Not receiving Google OAuth refresh token

I'd like to add a bit more info on this subject for those frustrated souls who encounter this issue. The key to getting a refresh token for an offline app is to make sure you are presenting the consent screen. The refresh_token is only returned immediately after a user grants authorization by clicking "Allow".

The issue came up for me (and I suspect many others) after I'd been doing some testing in a development environment and therefore already authorized my application on a given account. I then moved to production and attempted to authenticate again using an account which was already authorized. In this case, the consent screen will not come up again and the api will not return a new refresh token. To make this work, you must force the consent screen to appear again by either:

prompt=consent 

or

approval_prompt=force 

Either one will work but you should not use both. As of 2021, I'd recommend using prompt=consent since it replaces the older parameter approval_prompt and in some api versions, the latter was actually broken (https://github.com/googleapis/oauth2client/issues/453). Also, prompt is a space delimited list so you can set it as prompt=select_account%20consent if you want both.

Of course you also need:

access_type=offline 

Additional reading:

• Docs: https://developers.google.com/identity/protocols/oauth2/web-server#request-parameter-prompt
• Docs: https://developers.google.com/identity/protocols/oauth2/openid-connect#re-consent
• Discussion about this issue: https://github.com/googleapis/google-api-python-client/issues/213

In order to get the refresh token you have to add both approval_prompt=force and access_type="offline" If you are using the java client provided by Google it will look like this:

GoogleAuthorizationCodeFlow flow = new GoogleAuthorizationCodeFlow.Builder( HTTP_TRANSPORT, JSON_FACTORY, getClientSecrets(), scopes) .build(); AuthorizationCodeRequestUrl authorizationUrl = flow.newAuthorizationUrl().setRedirectUri(callBackUrl) .setApprovalPrompt("force") .setAccessType("offline"); 

I searched a long night and this is doing the trick:

Modified user-example.php from admin-sdk

$client->setAccessType('offline'); $client->setApprovalPrompt('force'); $authUrl = $client->createAuthUrl(); echo "<a class='login' href='" . $authUrl . "'>Connect Me!</a>"; 

then you get the code at the redirect url and the authenticating with the code and getting the refresh token

$client()->authenticate($_GET['code']); echo $client()->getRefreshToken(); 

You should store it now ;)

When your accesskey times out just do

$client->refreshToken($theRefreshTokenYouHadStored); 

This has caused me some confusion so I thought I'd share what I've come to learn the hard way:

When you request access using the access_type=offline and approval_prompt=force parameters you should receive both an access token and a refresh token. The access token expires soon after you receive it and you will need to refresh it.

You correctly made the request to get a new access token and received the response that has your new access token. I was also confused by the fact that I didn't get a new refresh token. However, this is how it is meant to be since you can use the same refresh token over and over again.

I think some of the other answers assume that you wanted to get yourself a new refresh token for some reason and sugggested that you re-authorize the user but in actual fact, you don't need to since the refresh token you have will work until revoked by the user.

Rich Sutton's answer finally worked for me, after I realized that adding access_type=offline is done on the front end client's request for an authorization code, not the back end request that exchanges that code for an access_token. I've added a comment to his answer and this link at Google for more info about refreshing tokens.

P.S. If you are using Satellizer, here is how to add that option to the $authProvider.google in AngularJS.

In order to get the refresh_token you need to include access_type=offline in the OAuth request URL. When a user authenticates for the first time you will get back a non-nil refresh_token as well as an access_token that expires.

If you have a situation where a user might re-authenticate an account you already have an authentication token for (like @SsjCosty mentions above), you need to get back information from Google on which account the token is for. To do that, add profile to your scopes. Using the OAuth2 Ruby gem, your final request might look something like this:

client = OAuth2::Client.new( ENV["GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID"], ENV["GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET"], authorize_url: "https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/auth", token_url: "https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/token" ) # Configure authorization url client.authorize_url( scope: "https://www.googleapis.com/auth/analytics.readonly profile", redirect_uri: callback_url, access_type: "offline", prompt: "select_account" ) 

Note the scope has two space-delimited entries, one for read-only access to Google Analytics, and the other is just profile, which is an OpenID Connect standard.

This will result in Google providing an additional attribute called id_token in the get_token response. To get information out of the id_token, check out this page in the Google docs. There are a handful of Google-provided libraries that will validate and “decode” this for you (I used the Ruby google-id-token gem). Once you get it parsed, the sub parameter is effectively the unique Google account ID.

Worth noting, if you change the scope, you'll get back a refresh token again for users that have already authenticated with the original scope. This is useful if, say, you have a bunch of users already and don't want to make them all un-auth the app in Google.

Oh, and one final note: you don't need prompt=select_account, but it's useful if you have a situation where your users might want to authenticate with more than one Google account (i.e., you're not using this for sign-in / authentication).

1. How to get 'refresh_token' ?

Solution: access_type='offline' option should be used when generating authURL. source : Using OAuth 2.0 for Web Server Applications

2. But even with 'access_type=offline', I am not getting the 'refresh_token' ?

Solution: Please note that you will get it only on the first request, so if you are storing it somewhere and there is a provision to overwrite this in your code when getting new access_token after previous expires, then make sure not to overwrite this value.

From Google Auth Doc : (this value = access_type)

This value instructs the Google authorization server to return a refresh token and an access token the first time that your application exchanges an authorization code for tokens.

If you need 'refresh_token' again, then you need to remove access for your app as by following the steps written in Rich Sutton's answer.

I'm using nodejs client for access to private data

The solution was add the promp property with value consent to the settings object in oAuth2Client.generateAuthUrl function. Here is my code:

const getNewToken = (oAuth2Client, callback) => { const authUrl = oAuth2Client.generateAuthUrl({ access_type: 'offline', prompt: 'consent', scope: SCOPES, }) console.log('Authorize this app by visiting this url:', authUrl) const rl = readline.createInterface({ input: process.stdin, output: process.stdout, }) rl.question('Enter the code from that page here: ', (code) => { rl.close() oAuth2Client.getToken(code, (err, token) => { if (err) return console.error('Error while trying to retrieve access token', err) oAuth2Client.setCredentials(token) // Store the token to disk for later program executions fs.writeFile(TOKEN_PATH, JSON.stringify(token), (err) => { if (err) return console.error(err) console.log('Token stored to', TOKEN_PATH) }) callback(oAuth2Client) }) }) } 

You can use the online parameters extractor to get the code for generate your token:

Online parameters extractor

Here is the complete code from google official docs:

https://developers.google.com/sheets/api/quickstart/nodejs

I hope the information is useful

#March - 2023

Short answer --> access_type: 'offline', prompt: 'consent', pass these in oAuth2Client.generateAuthUrl({}) 

Setting this will cause the refresh token to be sent every time:

$client->setApprovalPrompt('force'); 

an example is given below (php):

$client = new Google_Client(); $client->setClientId($client_id); $client->setClientSecret($client_secret); $client->setRedirectUri($redirect_uri); $client->addScope("email"); $client->addScope("profile"); $client->setAccessType('offline'); $client->setApprovalPrompt('force'); 

• To get a refresh token using postman, here is an example of the configurations

• Expected Response

For me I was trying out CalendarSampleServlet provided by Google. After 1 hour the access_key times out and there is a redirect to a 401 page. I tried all the above options but they didn't work. Finally upon checking the source code for 'AbstractAuthorizationCodeServlet', I could see that redirection would be disabled if credentials are present, but ideally it should have checked for refresh token!=null. I added below code to CalendarSampleServlet and it worked after that. Great relief after so many hours of frustration . Thank God.

if (credential.getRefreshToken() == null) { AuthorizationCodeRequestUrl authorizationUrl = authFlow.newAuthorizationUrl(); authorizationUrl.setRedirectUri(getRedirectUri(req)); onAuthorization(req, resp, authorizationUrl); credential = null; } 

Using offline access and prompt:consent worked well to me:

 auth2 = gapi.auth2.init({ client_id: '{cliend_id}' }); auth2.grantOfflineAccess({prompt:'consent'}).then(signInCallback); 

In order to get new refresh_token each time on authentication the type of OAuth 2.0 credentials created in the dashboard should be "Other". Also as mentioned above the access_type='offline' option should be used when generating the authURL.

When using credentials with type "Web application" no combination of prompt/approval_prompt variables will work - you will still get the refresh_token only on the first request.

now google had refused those parameters in my request (access_type, prompt)... :( and there is no "Revoke Access" button at all. I'm frustrating because of getting back my refresh_token lol

UPDATE: I found the answer in here :D you can get back the refresh token by a request https://developers.google.com/identity/protocols/OAuth2WebServer

curl -H "Content-type:application/x-www-form-urlencoded" \ https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/revoke?token={token}

The token can be an access token or a refresh token. If the token is an access token and it has a corresponding refresh token, the refresh token will also be revoked.

If the revocation is successfully processed, then the status code of the response is 200. For error conditions, a status code 400 is returned along with an error code.

 #!/usr/bin/env perl use strict; use warnings; use 5.010_000; use utf8; binmode STDOUT, ":encoding(utf8)"; use Text::CSV_XS; use FindBin; use lib $FindBin::Bin . '/../lib'; use Net::Google::Spreadsheets::V4; use Net::Google::DataAPI::Auth::OAuth2; use lib 'lib'; use Term::Prompt; use Net::Google::DataAPI::Auth::OAuth2; use Net::Google::Spreadsheets; use Data::Printer ; my $oauth2 = Net::Google::DataAPI::Auth::OAuth2->new( client_id => $ENV{CLIENT_ID}, client_secret => $ENV{CLIENT_SECRET}, scope => ['https://www.googleapis.com/auth/spreadsheets'], ); my $url = $oauth2->authorize_url(); # system("open '$url'"); print "go to the following url with your browser \n" ; print "$url\n" ; my $code = prompt('x', 'paste code: ', '', ''); my $objToken = $oauth2->get_access_token($code); my $refresh_token = $objToken->refresh_token() ; print "my refresh token is : \n" ; # debug p($refresh_token ) ; p ( $objToken ) ; my $gs = Net::Google::Spreadsheets::V4->new( client_id => $ENV{CLIENT_ID} , client_secret => $ENV{CLIENT_SECRET} , refresh_token => $refresh_token , spreadsheet_id => '1hGNULaWpYwtnMDDPPkZT73zLGDUgv5blwJtK7hAiVIU' ); my($content, $res); my $title = 'My foobar sheet'; my $sheet = $gs->get_sheet(title => $title); # create a sheet if does not exit unless ($sheet) { ($content, $res) = $gs->request( POST => ':batchUpdate', { requests => [ { addSheet => { properties => { title => $title, index => 0, }, }, }, ], }, ); $sheet = $content->{replies}[0]{addSheet}; } my $sheet_prop = $sheet->{properties}; # clear all cells $gs->clear_sheet(sheet_id => $sheet_prop->{sheetId}); # import data my @requests = (); my $idx = 0; my @rows = ( [qw(name age favorite)], # header [qw(tarou 31 curry)], [qw(jirou 18 gyoza)], [qw(saburou 27 ramen)], ); for my $row (@rows) { push @requests, { pasteData => { coordinate => { sheetId => $sheet_prop->{sheetId}, rowIndex => $idx++, columnIndex => 0, }, data => $gs->to_csv(@$row), type => 'PASTE_NORMAL', delimiter => ',', }, }; } # format a header row push @requests, { repeatCell => { range => { sheetId => $sheet_prop->{sheetId}, startRowIndex => 0, endRowIndex => 1, }, cell => { userEnteredFormat => { backgroundColor => { red => 0.0, green => 0.0, blue => 0.0, }, horizontalAlignment => 'CENTER', textFormat => { foregroundColor => { red => 1.0, green => 1.0, blue => 1.0 }, bold => \1, }, }, }, fields => 'userEnteredFormat(backgroundColor,textFormat,horizontalAlignment)', }, }; ($content, $res) = $gs->request( POST => ':batchUpdate', { requests => \@requests, }, ); exit; #Google Sheets API, v4 # Scopes # https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive View and manage the files in your Google D# # i# rive # https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.file View and manage Google Drive files and folders that you have opened or created with this app # https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.readonly View the files in your Google Drive # https://www.googleapis.com/auth/spreadsheets View and manage your spreadsheets in Google Drive # https://www.googleapis.com/auth/spreadsheets.readonly View your Google Spreadsheets 

My solution was a bit weird..i tried every solution i found on internet and nothing. Surprisely this worked: delete the credentials.json, refresh, vinculate your app in your account again. The new credentials.json file will have the refresh token. Backup this file somewhere. Then keep using your app until the refresh token error comes again. Delete the crendetials.json file that now is only with an error message (this hapenned in my case), then paste you old credentials file in the folder, its done! Its been 1 week since ive done this and had no more problems.

Adding access_type=offline to the authorisation Google authorisation URL did the trick for me. I am using Java and Spring framework.

This is the code that creates the client registration:

return CommonOAuth2Provider.GOOGLE .getBuilder(client) .scope("openid", "profile", "email", "https://www.googleapis.com/auth/gmail.send") .authorizationGrantType(AuthorizationGrantType.AUTHORIZATION_CODE) .authorizationUri("https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/v2/auth?access_type=offline") .clientId(clientId) .redirectUriTemplate("{baseUrl}/{action}/oauth2/code/{registrationId}") .clientSecret(clientSecret) .build(); 

The important part here is the authorization URI, to which ?access_type=offline is appended.

In my case I followed all the above steps and still had the same problem.

I'm using python and was trying to get the credentials as follows(doc ref to why this should work.):

creds = { 'token': credentials.token, 'refresh_token': credentials.refresh_token, 'token_uri': credentials.token_uri, 'client_id': credentials.client_id, 'client_secret': credentials.client_secret, 'scopes': credentials.scopes } 

which for whatever reason was returning everything correctly except the refresh token

changing it to the below worked in the end.

import json creds = json.loads(credentials.to_json())