No. It is a success status indicating the resource was already reported earlier in the response. The resource data is available in a previous part of the 207 response.

How does 208 prevent infinite loops?

Without 208, a recursive PROPFIND on a collection with circular bindings would enumerate the same resource forever. 208 signals the resource was already listed.

HTTP 208 Already Reported — WebDAV Duplicate Binding Prevention

Informational2xx success

Overview

Learn about HTTP 208 Already Reported used in WebDAV to avoid enumerating the same resource multiple times in a Multi-Status response.

Key Details

HTTP 208 Already Reported is a WebDAV extension code defined in RFC 5842
Used inside a DAV: propstat response to indicate members already enumerated in a prior part of the response
Prevents infinite loops when resources have multiple bindings (hard links)
Only appears within a 207 Multi-Status response body, not as a standalone response
Essential for correctly handling WebDAV collections with circular references

Common Causes

WebDAV server encountering a resource already listed in the current Multi-Status response
Multiple bindings (hard links) pointing to the same resource in a collection
Recursive PROPFIND on collections with circular directory references
Server optimizing response size by avoiding duplicate resource descriptions

Steps

1No action required — 208 is informational within a Multi-Status response
2Check the earlier part of the 207 response for the full property listing of this resource
3If your WebDAV client shows errors on 208, update to a client that supports RFC 5842
4For developers: ensure your WebDAV client parser handles 208 within propstat elements
5Review the DAV:bind element to understand the relationship between bindings