207 Multi-Status (WebDAV; RFC 4918)

This is an educational reference page about HTTP 207 Multi-Status. The page itself is served as 200 OK so it can be indexed as HTTP documentation.

The message body that follows is by default an XML message and can contain a number of separate response codes, depending on how many sub-requests were made.

What it means

HTTP 207 Multi-Status means one response body contains separate status results for multiple WebDAV operations or resources.

Common causes

A WebDAV request acted on several files, properties, or sub-resources.
Some sub-operations succeeded while others failed.
The server needs to report per-resource status instead of one simple status code.

How to fix it

Return a multistatus XML body that lists each resource and its status.
Make clients inspect each response entry instead of treating 207 as blanket success.
Use a simpler 2xx or 4xx response when the request has only one meaningful result.

Example response

HTTP/1.1 207 Multi-Status
Content-Type: application/xml

<multistatus xmlns="DAV:">
  <response>
    <href>/files/a.txt</href>
    <status>HTTP/1.1 200 OK</status>
  </response>
  <response>
    <href>/files/b.txt</href>
    <status>HTTP/1.1 423 Locked</status>
  </response>
</multistatus>

Developer notes

207 commonly appears in WebDAV APIs. The important result is inside the response body.

Questions

What does HTTP 207 mean?

HTTP 207 means the response body contains multiple per-resource status results instead of one simple result for the whole request.

Does 207 mean every operation succeeded?

No. A 207 response can contain a mix of successes and failures. Read each item in the multistatus body.

What content type is common for 207?

WebDAV 207 responses commonly use XML with a multistatus document.