BoxUser.moveFolderToUser throws User is locked error

[abhijry]

• I have checked that the SDK documentation and API documentation doesn't solve my issue

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I am trying to move the root folder of an user to another user using the BoxUser.moveFolderToUser method. The response i get is given below and this error is not consistent/reproduceable

Response Code : 409
Response Message : {"type":"error","status":409,"code":"conflict","help_url":"http://developers.box.com/docs/#errors","message":"User is locked","request_id":"4lom59fo9c8asoq0"}

Both the users are in active state when the api is invoked.

There isn't a locked status for users in box so this error probably isn't about the user status.

[carycheng]

Hey @abhi8344, will take a look at this

If possible could you email us your api key to ccheng@box.com so we can dig into this? Thanks!

[mattwiller]

Hi @abhi8344 — the error you're seeing means that there are already large folder operation locks held on the the source user account. This likely means there is already a big move or something like that happening on that account, and another one cannot be performed at this time. In this scenario, you should wait and try the operation again later.

[abhijry]

@mattwiller The method fails in between the transfer so it successfully transferred some files and failed to transfer some .

[mattwiller]

@abhi8344 In this case, the transfer may still be in progress (hence the 409 status code, a new transfer cannot be started while the old one is running). Can you check to see if items are still being moved?

[abhijry]

The move has stopped and the code does not try to start another transfer. Also this method call returns a handle to the moved folder in the target user directory once the transfer is complete.

[mattwiller]

@abhi8344 When your application sees a 409, you should retry the move later to avoid any ongoing operation. If you retry it now, does it succeed?

[abhijry]

@mattwiller No i have not done that since it is something that is not reproducible in dev env.
Here are the possible consequences of doing that
1 ) item name already in use error thrown since BoxUser.moveFolderToUser creates a folder with the name of the user in a certain way so there would be a conflict
2) It starts creating copies of the folder suffixing the name with the (1) (2) etc. which is not desirable

I still do not understand how a folder move from one user to another could get into a locked state when no other move/copy transactions are initiated in either of these user accounts at that time. I really want to understand the behavior of the underlying rest apis(not the sdk) in this scenario .Is there any documentation ?

[mattwiller]

@abhi8344 I don't personally have much information on the specifics of how accounts are locked during file and folder operations; if you have a specific question about your account I would recommend contacting Box Support since they have the access and tools to help diagnose that sort of issue much better than I can.

In general, I would recommend that if you get a 409 error on this endpoint, you should either:

1. Check the root folder of the destination user to verify if the move operation was started and you're getting a conflict with it — if not, retry
2. Just retry without checking, which might leave you with empty folder created with a (1) or (2) suffix that you can simply delete