Dropbox – Restore a folder to a specific date

Some times, because of errors, bad luck or virus attacks you might need to have one specific folder in your dropbox rolled-back to a previous date. This Python Script, prepared by clark800 -Kudos Clark!- is a magical solution that will save you time and sweat.

Recently, I’ve been forced to use it, with some minor tweaks, so I thought it would be a good idea to share it here, just in the form it worked for me in Python 3.5.2.

Instructions:

Install Python 3.5.2 from the official Python downloads page.
Make sure to add your Python.exe location to your PATH system variable, assuming you’re in Windows.
Open a command prompt (Windows+R > cmd) and enter the following to install the Dropbox python package >>
```
pip install dropbox
```
Create a new Dropbox App to allow changes in your account from the developers section. Keep the keys as you’ll need them for the script.
Save the script as restore.py y update it with your keys.

Run the script from a command prompt >>

python restore.py /path/inside/your/dropbox YYYY-MM-DD

Your path must start with “/”, where”/” is the root of your Dropbox. See below.
First time you run the script you will have to authorise it by calling the url provided.

I suggest you test it with a dummy folder before breaking any important stuff.

#!/usr/bin/env python
import sys, os, dropbox, time
from datetime import datetime

APP_KEY = ''   # INSERT APP_KEY HERE
APP_SECRET = ''     # INSERT APP_SECRET HERE
DELAY = 0.2 # delay between each file (try to stay under API rate limits)

HELP_MESSAGE = 
"""Note: You must specify the path starting with "/", where "/" is the root
of your dropbox folder. So if your dropbox directory is at "/home/user/dropbox"
and you want to restore "/home/user/dropbox/folder", the ROOTPATH is "/folder".
"""

HISTORY_WARNING = 
"""Dropbox only keeps historical file versions for 30 days (unless you have
enabled extended version history). Please specify a cutoff date within the past
30 days, or if you have extended version history, you may remove this check
from the source code."""

def authorize():
    flow = dropbox.client.DropboxOAuth2FlowNoRedirect(APP_KEY, APP_SECRET)
    authorize_url = flow.start()
    print('1. Go to: ' + authorize_url)
    print('2. Click "Allow" (you might have to log in first)')
    print('3. Copy the authorization code.')
    #try:
        #input = input
    #except NameError:
        #pass
    code = input("Enter the authorization code here: ").strip()
    access_token, user_id = flow.finish(code)
    return access_token


def login(token_save_path):
    if os.path.exists(token_save_path):
        with open(token_save_path) as token_file:
            access_token = token_file.read()
    else:
        access_token = authorize()
        with open(token_save_path, 'w') as token_file:
            token_file.write(access_token)
    return dropbox.client.DropboxClient(access_token)


def parse_date(s):
    a = s.split('+')[0].strip()
    return datetime.strptime(a, '%a, %d %b %Y %H:%M:%S')


def restore_file(client, path, cutoff_datetime, is_deleted, verbose=False):
    revisions = client.revisions(path)
    revision_dict = dict((parse_date(r['modified']), r) for r in revisions)

    # skip if current revision is the same as it was at the cutoff
    if max(revision_dict.keys()) &lt; cutoff_datetime:
        if verbose:
            print(path + ' SKIP')
        return

    # look for the most recent revision before the cutoff
    pre_cutoff_modtimes = [d for d in revision_dict.keys()
                           if d &lt; cutoff_datetime]
    if len(pre_cutoff_modtimes) &gt; 0:
        modtime = max(pre_cutoff_modtimes)
        rev = revision_dict[modtime]['rev']
        if verbose:
            print(path + ' ' + str(modtime))
        client.restore(path, rev)
    else:   # there were no revisions before the cutoff, so delete
        if verbose:
            print(path + ' ' + ('SKIP' if is_deleted else 'DELETE'))
        if not is_deleted:
            client.file_delete(path)


def restore_folder(client, path, cutoff_datetime, verbose=False):
    if verbose:
        print(path)
        #print('Restoring folder: ' + path.encode('utf-8'))
    try:
        folder = client.metadata(path, list=True,
                                 include_deleted=True)
    except dropbox.rest.ErrorResponse as e:
        print(str(e))
        print(HELP_MESSAGE)
        return
    for item in folder.get('contents', []):
        if item.get('is_dir', False):
            restore_folder(client, item['path'], cutoff_datetime, verbose)
        else:
            restore_file(client, item['path'], cutoff_datetime,
                         item.get('is_deleted', False), verbose)
        time.sleep(DELAY)


def main():
    if len(sys.argv) != 3:
        usage = 'usage: {0} ROOTPATH YYYY-MM-DDn{1}'
        sys.exit(usage.format(sys.argv[0], HELP_MESSAGE))
    root_path_encoded, cutoff = sys.argv[1:]
    #root_path = root_path_encoded.decode('utf-8')
    root_path = root_path_encoded
    cutoff_datetime = datetime(*map(int, cutoff.split('-')))
    if (datetime.utcnow() - cutoff_datetime).days &gt;= 30:
        sys.exit(HISTORY_WARNING)
    if cutoff_datetime &gt; datetime.utcnow():
        sys.exit('Cutoff date must be in the past')
    client = login('token.dat')
    restore_folder(client, root_path, cutoff_datetime, verbose=True)


if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()