Recursively deleting a folder in Dropbox to overcome the 10000 files limitation.

recursive_delete.py

# Include the Dropbox SDK
import dropbox

# Get your app key and secret from the Dropbox developer website
# https://www.dropbox.com/developers-v1/apps
app_key = 'key'
app_secret = 'secret'

flow = dropbox.client.DropboxOAuth2FlowNoRedirect(app_key, app_secret)

# Have the user sign in and authorize this token
authorize_url = flow.start()
print ('1. Go to: ' + authorize_url)
print ('2. Click "Allow" (you might have to log in first)')
print ('3. Copy the authorization code.')
# code = input("Enter the authorization code here: ").strip()
code = 'your_code'
# This will fail if the user enters an invalid authorization code
access_token, user_id = flow.finish(code)

client = dropbox.client.DropboxClient(access_token)
print( 'linked account: ', client.account_info())

# list some files, this will have to be done recursively
# until there are not more files

def get_files(client, path):
    """Get all files at a given path"""
    
    metadata = client.metadata(path, file_limit=20000)
    return [item['path'] for item in metadata['contents'] if not item['is_dir']]
    
    
def get_folders(client, path):
    """Get all folders at a given path"""
    
    metadata = client.metadata(path, file_limit=20000)
    return [item['path'] for item in metadata['contents'] if item['is_dir']]    

def delete_files(client, files):
    """Delete all files (not folders) in a given path"""
    
    for file in files:
        print('Deletig file', file)
        client.file_delete(file)
            

def recursive_delete(client, start_folder):

    try:
        print('Trying to delete', start_folder)
        client.file_delete(start_folder)
        print('Sucess')
        return None
    except dropbox.rest.ErrorResponse as e:
        if e.status == 406:
            print('Too many objects, attempting recursive strategy.')
            
            files = get_files(client, start_folder)
            print('First deleting {} files'.format(len(files)))
            delete_files(client, files)
            
            folders = get_folders(client, start_folder)
            print('Now trying to delete {} folders'.format(len(folders)))
            for folder in folders:
                print('Trying to delete', folder)
                recursive_delete(client, folder)
            
            # now that the folder is empty try again
            print('Now that {} is empty lets delete it'.format(start_folder))
            client.file_delete(start_folder)
        else:
            print(e)