload a 1.3 GB file, this is not going to work! There is not enough storage space.

So how is it done? Is there a way to directly upload to Google Drive via the GDAA that does not involve creating a local copy first, and THEN uploading it?

Does the Google REST API handle these uploads any different? Can it be done via the Google REST API?

EDIT: It seems this cannot be done via the GDAA. For people looking for a way to do resumable uploads with the Google REST API, have a look at my example here on StackOverflow.

Answer 1

I'm not sure if it can but you can surely try to use Google REST APIs to upload your file.

You could use Multipart upload or Resumable upload:

Multipart upload

• If you have metadata that you want to send along with the data to upload, you can make a single multipart/related request. This is a good choice if the data you are sending is small enough to upload again in its entirety if the connection fails.

Resumable upload

• To upload data files more reliably, you can use the resumable upload protocol. This protocol allows you to resume an upload operation after a communication failure has interrupted the flow of data. It is especially useful if you are transferring large files and the likelihood of a network interruption or some other transmission failure is high, for example, when uploading from a mobile client app. It can also reduce your bandwidth usage in the event of network failures because you don't have to restart large file uploads from the beginning.

You must remember as discussed in this SO question:

1. The GDAA's main identifier, the DriveId lives in GDAA (GooPlaySvcs) only and does not exist in the REST Api.
2. ResourceId can be obtained from the DriveId only after GDAA committed (uploaded) the file/folder)
3. You will run into a lot of timing issues caused by the fact that GDAA 'buffers' network requests on it's own schedule (system optimized), whereas the REST Api let your app control the waiting for the response..

Lastly you can check this related SO question regarding tokens and authentication in HTTP request in android. There are also some examples by seanpj for both GDAA and the REST api that might help you.

Hope this helps.