codex - 💡(How to fix) Fix Google Drive Sheets connector can read spreadsheet but cannot write after plugin reinstall; shared read quota also returns 429

Summary

In Codex Desktop, the Google Drive / Google Sheets connector can read an existing Google Sheet, but attempting to append a row with _batch_update_spreadsheet fails with a missing-permissions/scopes error. Reinstalling the Google Drive plugin did not resolve the write failure.

The same workflow also intermittently hit a shared Google Sheets API project read quota (ReadRequestsPerMinutePerProject) even though the user was not making other requests. That makes the connector feel unusable for a simple read-one-header/write-one-row task.

Environment

• Product: Codex Desktop
• Platform: Windows
• Plugin/connector: google-drive@openai-curated
• Tool family: Google Drive connector, Google Sheets tools
• Date observed: 2026-05-24

Repro steps

1. In a Codex Desktop session, use the Google Drive / Google Sheets connector against an existing Google Sheets spreadsheet.
2. Call _get_spreadsheet_metadata for the spreadsheet.
3. Call _get_spreadsheet_cells for a small bounded range (Sheet1!A1:M20) to read the header row.
4. Prepare one row of current weather data from AccuWeather that matches the sheet headers.
5. Attempt to append the row with _batch_update_spreadsheet using appendCells.
6. Reinstall the Google Drive plugin and retry the same write.

Observed behavior

A metadata/cell read can succeed and confirm the spreadsheet, tab, sheetId, and headers. In this run the connector read the sheet title and Sheet1 metadata, then read headers such as:

Date, Time, Service, Temperature, Feels Like, Humidity, Wind Speed, Wind Direction, Precipitation, Cloud Cover, Pressure, UV Index, Visibility

But the write call fails:

Current action failed because this app connection is missing permissions or scopes required for this action. Reauthenticate to grant the missing access; other actions on this app may still work.

After the user reinstalled the Google Drive plugin, the same _batch_update_spreadsheet append still failed with the same missing-permissions/scopes message.

Separately, narrow read calls intermittently failed with a project-level Google Sheets API quota error:

Error code: RATE_LIMITED; Error: HTTPError: 429: Too Many Requests
Quota exceeded for quota metric 'Read requests' and limit 'Read requests per minute' of service 'sheets.googleapis.com' for consumer 'project_number:77377267392'.
quota_limit: ReadRequestsPerMinutePerProject
quota_limit_value: 300
quota_unit: 1/min/{project}

The user was not making other Google Sheets requests, so this appears to be a shared connector/backend project quota rather than user-specific activity.

Expected behavior

For an installed Google Drive / Google Sheets connector, Codex should be able to complete a simple read-header + append-row workflow, or it should clearly surface an actionable auth upgrade path before the agent reaches the write step.

At minimum:

• The connector install/reinstall flow should request or preserve the scopes required for exposed write tools such as _batch_update_spreadsheet.
• If the connection lacks write scopes, the app should expose a direct reauthorize/upgrade flow for the Google Drive connector from the failed action.
• The connector should not expose write tools that are unusable with the current auth state without a clear remediation path.
• Project-level read quota exhaustion should be handled or messaged as a shared backend quota issue, not as if the user caused excessive requests.

Impact

The user asked Codex to write one line of AccuWeather data into a Google Sheet. Codex could inspect the sheet and build the exact row, but could not write it even after the user reinstalled the Google Drive plugin. The task could not be completed through the connector.