gildas-lormeau/SingleFile · error · Error

invalid_token

invalid_token

Error message

invalid_token

What it means

getResponse converts an HTTP 401 from the Drive API into "invalid_token". This means the OAuth access token sent with the request is missing, expired, or revoked, so the API rejected the request as unauthenticated. It is the library's normalized signal that the caller must re-authenticate.

Source

Thrown at src/lib/gdrive/gdrive.js:489

}

async function getJSON(httpResponse) {
	httpResponse = getResponse(httpResponse);
	const response = await httpResponse.json();
	if (response.error) {
		throw new Error(response.error);
	} else {
		return response;
	}
}

function getResponse(httpResponse) {
	if (httpResponse.status == 200) {
		return httpResponse;
	} else if (httpResponse.status == 404) {
		throw new Error("path_not_found");
	} else if (httpResponse.status == 401) {
		throw new Error("invalid_token");
	} else {
		throw new Error("unknown_error (" + httpResponse.status + ")");
	}
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 517fb7c5cf)

Solutions

  1. Catch the error and re-run the auth flow (gdrive.auth) to obtain a fresh token, then retry the request once.
  2. Verify the stored token is still valid by checking expiry before requests; refresh proactively.
  3. If refresh fails, clear stored credentials and require interactive re-consent.
  4. Confirm the Authorization header is actually included in requests made outside the library's helpers.

Example fix

// before
const data = await gdrive.getJSON(resp); // 401 -> invalid_token
// after
try {
  var data = await gdrive.getJSON(resp);
} catch (e) {
  if (e.message === "invalid_token") {
    await gdrive.auth(options); // refresh
    data = await gdrive.getJSON(resp);
  } else throw e;
}
Defensive patterns

Strategy: retry

Validate before calling

function tokenLikelyValid(auth) {
  return auth && typeof auth.accessToken === "string" &&
    (!auth.expiry || Date.now() < auth.expiry - 60_000); // refresh 1min early
}

Try / catch

try { return await callGdrive(); }
catch (e) {
  if (e.message === "invalid_token") {
    await gdrive.auth(options); // force re-auth/refresh
    return await callGdrive(); // retry once
  }
  throw e;
}

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Access token expired (Google tokens last ~1 hour); user revoked the app in their Google account settings; token never attached to the request; refresh flow failed silently but a stale token is still used.

Common situations: Long-running jobs that outlive token lifetime without refreshing; users revoking access then the app retrying with cached tokens; clock skew on the host invalidating freshly issued tokens; switching accounts without clearing stored credentials.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of gildas-lormeau/SingleFile@517fb7c5cf (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/28ab290a8b4acb1e. Report an issue: GitHub.