I am trying to setup rclone to list my albums on Google Photos, but face a 403 error:
couldn't list albums: Request had insufficient authentication scopes. (403 PERMISSION_DENIED)
Run the command 'rclone version' and share the full output of the command.
rclone v1.68.2
os/version: ubuntu 22.04 (64 bit)
os/kernel: 5.15.0-127-generic (x86_64)
os/type: linux
os/arch: amd64
go/version: go1.23.3
go/linking: static
go/tags: none
Which cloud storage system are you using? (eg Google Drive)
Google Photos
The command you were trying to run (eg rclone copy /tmp remote:tmp)
rclone lsd remote:album/
The rclone config contents with secrets removed.
[remote]
type = google photos
token = {"access_token":"***","token_type":"Bearer","refresh_token":"***","expiry":"2024-12-28T10:46:05.823972699+01:00"}
A log from the command with the -vv flag
2024/12/28 09:48:54 DEBUG : rclone: Version "v1.68.2" starting with parameters ["rclone" "-vv" "lsd" "remote:album/"]
2024/12/28 09:48:54 DEBUG : Creating backend with remote "remote:album/"
2024/12/28 09:48:54 DEBUG : Using config file from "/home/glostis/.config/rclone/rclone.conf"
2024/12/28 09:48:54 DEBUG : fs cache: renaming cache item "remote:album/" to be canonical "remote:album"
2024/12/28 09:48:54 DEBUG : Google Photos path "album": List: dir=""
2024/12/28 09:48:54 DEBUG : Google Photos path "album": >List: err=couldn't list albums: Request had insufficient authentication scopes. (403 PERMISSION_DENIED)
2024/12/28 09:48:54 ERROR : : error listing: couldn't list albums: Request had insufficient authentication scopes. (403 PERMISSION_DENIED)
2024/12/28 09:48:54 DEBUG : 7 go routines active
2024/12/28 09:48:54 INFO : Google Photos path "album": Committing uploads - please wait...
2024/12/28 09:48:54 NOTICE: Failed to lsd with 2 errors: last error was: couldn't list albums: Request had insufficient authentication scopes. (403 PERMISSION_DENIED)
I forgot to mention it in the original post, but the « root » command works:
rclone lsd remote: -vv
2024/12/28 18:35:10 DEBUG : rclone: Version "v1.68.2" starting with parameters ["rclone" "lsd" "remote:" "-vv"]
2024/12/28 18:35:10 DEBUG : Creating backend with remote "remote:"
2024/12/28 18:35:10 DEBUG : Using config file from "/home/glostis/.config/rclone/rclone.conf"
2024/12/28 18:35:10 DEBUG : Google Photos path "": List: dir=""
2024/12/28 18:35:10 DEBUG : Google Photos path "": >List: err=<nil>
-1 2024-12-28 18:35:10 -1 album
-1 2024-12-28 18:35:10 -1 feature
-1 2024-12-28 18:35:10 -1 media
-1 2024-12-28 18:35:10 -1 shared-album
-1 2024-12-28 18:35:10 -1 upload
2024/12/28 18:35:10 DEBUG : 6 go routines active
2024/12/28 18:35:10 INFO : Google Photos path "": Committing uploads - please wait...
but any command that is supposed to list actual photos fails with the same error:
rclone lsd remote:media/all -vv
2024/12/28 18:36:56 DEBUG : rclone: Version "v1.68.2" starting with parameters ["rclone" "lsd" "remote:media/all" "-vv"]
2024/12/28 18:36:56 DEBUG : Creating backend with remote "remote:media/all"
2024/12/28 18:36:56 DEBUG : Using config file from "/home/glostis/.config/rclone/rclone.conf"
2024/12/28 18:36:56 DEBUG : Google Photos path "media/all": List: dir=""
2024/12/28 18:36:57 DEBUG : Google Photos path "media/all": >List: err=couldn't list files: Request had insufficient authentication scopes. (403 PERMISSION_DENIED)
2024/12/28 18:36:57 ERROR : : error listing: couldn't list files: Request had insufficient authentication scopes. (403 PERMISSION_DENIED)
2024/12/28 18:36:57 DEBUG : 7 go routines active
2024/12/28 18:36:57 INFO : Google Photos path "media/all": Committing uploads - please wait...
2024/12/28 18:36:57 NOTICE: Failed to lsd with 2 errors: last error was: couldn't list files: Request had insufficient authentication scopes. (403 PERMISSION_DENIED)
I have already removed and re-created the remote several times, trying both to leave a blank client id/secret, and using some client id/secret I have created. In both cases, I get the same error message.
I should also add that using the Google Drive remote on the same Google account works fine, so the problem seems specific to the Google Photos remote.
Moreover, I have tried to access Google Photos using other Google accounts I have, and I face the same issue with all Google accounts so it is not specific to a single account.