How to solve HttpError 403 "Insufficient Permission" in Google calander API?

Question

I want to create an event with google calendar API using python. I used the sample code from here https://developers.google.com/google-apps/calendar/v3/reference/events/insert

I thought GMT would be an issue but then I also changed the GMT as in the code with the google calendar settings. But still having the same error. Full code is given bellow

from __future__ import print_function
import httplib2
import os

from apiclient import discovery
from oauth2client import client
from oauth2client import tools
from oauth2client.file import Storage

import datetime

try:
    import argparse
    flags = argparse.ArgumentParser(parents=[tools.argparser]).parse_args()
except ImportError:
    flags = None

# If modifying these scopes, delete your previously saved credentials
# at ~/.credentials/calendar-python-quickstart.json
SCOPES = 'https://www.googleapis.com/auth/calendar.readonly'
CLIENT_SECRET_FILE = 'client_secret.json'
APPLICATION_NAME = 'Google Calendar API Python Quickstart'


def get_credentials():
    """Gets valid user credentials from storage.

    If nothing has been stored, or if the stored credentials are invalid,
    the OAuth2 flow is completed to obtain the new credentials.

    Returns:
        Credentials, the obtained credential.
    """
    home_dir = os.path.expanduser('~')
    credential_dir = os.path.join(home_dir, '.credentials')
    if not os.path.exists(credential_dir):
        os.makedirs(credential_dir)
    credential_path = os.path.join(credential_dir, 'calendar-python-quickstart.json')

    store = Storage(credential_path)
    credentials = store.get()
    if not credentials or credentials.invalid:
        flow = client.flow_from_clientsecrets(CLIENT_SECRET_FILE, SCOPES)
        flow.user_agent = APPLICATION_NAME
        if flags:
            credentials = tools.run_flow(flow, store, flags)
        else: # Needed only for compatibility with Python 2.6
            credentials = tools.run(flow, store)
        print('Storing credentials to ' + credential_path)
    return credentials

def main():
    """Shows basic usage of the Google Calendar API.

    Creates a Google Calendar API service object and outputs a list of the next
    10 events on the user's calendar.
    """
    credentials = get_credentials()
    http = credentials.authorize(httplib2.Http())
    service = discovery.build('calendar', 'v3', http=http)

    now = datetime.datetime.utcnow().isoformat() + 'Z' # 'Z' indicates UTC time
    print('Getting the upcoming 10 events')
    eventsResult = service.events().list(
        calendarId='primary', timeMin=now, maxResults=10, singleEvents=True,
        orderBy='startTime').execute()
    events = eventsResult.get('items', [])

    if not events:
        print('No upcoming events found.')
    for event in events:
        start = event['start'].get('dateTime', event['start'].get('date'))
        print(start, event['summary'])
    event = {
        'summary': 'Google I/O 2015',
        'location': '800 Howard St., San Francisco, CA 94103',
        'description': 'A chance to hear more about Google\'s developer products.',
        'start': {
            'dateTime': '2017-03-24T09:00:00-07:00',
            'timeZone': 'America/Los_Angeles',
        },
        'end': {
            'dateTime': '2017-03-24T17:00:00-07:00',
            'timeZone': 'America/Los_Angeles',
        },
        'recurrence': [
            'RRULE:FREQ=DAILY;COUNT=2'
        ],
        'attendees': [
            {'email': 'lpage@example.com'},
            {'email': 'sbrin@example.com'},
        ],
        'reminders': {
            'useDefault': False,
            'overrides': [
                {'method': 'email', 'minutes': 24 * 60},
                {'method': 'popup', 'minutes': 10},
            ],
        },
    }

    event = service.events().insert(calendarId='primary', body=event).execute()
    print('Event created: %s' % (event.get('htmlLink')))

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

The error is:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "D:/cs/projects/googleApi/quickstart.py", line 106, in <module>
    main()
  File "D:/cs/projects/googleApi/quickstart.py", line 102, in main
    event = service.events().insert(calendarId='primary', body=event).execute()
  File "D:\cs\anaconda\lib\site-packages\oauth2client\_helpers.py", line 133, in positional_wrapper
    return wrapped(*args, **kwargs)
  File "D:\cs\anaconda\lib\site-packages\googleapiclient\http.py", line 840, in execute
    raise HttpError(resp, content, uri=self.uri)
googleapiclient.errors.HttpError: <HttpError 403 when requesting https://www.googleapis.com/calendar/v3/calendars/primary/events?alt=json returned "Insufficient Permission">

I am new in google API. I found some similar questions but they were for gmail or other services but no calendar. What could be possible solutions for the error. Can please anyone help on this?

Answer 1

You have authenticated with the following scope

'https://www.googleapis.com/auth/calendar.readonly'

This scope allows for read only access only you don't have permission to insert use this one instead.

https://www.googleapis.com/auth/calendar

Remember to delete any stored credentials and log the user in again with the new scope.

Answer 2

Follow below steps and have the issue fixed for sure.

1. Delete token.pickle file from system.
2. Rerun the code

Answer 3

I had the same issue but solved as follow:

As @DalmTo mentioned as a comment, you have to delete the client_secret.json file in the .credentials folder after changing the scope from https://www.googleapis.com/auth/calendar.readonly to https://www.googleapis.com/auth/calendar.

Answer 4

The actual solution here is to use:

SCOPES = 'https://www.googleapis.com/auth/calendar'

And then following the comment:

# If modifying these scopes, delete your previously saved credentials
# at ~/.credentials/calendar-python-quickstart.json

By going into '~/.credentials/' and deleting the file 'calendar-python-quickstart.json'

Answer 5

My initial guess is that you need to generate a new access token after changing the scope. If you need more info on how google calendar uses Oauth2, I have contributed an answer to a similar question.