Server error for user-read-recently-played endpoint

[martinweiss]

I am working on a project using the Spotify API and the user-read-recently-played endpoint. I keep getting {'error': {'status': 500, 'message': 'Server error.'}}. I used the spotipy library with the same endpoint and it worked. When I use requests and try to make a request to that endpoint I get the 500 response. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Ximzend]

Hi martinweiss,

Can you please post your code as a code-block of you have so far?

[martinweiss]

Hi. Yes, see below:

client_id = ''

client_secret = ''

redirect_uri = 'http://localhost:8888/callback'

scope = 'user-read-recently-played'

token_url = 'https://accounts.spotify.com/api/token'

history_url = 'https://api.spotify.com/v1/me/player/recently-played'

base64_auth = b64encode(f'{client_id}:{client_secret}'.encode()).decode('utf-8')

def get_access_token():

    headers = {

        'Authorization': f'Basic {base64_auth}',

        'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded',

    }

    data = {

        'grant_type': 'client_credentials',

        'scope': 'user-read-recently-played',

    }

    response = requests.post(token_url, headers=headers, data=data)

    return response.json().get('access_token')

def get_recently_played(access_token):

    headers = {

        'Authorization': f'Bearer {access_token}',

    }

    response = requests.get(history_url, headers=headers)

    return response.json()

access_token = get_access_token()

recently_played = get_recently_played(access_token)

print(recently_played) # I get  {'error': {'status': 500, 'message': 'Server error.'}}    here

Also, what is the life of a refresh token?

[Ximzend]

The problem is  'grant_type': 'client_credentials'

Since the Client Credentials flow does not include authorization, only endpoints that do not access user information can be accessed. Therefore, in this case, you should use a different Authorization method that lets you log in.

I don't know the lifetime of a refresh token. You will get a new one if it is expired when you refresh the access token.

[martinweiss]

Hi Ximzend,

I understand that, so I tried to get a refresh token which I was able to do to get a new access token to make a request which worked. However, the refresh token I used was only able to be used once then I got {"error":"invalid_grant","error_description":"Refresh token revoked"} when I tried to use the same token to get a new access token after 3600 seconds since it had expired. I am looking for a way to generate a refresh token manually every so often as in weeks to update and then use that refresh token to generate a new access token on a schedule such as daily in a scheduled script. How can I generate a refresh token with an extended life and have the permissions to be reused for its lifetime?

[Ximzend]

In some cases, you can use the refresh token only once, so you should get a new one after every refresh.

Note: your code doesn't use anything of the Python module Spotipy...

[martinweiss]

So how can I get a new token after every refresh? I want to run this code on AWS Lambda without the need to have a URL open and have to accept and then get a token. I am willing to do that every so often as every few weeks but I need the script to run very often and authenticate itself on its own. I tried using Spotipy which worked fine locally but the Lambda function cannot authenticate because I cannot open the URL. I also tried on an EC2 to no avail.  Any suggestions? 

[Ximzend · Accepted solution]

If you are using Spotipy, you can set the redirect url to the redirect uri of your server, run the script on your PC, and copy over the .cache file. (There's a option in Spotipy that you must copy the resulting URL after login in the console of your PC for the first run).

[martinweiss]

Hi Ximzend,

That seemed to work. I took the local .cache file and put it on my EC2. It will continue to update on its own, correct? Thanks for all the help, I appreciate it.

[Ximzend]

Yes. But keep in mind that when the script doesn't run for a long while, the refresh token will be too old to renew the access token. I don't know for how long, but it lasts definitely more than a week.

[martinweiss]

Hi Ximzend,

If I am running it every 30 min it will update, correct?

[Ximzend]

Yes, definitely. That's a much shorter time period than a week.

[martinweiss]

Fantastic. Thanks for all the help.