How to fix Google Drive API 404 "File not found" when the file exists

Google Drive API may return a 404 notFound error for files that exist because the response can mean either that a file is missing or that the access token cannot see it. Troubleshooting should begin by validating the file ID, shortcut target, authenticated Google account, user sharing permissions, granted OAuth scopes, shared-drive parameters, and any required resource key. A major source of confusion is the drive.file scope, which permits access only to files created, opened, or individually selected for the app, so choosing a parent folder in Google Picker does not authorize access to its contents, and Picker must use the correct numeric Cloud project ID. Shared-drive requests require supportsAllDrives=true, link-shared files may require an X-Goog-Drive-Resource-Keys header, and broader scopes such as drive.readonly should be used only when folder-wide or Drive-wide synchronization is necessary because they involve stricter Google verification and security requirements.

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