Google Drive rclone: failed to open source object: can't read dangling shortcut

What is the problem you are having with rclone?

After a successful first sync, the subsequent syncs end with:

Failed to sync with 2 errors: last error was: failed to open source object: can't read dangling shortcut

I searched Google for "rclone "can't read dangling shortcut"" and surprised only one link came up:

Here: rclone/drive.go at master · rclone/rclone · GitHub

Is this an error no one else has gotten before?!

Run the command 'rclone version' and share the full output of the command.

rclone v1.57.0

  • os/version: ubuntu 20.04 (64 bit)
  • os/kernel: 5.4.0-96-generic (x86_64)
  • os/type: linux
  • os/arch: amd64
  • go/version: go1.17.2
  • go/linking: static
  • go/tags: none

Which cloud storage system are you using? (eg Google Drive)

Google Drive

The command you were trying to run (eg rclone copy /tmp remote:tmp)

rclone sync --verbose --create-empty-src-dirs MetricalGoogleDrive:Metrical /data/GoogleDriveBackup/MetricalGoogleDrive

The rclone config contents with secrets removed.

[MetricalGoogleDrive]
type = drive
client_id = 733933608169-73fi7f3pkg**c**ask0rdsmo7kmjgfhl07ud5.apps.googleusercontent.com
client_secret = removed
scope = drive
token = {"access_token":"removed","token_type":"Bearer","refresh_token":"removed","expiry":"2022-02-02T03:47:00.654550656Z"}
root_folder_id = 0APhkgeeC--oXUk9PVA

A log from the command with the -vv flag

aagha@metricalhome1:~$ rclone -vv sync --verbose --create-empty-src-dirs MetricalGoogleDrive:Metri
cal /data/GoogleDriveBackup/MetricalGoogleDrive
2022/02/02 07:03:44 DEBUG : rclone: Version "v1.57.0" starting with parameters ["rclone" "-vv" "sy
nc" "--verbose" "--create-empty-src-dirs" "MetricalGoogleDrive:Metrical" "/data/GoogleDriveBackup/
MetricalGoogleDrive"]
2022/02/02 07:03:44 DEBUG : Creating backend with remote "MetricalGoogleDrive:Metrical"
2022/02/02 07:03:44 DEBUG : Using config file from "/home/aagha/.config/rclone/rclone.conf"
2022/02/02 07:03:44 DEBUG : Creating backend with remote "/data/GoogleDriveBackup/MetricalGoogleDr
ive"
2022/02/02 07:03:45 DEBUG : Dashboards/.gitignore: Size and modification time the same (differ by
0s, within tolerance 1ms)

// THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS OF LINES OF OUTPUT

2022/02/02 06:55:05 DEBUG : REDACTED/.git/objects/ff/fe92fc3bd259b8436dcdad380f55c693573f6d: Unchanged skipping
2022/02/02 06:55:05 DEBUG : pacer: Reducing sleep to 373.375184ms
2022/02/02 06:55:05 DEBUG : Local file system at /data/GoogleDriveBackup/MetricalGoogleDrive: Waiting for checks to finish
2022/02/02 06:55:05 DEBUG : Local file system at /data/GoogleDriveBackup/MetricalGoogleDrive: Waiting for transfers to finish
2022/02/02 06:55:05 ERROR : Local file system at /data/GoogleDriveBackup/MetricalGoogleDrive: not
deleting files as there were IO errors
2022/02/02 06:55:05 ERROR : Local file system at /data/GoogleDriveBackup/MetricalGoogleDrive: not
deleting directories as there were IO errors
2022/02/02 06:55:05 ERROR : Attempt 3/3 failed with 2 errors and: failed to open source object: ca
n't read dangling shortcut
2022/02/02 06:55:05 INFO  :
Transferred:              0 B / 0 B, -, 0 B/s, ETA -
Errors:                 2 (retrying may help)
Checks:            123921 / 123921, 100%
Elapsed time:      35m3.2s

2022/02/02 06:55:05 DEBUG : 19 go routines active
2022/02/02 06:55:05 Failed to sync with 2 errors: last error was: failed to open source object: ca
n't read dangling shortcut

In addition to an output that ran for over 40 minutes, I've not included names of dirs/files which have confidential company information in them.

A dangling shortcut is a shortcut in your google drive that doesn't point to anything. They look like this in the google drive web page (note the trashcan icon and the "Remove shortcut" text)

image

As for which file, search for "dangling shortcut" in the log and you'll see. (I don't think you posted that section).

I suggest you find the dangling shortcut and fix it or delete it, then the sync will run without errors.

Great. Thanks!

For others that might find this in the future:

I used the following to create a log file:

rclone sync --verbose --create-empty-src-dirs MetricalGoogleDrive:Metrical /data/GoogleDriveBackup/MetricalGoogleDrive --log-file rcloneoutput.txt

Found the "dangling shortcut" files by grepping rcloneoutput.txt and then removed the offending files from Google Drive.

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