Solved: unauthorized_client for desktop application - Page 2

mainster · 02-23-2025 01:31 PM

Hey guys,
I have started to develop a test application on my desktop pc including google drive api and I'm happy to read how simple it is to access files from my google drive.

I started a simple project like a picture frame which will show some pictures out of my google drive.

I don't have a workspace account.
On my Linux host, a simple C++ source works fine if I will give OAuth access tokens to authenticate with the google drive api to show some pictures out of my drive folder. But I'm not able to get refresh tokens working within my private project.

I could break down the problem to the following unauthorized_client problem:

curl \
-d client_id="xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxocrvn.apps.googleusercontent.com" \
-d client_secret="GOCSPX--yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy" \
-d refresh_token="1//04SpkVfR-fdffdffdffdfdfffdfdfdfdfddffdffdf" \
-d grant_type=refresh_token \
"https://oauth2.googleapis.com/token"

which answers:
{
"error": "unauthorized_client",
"error_description": "Unauthorized"
}

I have read some notes about the google platform branding and the consent page but I am not able to get refresh tokens working as mentioned.

I have generated a OAuth 2.0-Client-ID for my cloud project. Using the https://developers.google.com/oauthplayground/, I executed all the steps which are needed for my opinion to get a working refresh token to use with, for example, curl:

If I use the refresh token mentioned, the curl answer is unauthorized_client.

I think I miss some configuration within the google project especially the oauth client but I'm not able to figure it out.

I would be very happy to solve this problem.

Kind regards,
Manuel

mainster

Hey cummunity,
I could solve the problem.

I missed in fact the step where I have to grant access when using the OAuth playground. This workflow without using OAuth playground works for my desktop app:

Assemble OAuth 2.0 authorization link for desktop apps
Open this link within a web browser:
https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/auth?
client_id=CLIENT_ID&
response_type=code&
scope=https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.readonly&
redirect_uri=urn:ietf:wg:oauth:2.0:oob&
access_type=offline&
prompt=consent

The answer is the AUTHORIZATION_CODE
Exchange code for Refresh Token
curl -X POST https://oauth2.googleapis.com/token \
-d client_id=CLIENT_ID \
-d client_secret=CLIENT_SECRET \
-d code=AUTHORIZATION_CODE \
-d grant_type=authorization_code \
-d redirect_uri=urn:ietf:wg:oauth:2.0:oob
Renew access with the refresh token
curl -X POST https://oauth2.googleapis.com/token \
-d client_id=CLIENT_ID \
-d client_secret=CLIENT_SECRET \
-d refresh_token=REFRESH_TOKEN \
-d grant_type=refresh_token

The JSON response contains a new access token each time.

Kind regards,
Manuel

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