Overwrite an Excel file in Google Drive using Python

Question

I have a loop which runs through a list of files then uploads them a Google Drive folder. There is a client_secrets.json file in the folder on my computer.

I am able to create new files in the Google Drive folder but I wish to overwrite the existing files, without changing the Google Drive file IDs. Is this possible to do this adapting my code below?

from pydrive.auth import GoogleAuth
from pydrive.drive import GoogleDrive
gauth = GoogleAuth()
drive = GoogleDrive(gauth)

upload_file_list ["a.xlsx", "b.xlsx"]


for upload_file in upload_file_list:
    gfile = drive.CreateFile({'parents': [{'id': [FOLDER ID}]})
    gfile.SetContentFile(upload_file)
    gfile.Upload()
gfile.content.close()

Answer 1

I believe your goal is as follows.

• You want to update the existing XLSX file with a new XLSX file on Google Drive.
• You want to achieve this using pydrive for python.

Issue and workaround:

When I saw the document of pydrive, I couldn't find the method for updating the file content while the file metadata can be updated. From your showing script, I understand that you already had the access token by the script of pydrive. So, in this answer, using your authorization script, I would like to propose a sample script for updating the file content of the file on Google Drive.

Sample script:

Before you use this script, please set file_id and uploadXLSXfilename.

import json
import requests
from pydrive.auth import GoogleAuth


file_id = "###"  # Please set the file ID of the existing XLSX file on Google Drive.
uploadXLSXfilename = "./sample.xlsx"  # Please set your local XLSX file name with the path.

gauth = GoogleAuth()
gauth.LocalWebserverAuth()
files = {
    "data": ("metadata", json.dumps({"mimeType": "application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet"}), "application/json"),
    "file": open(uploadXLSXfilename, "rb"),
}
res = requests.patch(
    "https://www.googleapis.com/upload/drive/v3/files/" + file_id + "?uploadType=multipart",
    headers={"Authorization": "Bearer " + gauth.attr["credentials"].access_token},
    files=files,
)
print(res.text)

• When this script is run, the existing file of file_id on Google Drive is overwritten with the local XLSX file.
• And, the access token is used from gauth.

Reference:

• Files: update

Answer 2

Rather than CreateFile, you need to use update()

service.files().update()

Answer 3

You can use files.update. Here's a sample:

    service = build('drive', 'v3', credentials=creds)

    fileId = "<ID of the file you want to update>"
    body={'name':'New name if needed'}

    # Your local file
    media_body = MediaFileUpload('Your file.xlsx',
                                mimetype='application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet')
        
    updated_file = service.files().update(
        fileId = fileId,
        body=body,
        media_body = media_body
    ).execute()

    print(F'File ID: {updated_file.get("id")}')

Pretty much use your local file as media_body and add the necessary metadata to body. As explained in the documentation linked above you can modify other fields according to the Files object documentation, which you can add to the body variable.

There's also a sample for the Drive v2 API, though it works a little different. My sample is for Drive v3, which is the current version.