Spotipy Refreshing a token with authorization code flow

Question

I have a long-running script using spotipy. After an hour (per the Spotify API), my access token expires. I am catching this successfully, but I don’t know where to go from there in regards to actually refreshing the token. I am using the authorization code flow, not client credentials. Here’s how I authorize:

token = util.prompt_for_user_token(username,scope=scopes,client_id=client_id,client_secret=client_secret, redirect_uri=redirect_uri)

sp = spotipy.Spotify(auth=token)

All refresh examples I’ve seen involve an oauth2 object (ex. oauth.refresh_access_token()), and the docs list only that function as a method of refreshing your token. It’s my understanding that with authorization code flow, you don’t need an oauth object (because you authenticate with prompt_for_user_token()). If that’s the case, how do I refresh my token?

Asked By: gos

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Answer 1

After receiving no response on my github issue, it appears to me that there’s no way to refresh a token without using OAuth2. This goes against what is stated in the Spotipy docs:

The Authorization Code flow: This method is suitable for long-running applications which the user logs into once. It provides an access token that can be refreshed.

Their example for Authorization Code flow uses prompt_for_user_token().

I switched to the OAuth approach, which is a pain because it requires re-authorization every time I run the program (really only a problem while I was testing but a problem nonetheless). Since there are no examples of OAuth2 in the Spotipy docs, I’ll paste mine here.

sp_oauth = oauth2.SpotifyOAuth(client_id=client_id,client_secret=client_secret,redirect_uri=redirect_uri,scope=scopes)
token_info = sp_oauth.get_cached_token() 
if not token_info:
    auth_url = sp_oauth.get_authorize_url(show_dialog=True)
    print(auth_url)
    response = input('Paste the above link into your browser, then paste the redirect url here: ')

    code = sp_oauth.parse_response_code(response)
    token_info = sp_oauth.get_access_token(code)

    token = token_info['access_token']

sp = spotipy.Spotify(auth=token)

To refresh my token (required every hour), I use this function. When and where you call it depends on your program.

def refresh():
    global token_info, sp

    if sp_oauth.is_token_expired(token_info):
        token_info = sp_oauth.refresh_access_token(token_info['refresh_token'])
        token = token_info['access_token']
        sp = spotipy.Spotify(auth=token)

Answered By: gos

Answer 2

I think that the spotipy docs are misleading when it comes to this problem.

I have spent some time trying to solve this problem.
A similar question has been previously asked: Link here

I found the answer to the question be really useful and would summarise it as such: The function util.prompt_user_for_token() can be recycled and return a token without being prompted to reauthorise (giving an input as seen your solution). I think this is why spotipy docs claim that it can "refresh" on its own. But in reality, requires some prompting.

For example, I adopted a similar solution to your solution in my project here:

def refresh_token():
    token = spotipy.util.prompt_for_user_token(user_id, scopes)
    last_refresh = datetime.now()
    return {'token': token, 'last_refresh': last_refresh}

And I would simply call this function based on the last_refresh time (with a limit of an hour).

I hope this helps, apologies if not useful.

Answered By: SamSJackson

Spotipy Refreshing a token with authorization code flow

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