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Description

MediaItem search API endpoint is returning two pages of results, then the third page is an empty response. Changing the page size still results in only two pages of results with each page matching the page size. I am using a date range filter and have varied the size of the date range, ranging from a year, a couple months and a few days. In all cases, if the total number of expected media items is more than two pages, only two pages of results are returned. The second page includes a page token, but using that page token results in an empty response from the API. No errors are indicated and the HTTP response code is 200 OK. Even with a large page size, images are missing from the search results.

Detailed description

API calls

Call #1 - First page - POST https://photoslibrary.googleapis.com/v1/mediaItems:search

{
  "pageSize": 25,
  "filters": {
    "dateFilter": {
      "ranges": [
        {
          "startDate": {
            "year": 2001,
            "month": 12,
            "day": 31
          },
          "endDate": {
            "year": 2002,
            "month": 1,
            "day": 31
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

Call #1 response includes 25 media items and a next page token (items and page token redacted for brevity)

{
  "mediaItems": [ *** 25 media items *** ],
  "nextPageToken": "CmIKR...9SYm8"
}

Call #2 using page token from Response #1

{
  "pageSize": 25,
  "pageToken": "CmIKR...9SYm8",
  "filters": {
    "dateFilter": {
      "ranges": [
        {
          "startDate": {
            "year": 2001,
            "month": 12,
            "day": 31
          },
          "endDate": {
            "year": 2002,
            "month": 1,
            "day": 31
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

Response #2 with 25 more media items

{
  "mediaItems": [ *** 25 media items *** ],
  "nextPageToken": "CmIKR...9ZbFU"
}

Call #3 with page token from Response #2

{
  "pageSize": 25,
  "pageToken": "CmIKR...9ZbFU",
  "filters": {
    "dateFilter": {
      "ranges": [
        {
          "startDate": {
            "year": 2001,
            "month": 12,
            "day": 31
          },
          "endDate": {
            "year": 2002,
            "month": 1,
            "day": 31
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

Response #3 - Empty response - HTTP 200 OK

{}

Steps to reproduce the problem

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. Execute the above call sequence with pageSize=25, DateRange=2001-12-31 to 2002-01-31. 25 item are returned along with a nextPageToken. Repeat the call using the nextPageToken in the previous response for two more calls. The second call returns 25 more items and another page token, the third call returns an empty object "{}". Total items retrieved is 50.
2. Execute the steps above using pageSize=100, the first two calls return 100 items and the third call returns an empty object. Total items retrieved is 200. The same behavior can be seen with small page sizes by setting pageSize=5, which results in 10 total images returned.
3. Execute the above steps varying the length of the date range. The same behavior is observed for short ranges of a few days and long ranges of 1-2 years.
4. I was able to reproduce this using the "Try this API" feature in the Google Photos API documentation.

What is the expected output?

The API is presenting a nextPageToken on the second page response, but the third page returns an empty object. I would expect additional items to be returned along with another page token as long as there are items to be returned. The steps described above return a total of 50 images when page size is 25 and 200 images when page size is 100. This shows that there are more than 50 images to be returned, but the API is not returning those items.

What do you see instead?

No error message is presented. The HTTP response code on the third request is 200 OK. Headers in the response match the headers in the previous responses. Not all images are being returned. I am able to find examples of images on photos.google.com within the date range I am searching which I do not receive in any of the pages of data returned.

Code sample

Execute the above requests in Google Photos API Documentation's "Try this API window". I also was able to replicate the issue using direct REST requests in a C# .Net application, using the Google API .Net SDK for Authentication.

Additional information

It appears the issue might be related to older items within the library. I am able to consistently reproduce this issue with searches having a date range prior to about March of 2003. When searching for more recent date ranges I do continue to get subsequent pages of images. Most of the older images were uploaded using the old Google photo sync desktop app for windows. Newer photos were uploaded through Google Backup and Restore or directly synced from photos on various Android devices. A few older images (from old photo albums) were scanned using the Google Photo Scan on an android device and synced directly with Google Photos within the last 6 months, then the date of the photos was changed in the Google Photos UI to reflect the date the photo was taken. The behavior is observed even with these photos that were uploaded recently but the date changed to prior to 2003.