How to fix Google API 'invalid_grant' error

Question

I am using Google API with Drive API and Drive Activity API to handle and make changes to files. Everything seems to work fine, but at random day of the week I receive an invalid_grant error. I have read about timezone solutions and other 8-9 issues, but I think this is something else.

This is how I work with API:

• Get credentials from DB -> use them to auth.
• Getting new access_token and refresh_token every time my application executes the auth function, setting tokens to credentials and updating it in DB.
• Every time user wants to do anything with drive or receiving new changes via google webhook, auth method is being triggered (if authClient static field which is storing OAuth2Client is undefined)

So it works fine, but this invalid_grant error ruins everything. I have no idea what to do with this.

Answer 1

The following command will fix it.

gcloud auth application-default login

Answer 2

Another potential problem: Missing or expired default credentials.

Some apps depend on Google Cloud default credentials to operate. These are sometimes read off of environment variables from the executing shell. Note that these can still cause problems even if you use gcloud auth login to log in to non-default credentials.

Check that your default credential token is valid by running the following:

gcloud auth application-default print-access-token

See this article for more details.

Answer 3

if you check the documentation for expiration you will find the cause of your issue.

A Google Cloud Platform project with an OAuth consent screen configured for an external user type and a publishing status of "Testing" is issued a refresh token expiring in 7 days.

Set your app to production in Google developer console and your refresh tokens will last longer then seven days.