Objects: move

Moves an object within a bucket with hierarchical namespace enabled.

This operation moves a source object to a destination object in the same bucket by renaming the object. The move object operation is only supported for buckets with hierarchical namespace enabled. The move itself is an atomic transaction, ensuring all steps either complete successfully or no changes are made.

The move operation performs the following actions:

1. The source object is deleted as follows:
   • No early deletion fee is incurred.
   • Soft delete retention period is not applied.
   • Audit logs and notification messages are generated for the object.
2. The destination object is created with the same data and metadata as the source object except for the following changes:
   • A new object name
   • A new generation number
   • A new metageneration number, set to 1
   • New create and update timestamps
3. If a destination folder doesn't exist, the move operation creates the folder along with the destination object. The move operation also automatically creates any necessary parent folders.

Consider the following points when using the move method:

• The source and destination must have different object names.
• The source object must exist. You can only move existing objects.
• If an object already exists at the destination, the move operation replaces the existing object. You can disable the replacement behavior using preconditions on the request.

Required permissions

The authenticated user must have the following IAM permissions to use this method:

• Permissions required on the source object:
• storage.objects.delete and storage.objects.get
or
• storage.objects.move (required only to move an object without allowing read or delete access)
• Permissions required on the destination object:
• storage.objects.create
• storage.objects.delete (required only for replacing an object)
• storage.folders.create (required only for automatically creating any missing parent folders)

Request

HTTP request

POST https://storage.googleapis.com/storage/v1/b/bucket/o/sourceObject/moveTo/o/destinationObject

In addition to standard query parameters, the following query parameters apply to this method.

To see an example of how to include query parameters in a request, see the JSON API Overview page.

Parameters

Parameter name	Value	Description
Path parameters
bucket	string	Name of the bucket containing the object you want to move.
sourceObject	string	Name of the source object. For information about how to URL encode object names to be path safe, see Encoding URI path parts.
destinationObject	string	Name of the new object. Required when the object metadata is not otherwise provided. Overrides the object metadata's name value, if any. For information about how to URL encode object names to be path safe, see Encoding URI path parts.
Optional query parameters
ifGenerationMatch	long	Makes the operation conditional on there being a live destination object with a generation number that matches the given value. Setting ifGenerationMatch to 0 makes the operation succeed only if there is no live destination object.
ifGenerationNotMatch	long	Makes the operation conditional on there being a live destination object with a generation number that does not match the given value. If no live destination object exists, the precondition fails. Setting ifGenerationNotMatch to 0 makes the operation succeed if there is a live version of the object. The ifGenerationMatch and ifGenerationNotMatch parameters are mutually exclusive. Specifying both parameters in a single request results in an error.
ifMetagenerationMatch	long	Makes the operation conditional on there being a live destination object with a metageneration number that matches the given value.
ifMetagenerationNotMatch	long	Makes the operation conditional on there being a live destination object with a metageneration number that does not match the given value. The ifMetagenerationMatch and ifMetagenerationNotMatch parameters are mutually exclusive. Specifying both parameters in a single request result in an error.
ifSourceGenerationMatch	long	Makes the operation conditional on whether the source object's generation matches the given value.
ifSourceGenerationNotMatch	long	Makes the operation conditional on whether the source object's generation does not match the given value. The ifSourceGenerationMatch and ifSourceGenerationNotMatch parameters are mutually exclusive. Specifying both parameters in a single request result in an error.
ifSourceMetagenerationMatch	long	Makes the operation conditional on whether the source object's current metageneration matches the given value.
ifSourceMetagenerationNotMatch	long	Makes the operation conditional on whether the source object's current metageneration does not match the given value. The ifSourceMetagenerationMatch and ifSourceMetagenerationNotMatch parameters are mutually exclusive. Specifying both parameters in a single request result in an error.

Request body

Do not supply a request body with this method.

Response

If successful, this method returns the destination object's resource in the response body.

For information about status and error codes returned by this API, see the reference page.

Try it!

Use the APIs Explorer below to call this method on live data and see the response.