View and edit object metadata

Concepts

This page describes how to view and edit the metadata associated with objects stored in Cloud Storage.

This page does not cover viewing or editing Identity and Access Management (IAM) policies or object Access Control Lists (ACLs), both of which control who is allowed to access your data. See Using IAM Permissions and Creating and Managing ACLs for guides to accomplishing these tasks.

Required roles

In order to get the required permissions for viewing and editing the metadata of objects, ask your administrator to grant you the Storage Object User (roles/storage.objectUser) role on the bucket.

This role contains the permissions required to view and edit the metadata of objects. To see the exact permissions that are required, expand the Required permissions section:

Required permissions

  • storage.buckets.list
    • This permission is only required if you plan on using the Google Cloud console to perform the tasks on this page.
  • storage.objects.get
  • storage.objects.getIamPolicy
    • This permission is only required if you want to return an object's IAM policies.
  • storage.objects.list
  • storage.objects.setRetention
  • storage.objects.update

You might also be able to get these permissions with other predefined roles or custom roles.

For instructions on granting roles on buckets, see Use IAM with buckets.

View object metadata

Complete the following instructions to view the metadata associated with an object:

Console

  1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Cloud Storage Buckets page.

    Go to Buckets

  2. In the list of buckets, click the name of the bucket that contains the object for which you want to view metadata.

    The Bucket details page opens, with the Objects tab selected.

  3. Navigate to the object, which might be located in a folder.

    Certain object metadata values, such as the object's size and storage class, are displayed along with the object's name.

  4. Click the name of the object.

    The Object details page opens, which displays additional object metadata.

  5. Click Edit metadata.

    The overlay window that appears shows the current values for several more object metadata keys, including custom metadata.

To learn how to get detailed error information about failed Cloud Storage operations in the Google Cloud console, see Troubleshooting.

Command line

Use the gcloud storage objects describe command:

gcloud storage objects describe gs://BUCKET_NAME/OBJECT_NAME

Where:

  • BUCKET_NAME is the name of the bucket containing the object whose metadata you want to view. For example, my-awesome-bucket.
  • OBJECT_NAME is the name of the object whose metadata you want to view. For example, cat.jpeg.

If successful, the response looks similar to the following example:

bucket: my-awesome-bucket
content_type: image/png
crc32c_hash: pNKjPQ==
creation_time: 2024-01-26T21:33:04+0000
custom_fields:
  Animal: Cat
  Type: Cute
custom_time: 1970-01-01T00:00:00+0000
etag: CMXyydSA/IMDEAE=
generation: '1706304784726341'
md5_hash: KCbI3PYk1aHfekIvf/osrw==
metageneration: 1
name: kitten.png
size: 168276
storage_class: STANDARD
storage_class_update_time: 2024-01-26T21:33:04+0000
storage_url: gs://my-awesome-bucket/kitten.png#1706304784726341
update_time: 2024-01-26T21:33:04+0000

Client libraries

C++

For more information, see the Cloud Storage C++ API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Cloud Storage, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for client libraries. 

namespace gcs = ::google::cloud::storage;
using ::google::cloud::StatusOr;
[](gcs::Client client, std::string const& bucket_name,
   std::string const& object_name) {
  StatusOr<gcs::ObjectMetadata> object_metadata =
      client.GetObjectMetadata(bucket_name, object_name);
  if (!object_metadata) throw std::move(object_metadata).status();

  std::cout << "The metadata for object " << object_metadata->name()
            << " in bucket " << object_metadata->bucket() << " is "
            << *object_metadata << "\n";
}

C#

For more information, see the Cloud Storage C# API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Cloud Storage, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for client libraries. 


using Google.Cloud.Storage.V1;
using System;

public class GetMetadataSample
{
    public Google.Apis.Storage.v1.Data.Object GetMetadata(
        string bucketName = "your-unique-bucket-name",
        string objectName = "your-object-name")
    {
        var storage = StorageClient.Create();
        var storageObject = storage.GetObject(bucketName, objectName, new GetObjectOptions { Projection = Projection.Full });
        Console.WriteLine($"Bucket:\t{storageObject.Bucket}");
        Console.WriteLine($"CacheControl:\t{storageObject.CacheControl}");
        Console.WriteLine($"ComponentCount:\t{storageObject.ComponentCount}");
        Console.WriteLine($"ContentDisposition:\t{storageObject.ContentDisposition}");
        Console.WriteLine($"ContentEncoding:\t{storageObject.ContentEncoding}");
        Console.WriteLine($"ContentLanguage:\t{storageObject.ContentLanguage}");
        Console.WriteLine($"ContentType:\t{storageObject.ContentType}");
        Console.WriteLine($"Crc32c:\t{storageObject.Crc32c}");
        Console.WriteLine($"ETag:\t{storageObject.ETag}");
        Console.WriteLine($"Generation:\t{storageObject.Generation}");
        Console.WriteLine($"Id:\t{storageObject.Id}");
        Console.WriteLine($"Kind:\t{storageObject.Kind}");
        Console.WriteLine($"KmsKeyName:\t{storageObject.KmsKeyName}");
        Console.WriteLine($"Md5Hash:\t{storageObject.Md5Hash}");
        Console.WriteLine($"MediaLink:\t{storageObject.MediaLink}");
        Console.WriteLine($"Metageneration:\t{storageObject.Metageneration}");
        Console.WriteLine($"Name:\t{storageObject.Name}");
        Console.WriteLine($"Retention:\t{storageObject.Retention}");
        Console.WriteLine($"Size:\t{storageObject.Size}");
        Console.WriteLine($"StorageClass:\t{storageObject.StorageClass}");
        Console.WriteLine($"TimeCreated:\t{storageObject.TimeCreated}");
        Console.WriteLine($"Updated:\t{storageObject.Updated}");
        bool eventBasedHold = storageObject.EventBasedHold ?? false;
        Console.WriteLine("Event-based hold enabled? {0}", eventBasedHold);
        bool temporaryHold = storageObject.TemporaryHold ?? false;
        Console.WriteLine("Temporary hold enabled? {0}", temporaryHold);
        Console.WriteLine($"RetentionExpirationTime\t{storageObject.RetentionExpirationTime}");
        if (storageObject.Metadata != null)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Metadata: ");
            foreach (var metadata in storageObject.Metadata)
            {
                Console.WriteLine($"{metadata.Key}:\t{metadata.Value}");
            }
        }
        Console.WriteLine($"CustomTime:\t{storageObject.CustomTime}");
        return storageObject;
    }
}

Go

For more information, see the Cloud Storage Go API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Cloud Storage, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for client libraries. 

import (
	"context"
	"fmt"
	"io"
	"time"

	"cloud.google.com/go/storage"
)

// getMetadata prints all of the object attributes.
func getMetadata(w io.Writer, bucket, object string) (*storage.ObjectAttrs, error) {
	// bucket := "bucket-name"
	// object := "object-name"
	ctx := context.Background()
	client, err := storage.NewClient(ctx)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("storage.NewClient: %w", err)
	}
	defer client.Close()

	ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(ctx, time.Second*10)
	defer cancel()

	o := client.Bucket(bucket).Object(object)
	attrs, err := o.Attrs(ctx)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("Object(%q).Attrs: %w", object, err)
	}
	fmt.Fprintf(w, "Bucket: %v\n", attrs.Bucket)
	fmt.Fprintf(w, "CacheControl: %v\n", attrs.CacheControl)
	fmt.Fprintf(w, "ContentDisposition: %v\n", attrs.ContentDisposition)
	fmt.Fprintf(w, "ContentEncoding: %v\n", attrs.ContentEncoding)
	fmt.Fprintf(w, "ContentLanguage: %v\n", attrs.ContentLanguage)
	fmt.Fprintf(w, "ContentType: %v\n", attrs.ContentType)
	fmt.Fprintf(w, "Crc32c: %v\n", attrs.CRC32C)
	fmt.Fprintf(w, "Generation: %v\n", attrs.Generation)
	fmt.Fprintf(w, "KmsKeyName: %v\n", attrs.KMSKeyName)
	fmt.Fprintf(w, "Md5Hash: %v\n", attrs.MD5)
	fmt.Fprintf(w, "MediaLink: %v\n", attrs.MediaLink)
	fmt.Fprintf(w, "Metageneration: %v\n", attrs.Metageneration)
	fmt.Fprintf(w, "Name: %v\n", attrs.Name)
	fmt.Fprintf(w, "Size: %v\n", attrs.Size)
	fmt.Fprintf(w, "StorageClass: %v\n", attrs.StorageClass)
	fmt.Fprintf(w, "TimeCreated: %v\n", attrs.Created)
	fmt.Fprintf(w, "Updated: %v\n", attrs.Updated)
	fmt.Fprintf(w, "Event-based hold enabled? %t\n", attrs.EventBasedHold)
	fmt.Fprintf(w, "Temporary hold enabled? %t\n", attrs.TemporaryHold)
	fmt.Fprintf(w, "Retention expiration time %v\n", attrs.RetentionExpirationTime)
	fmt.Fprintf(w, "Custom time %v\n", attrs.CustomTime)
	fmt.Fprintf(w, "Retention: %+v\n", attrs.Retention)
	fmt.Fprintf(w, "\n\nMetadata\n")
	for key, value := range attrs.Metadata {
		fmt.Fprintf(w, "\t%v = %v\n", key, value)
	}
	return attrs, nil
}

Java

For more information, see the Cloud Storage Java API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Cloud Storage, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for client libraries. 


import com.google.cloud.storage.Blob;
import com.google.cloud.storage.Storage;
import com.google.cloud.storage.StorageException;
import com.google.cloud.storage.StorageOptions;
import java.util.Date;
import java.util.Map;

public class GetObjectMetadata {
  public static void getObjectMetadata(String projectId, String bucketName, String blobName)
      throws StorageException {
    // The ID of your GCP project
    // String projectId = "your-project-id";

    // The ID of your GCS bucket
    // String bucketName = "your-unique-bucket-name";

    // The ID of your GCS object
    // String objectName = "your-object-name";

    Storage storage = StorageOptions.newBuilder().setProjectId(projectId).build().getService();

    // Select all fields
    // Fields can be selected individually e.g. Storage.BlobField.CACHE_CONTROL
    Blob blob =
        storage.get(bucketName, blobName, Storage.BlobGetOption.fields(Storage.BlobField.values()));

    // Print blob metadata
    System.out.println("Bucket: " + blob.getBucket());
    System.out.println("CacheControl: " + blob.getCacheControl());
    System.out.println("ComponentCount: " + blob.getComponentCount());
    System.out.println("ContentDisposition: " + blob.getContentDisposition());
    System.out.println("ContentEncoding: " + blob.getContentEncoding());
    System.out.println("ContentLanguage: " + blob.getContentLanguage());
    System.out.println("ContentType: " + blob.getContentType());
    System.out.println("CustomTime: " + blob.getCustomTime());
    System.out.println("Crc32c: " + blob.getCrc32c());
    System.out.println("Crc32cHexString: " + blob.getCrc32cToHexString());
    System.out.println("ETag: " + blob.getEtag());
    System.out.println("Generation: " + blob.getGeneration());
    System.out.println("Id: " + blob.getBlobId());
    System.out.println("KmsKeyName: " + blob.getKmsKeyName());
    System.out.println("Md5Hash: " + blob.getMd5());
    System.out.println("Md5HexString: " + blob.getMd5ToHexString());
    System.out.println("MediaLink: " + blob.getMediaLink());
    System.out.println("Metageneration: " + blob.getMetageneration());
    System.out.println("Name: " + blob.getName());
    System.out.println("Size: " + blob.getSize());
    System.out.println("StorageClass: " + blob.getStorageClass());
    System.out.println("TimeCreated: " + new Date(blob.getCreateTime()));
    System.out.println("Last Metadata Update: " + new Date(blob.getUpdateTime()));
    System.out.println("Object Retention Policy: " + blob.getRetention());
    Boolean temporaryHoldIsEnabled = (blob.getTemporaryHold() != null && blob.getTemporaryHold());
    System.out.println("temporaryHold: " + (temporaryHoldIsEnabled ? "enabled" : "disabled"));
    Boolean eventBasedHoldIsEnabled =
        (blob.getEventBasedHold() != null && blob.getEventBasedHold());
    System.out.println("eventBasedHold: " + (eventBasedHoldIsEnabled ? "enabled" : "disabled"));
    if (blob.getRetentionExpirationTime() != null) {
      System.out.println("retentionExpirationTime: " + new Date(blob.getRetentionExpirationTime()));
    }
    if (blob.getMetadata() != null) {
      System.out.println("\n\n\nUser metadata:");
      for (Map.Entry<String, String> userMetadata : blob.getMetadata().entrySet()) {
        System.out.println(userMetadata.getKey() + "=" + userMetadata.getValue());
      }
    }
  }
}

Node.js

For more information, see the Cloud Storage Node.js API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Cloud Storage, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for client libraries. 

/**
 * TODO(developer): Uncomment the following lines before running the sample.
 */
// The ID of your GCS bucket
// const bucketName = 'your-unique-bucket-name';

// The ID of your GCS file
// const fileName = 'your-file-name';

// Imports the Google Cloud client library
const {Storage} = require('@google-cloud/storage');

// Creates a client
const storage = new Storage();

async function getMetadata() {
  // Gets the metadata for the file
  const [metadata] = await storage
    .bucket(bucketName)
    .file(fileName)
    .getMetadata();

  console.log(`Bucket: ${metadata.bucket}`);
  console.log(`CacheControl: ${metadata.cacheControl}`);
  console.log(`ComponentCount: ${metadata.componentCount}`);
  console.log(`ContentDisposition: ${metadata.contentDisposition}`);
  console.log(`ContentEncoding: ${metadata.contentEncoding}`);
  console.log(`ContentLanguage: ${metadata.contentLanguage}`);
  console.log(`ContentType: ${metadata.contentType}`);
  console.log(`CustomTime: ${metadata.customTime}`);
  console.log(`Crc32c: ${metadata.crc32c}`);
  console.log(`ETag: ${metadata.etag}`);
  console.log(`Generation: ${metadata.generation}`);
  console.log(`Id: ${metadata.id}`);
  console.log(`KmsKeyName: ${metadata.kmsKeyName}`);
  console.log(`Md5Hash: ${metadata.md5Hash}`);
  console.log(`MediaLink: ${metadata.mediaLink}`);
  console.log(`Metageneration: ${metadata.metageneration}`);
  console.log(`Name: ${metadata.name}`);
  console.log(`Size: ${metadata.size}`);
  console.log(`StorageClass: ${metadata.storageClass}`);
  console.log(`TimeCreated: ${new Date(metadata.timeCreated)}`);
  console.log(`Last Metadata Update: ${new Date(metadata.updated)}`);
  console.log(`TurboReplication: ${metadata.rpo}`);
  console.log(
    `temporaryHold: ${metadata.temporaryHold ? 'enabled' : 'disabled'}`
  );
  console.log(
    `eventBasedHold: ${metadata.eventBasedHold ? 'enabled' : 'disabled'}`
  );
  if (metadata.retentionExpirationTime) {
    console.log(
      `retentionExpirationTime: ${new Date(metadata.retentionExpirationTime)}`
    );
  }
  if (metadata.metadata) {
    console.log('\n\n\nUser metadata:');
    for (const key in metadata.metadata) {
      console.log(`${key}=${metadata.metadata[key]}`);
    }
  }
}

getMetadata().catch(console.error);

PHP

For more information, see the Cloud Storage PHP API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Cloud Storage, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for client libraries. 

use Google\Cloud\Storage\StorageClient;

/**
 * List object metadata.
 *
 * @param string $bucketName The name of your Cloud Storage bucket.
 *        (e.g. 'my-bucket')
 * @param string $objectName The name of your Cloud Storage object.
 *        (e.g. 'my-object')
 */
function object_metadata(string $bucketName, string $objectName): void
{
    $storage = new StorageClient();
    $bucket = $storage->bucket($bucketName);
    $object = $bucket->object($objectName);
    $info = $object->info();
    if (isset($info['name'])) {
        printf('Blob: %s' . PHP_EOL, $info['name']);
    }
    if (isset($info['bucket'])) {
        printf('Bucket: %s' . PHP_EOL, $info['bucket']);
    }
    if (isset($info['storageClass'])) {
        printf('Storage class: %s' . PHP_EOL, $info['storageClass']);
    }
    if (isset($info['id'])) {
        printf('ID: %s' . PHP_EOL, $info['id']);
    }
    if (isset($info['size'])) {
        printf('Size: %s' . PHP_EOL, $info['size']);
    }
    if (isset($info['updated'])) {
        printf('Updated: %s' . PHP_EOL, $info['updated']);
    }
    if (isset($info['generation'])) {
        printf('Generation: %s' . PHP_EOL, $info['generation']);
    }
    if (isset($info['metageneration'])) {
        printf('Metageneration: %s' . PHP_EOL, $info['metageneration']);
    }
    if (isset($info['etag'])) {
        printf('Etag: %s' . PHP_EOL, $info['etag']);
    }
    if (isset($info['crc32c'])) {
        printf('Crc32c: %s' . PHP_EOL, $info['crc32c']);
    }
    if (isset($info['md5Hash'])) {
        printf('MD5 Hash: %s' . PHP_EOL, $info['md5Hash']);
    }
    if (isset($info['contentType'])) {
        printf('Content-type: %s' . PHP_EOL, $info['contentType']);
    }
    if (isset($info['temporaryHold'])) {
        printf('Temporary hold: %s' . PHP_EOL, ($info['temporaryHold'] ? 'enabled' : 'disabled'));
    }
    if (isset($info['eventBasedHold'])) {
        printf('Event-based hold: %s' . PHP_EOL, ($info['eventBasedHold'] ? 'enabled' : 'disabled'));
    }
    if (isset($info['retentionExpirationTime'])) {
        printf('Retention Expiration Time: %s' . PHP_EOL, $info['retentionExpirationTime']);
    }
    if (isset($info['retention'])) {
        printf('Retention mode: %s' . PHP_EOL, $info['retention']['mode']);
        printf('Retain until time is: %s' . PHP_EOL, $info['retention']['retainUntilTime']);
    }
    if (isset($info['customTime'])) {
        printf('Custom Time: %s' . PHP_EOL, $info['customTime']);
    }
    if (isset($info['metadata'])) {
        printf('Metadata: %s' . PHP_EOL, print_r($info['metadata'], true));
    }
}

Python

For more information, see the Cloud Storage Python API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Cloud Storage, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for client libraries. 

from google.cloud import storage


def blob_metadata(bucket_name, blob_name):
    """Prints out a blob's metadata."""
    # bucket_name = 'your-bucket-name'
    # blob_name = 'your-object-name'

    storage_client = storage.Client()
    bucket = storage_client.bucket(bucket_name)

    # Retrieve a blob, and its metadata, from Google Cloud Storage.
    # Note that `get_blob` differs from `Bucket.blob`, which does not
    # make an HTTP request.
    blob = bucket.get_blob(blob_name)

    print(f"Blob: {blob.name}")
    print(f"Bucket: {blob.bucket.name}")
    print(f"Storage class: {blob.storage_class}")
    print(f"ID: {blob.id}")
    print(f"Size: {blob.size} bytes")
    print(f"Updated: {blob.updated}")
    print(f"Generation: {blob.generation}")
    print(f"Metageneration: {blob.metageneration}")
    print(f"Etag: {blob.etag}")
    print(f"Owner: {blob.owner}")
    print(f"Component count: {blob.component_count}")
    print(f"Crc32c: {blob.crc32c}")
    print(f"md5_hash: {blob.md5_hash}")
    print(f"Cache-control: {blob.cache_control}")
    print(f"Content-type: {blob.content_type}")
    print(f"Content-disposition: {blob.content_disposition}")
    print(f"Content-encoding: {blob.content_encoding}")
    print(f"Content-language: {blob.content_language}")
    print(f"Metadata: {blob.metadata}")
    print(f"Medialink: {blob.media_link}")
    print(f"Custom Time: {blob.custom_time}")
    print("Temporary hold: ", "enabled" if blob.temporary_hold else "disabled")
    print(
        "Event based hold: ",
        "enabled" if blob.event_based_hold else "disabled",
    )
    print(f"Retention mode: {blob.retention.mode}")
    print(f"Retention retain until time: {blob.retention.retain_until_time}")
    if blob.retention_expiration_time:
        print(
            f"retentionExpirationTime: {blob.retention_expiration_time}"
        )

Ruby

For more information, see the Cloud Storage Ruby API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Cloud Storage, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for client libraries. 

def get_metadata bucket_name:, file_name:
  # The ID of your GCS bucket
  # bucket_name = "your-unique-bucket-name"

  # The ID of your GCS object
  # file_name = "your-file-name"

  require "google/cloud/storage"

  storage = Google::Cloud::Storage.new
  bucket  = storage.bucket bucket_name
  file    = bucket.file file_name

  puts "Name: #{file.name}"
  puts "Bucket: #{bucket.name}"
  puts "Storage class: #{bucket.storage_class}"
  puts "ID: #{file.id}"
  puts "Size: #{file.size} bytes"
  puts "Created: #{file.created_at}"
  puts "Updated: #{file.updated_at}"
  puts "Generation: #{file.generation}"
  puts "Metageneration: #{file.metageneration}"
  puts "Etag: #{file.etag}"
  puts "Owners: #{file.acl.owners.join ','}"
  puts "Crc32c: #{file.crc32c}"
  puts "md5_hash: #{file.md5}"
  puts "Cache-control: #{file.cache_control}"
  puts "Content-type: #{file.content_type}"
  puts "Content-disposition: #{file.content_disposition}"
  puts "Content-encoding: #{file.content_encoding}"
  puts "Content-language: #{file.content_language}"
  puts "KmsKeyName: #{file.kms_key}"
  puts "Event-based hold enabled?: #{file.event_based_hold?}"
  puts "Temporary hold enaled?: #{file.temporary_hold?}"
  puts "Retention Expiration: #{file.retention_expires_at}"
  puts "Custom Time: #{file.custom_time}"
  puts "Metadata:"
  file.metadata.each do |key, value|
    puts " - #{key} = #{value}"
  end
end

Terraform

You can use a Terraform resource to view an object's metadata.

# Get object metadata
data "google_storage_bucket_object" "default" {
  name   = google_storage_bucket_object.default.name
  bucket = google_storage_bucket.static.id
}

output "object_metadata" {
  value = data.google_storage_bucket_object.default
}

REST APIs

JSON API

  1. Have gcloud CLI installed and initialized, which lets you generate an access token for the Authorization header.

  2. Use cURL to call the JSON API with a GET Object request:

    curl -X GET \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $(gcloud auth print-access-token)" \
  "https://storage.googleapis.com/storage/v1/b/BUCKET_NAME/o/OBJECT_NAME"

    Where:

    • BUCKET_NAME is the name of the bucket containing the object whose metadata you want to view. For example, my-bucket.
    • OBJECT_NAME is the URL-encoded name of the object whose metadata you want to view. For example, pets/dog.png, URL-encoded as pets%2Fdog.png.

XML API

  1. Have gcloud CLI installed and initialized, which lets you generate an access token for the Authorization header.

  2. Use cURL to call the XML API with a HEAD Object request:

    curl -I HEAD \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $(gcloud auth print-access-token)" \
  "https://storage.googleapis.com/BUCKET_NAME/OBJECT_NAME"

    Where:

    • BUCKET_NAME is the name of the bucket containing the object whose metadata you want to view. For example, my-bucket.
    • OBJECT_NAME is the URL-encoded name of the object whose metadata you want to view. For example, pets/dog.png, URL-encoded as pets%2Fdog.png.

Edit object metadata

Complete the following steps to edit the metadata associated with an object:

Console

  1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Cloud Storage Buckets page.

    Go to Buckets

  2. In the list of buckets, click the name of the bucket that contains the object for which you want to edit metadata.

    The Bucket details page opens, with the Objects tab selected.

  3. Navigate to the object, which might be located in a folder.

  4. Click the name of the object.

    The Object details page opens, which displays object metadata.

  5. Click the pencil icon associated with the metadata that you want to edit, if it appears on the page.

  6. Otherwise, click Edit metadata to access additional editable metadata.

    In the overlay window that appears, edit the metadata as needed.

    • For standard metadata fields, edit the Value.

    • Add your own custom metadata by clicking the Add item button.

    • You can edit both the Key and Value of your custom metadata.

    • Delete your custom metadata by clicking the associated X.

    Once you are finished editing metadata in the overlay window, click Save.

To learn how to get detailed error information about failed Cloud Storage operations in the Google Cloud console, see Troubleshooting.

Command line

Use the gcloud storage objects update command:

gcloud storage objects update gs://BUCKET_NAME/OBJECT_NAME METADATA_FLAG

Where:

  • BUCKET_NAME is the name of the bucket containing the object whose metadata you want to edit. For example, my-bucket.
  • OBJECT_NAME is the name of the object whose metadata you want to edit. For example, pets/dog.png.
  • METADATA_FLAG is the flag for the metadata you want to edit. For example --content-type=image/png.

If successful, the response looks like the following example:

Patching gs://my-bucket/pets/dog.png#1560574162144861...
  Completed 1

For a complete list of metadata that you can update with this command, see the command reference page.

Client libraries

C++

For more information, see the Cloud Storage C++ API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Cloud Storage, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for client libraries. 

namespace gcs = ::google::cloud::storage;
using ::google::cloud::StatusOr;
[](gcs::Client client, std::string const& bucket_name,
   std::string const& object_name, std::string const& key,
   std::string const& value) {
  StatusOr<gcs::ObjectMetadata> object_metadata =
      client.GetObjectMetadata(bucket_name, object_name);
  if (!object_metadata) throw std::move(object_metadata).status();

  gcs::ObjectMetadata desired = *object_metadata;
  desired.mutable_metadata().emplace(key, value);

  StatusOr<gcs::ObjectMetadata> updated =
      client.UpdateObject(bucket_name, object_name, desired,
                          gcs::Generation(object_metadata->generation()));

  if (!updated) throw std::move(updated).status();
  std::cout << "Object updated. The full metadata after the update is: "
            << *updated << "\n";
}

C#

For more information, see the Cloud Storage C# API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Cloud Storage, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for client libraries. 


using Google.Cloud.Storage.V1;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;

public class SetObjectMetadataSample
{
    public Google.Apis.Storage.v1.Data.Object SetObjectMetadata(
        string bucketName = "your-bucket-name",
        string objectName = "your-object-name",
        string key = "key-to-add",
        string value = "value-to-add")
    {
        var storage = StorageClient.Create();
        var file = storage.GetObject(bucketName, objectName);

        if (file.Metadata == null)
        {
            file.Metadata = new Dictionary<string, string>();
        }
        file.Metadata.Add(key, value);

        file = storage.UpdateObject(file);
        Console.WriteLine($"Updated custom metadata for object {objectName} in bucket {bucketName}");
        return file;
    }
}

Go

For more information, see the Cloud Storage Go API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Cloud Storage, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for client libraries. 

import (
	"context"
	"fmt"
	"io"
	"time"

	"cloud.google.com/go/storage"
)

// setMetadata sets an object's metadata.
func setMetadata(w io.Writer, bucket, object string) error {
	// bucket := "bucket-name"
	// object := "object-name"
	ctx := context.Background()
	client, err := storage.NewClient(ctx)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("storage.NewClient: %w", err)
	}
	defer client.Close()

	ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(ctx, time.Second*10)
	defer cancel()

	o := client.Bucket(bucket).Object(object)

	// Optional: set a metageneration-match precondition to avoid potential race
	// conditions and data corruptions. The request to update is aborted if the
	// object's metageneration does not match your precondition.
	attrs, err := o.Attrs(ctx)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("object.Attrs: %w", err)
	}
	o = o.If(storage.Conditions{MetagenerationMatch: attrs.Metageneration})

	// Update the object to set the metadata.
	objectAttrsToUpdate := storage.ObjectAttrsToUpdate{
		Metadata: map[string]string{
			"keyToAddOrUpdate": "value",
		},
	}
	if _, err := o.Update(ctx, objectAttrsToUpdate); err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("ObjectHandle(%q).Update: %w", object, err)
	}
	fmt.Fprintf(w, "Updated custom metadata for object %v in bucket %v.\n", object, bucket)
	return nil
}

Java

For more information, see the Cloud Storage Java API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Cloud Storage, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for client libraries. 


import com.google.cloud.storage.Blob;
import com.google.cloud.storage.BlobId;
import com.google.cloud.storage.Storage;
import com.google.cloud.storage.StorageOptions;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Map;

public class SetObjectMetadata {
  public static void setObjectMetadata(String projectId, String bucketName, String objectName) {
    // The ID of your GCP project
    // String projectId = "your-project-id";

    // The ID of your GCS bucket
    // String bucketName = "your-unique-bucket-name";

    // The ID of your GCS object
    // String objectName = "your-object-name";

    Storage storage = StorageOptions.newBuilder().setProjectId(projectId).build().getService();
    Map<String, String> newMetadata = new HashMap<>();
    newMetadata.put("keyToAddOrUpdate", "value");
    BlobId blobId = BlobId.of(bucketName, objectName);
    Blob blob = storage.get(blobId);
    if (blob == null) {
      System.out.println("The object " + objectName + " was not found in " + bucketName);
      return;
    }

    // Optional: set a generation-match precondition to avoid potential race
    // conditions and data corruptions. The request to upload returns a 412 error if
    // the object's generation number does not match your precondition.
    Storage.BlobTargetOption precondition = Storage.BlobTargetOption.generationMatch();

    // Does an upsert operation, if the key already exists it's replaced by the new value, otherwise
    // it's added.
    blob.toBuilder().setMetadata(newMetadata).build().update(precondition);

    System.out.println(
        "Updated custom metadata for object " + objectName + " in bucket " + bucketName);
  }
}

Node.js

For more information, see the Cloud Storage Node.js API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Cloud Storage, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for client libraries. 

// Imports the Google Cloud client library
const {Storage} = require('@google-cloud/storage');

// Creates a client
const storage = new Storage();

/**
 * TODO(developer): Uncomment the following lines before running the sample.
 */
// The ID of your GCS bucket
// const bucketName = 'your-unique-bucket-name';

// The ID of your GCS file
// const fileName = 'your-file-name';

async function setFileMetadata() {
  // Optional: set a meta-generation-match precondition to avoid potential race
  // conditions and data corruptions. The request to set metadata is aborted if the
  // object's metageneration number does not match your precondition.
  const options = {
    ifMetagenerationMatch: metagenerationMatchPrecondition,
  };

  // Set file metadata.
  const [metadata] = await storage
    .bucket(bucketName)
    .file(fileName)
    .setMetadata(
      {
        // Predefined metadata for server e.g. 'cacheControl', 'contentDisposition',
        // 'contentEncoding', 'contentLanguage', 'contentType'
        contentDisposition:
          'attachment; filename*=utf-8\'\'"anotherImage.jpg"',
        contentType: 'image/jpeg',

        // A note or actionable items for user e.g. uniqueId, object description,
        // or other useful information.
        metadata: {
          description: 'file description...',
          modified: '1900-01-01',
        },
      },
      options
    );

  console.log(
    'Updated metadata for object',
    fileName,
    'in bucket ',
    bucketName
  );
  console.log(metadata);
}

setFileMetadata().catch(console.error);

PHP

For more information, see the Cloud Storage PHP API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Cloud Storage, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for client libraries. 

use Google\Cloud\Storage\StorageClient;

/**
 * Set a metadata key and value on the specified object.
 *
 * @param string $bucketName The name of your Cloud Storage bucket.
 *        (e.g. 'my-bucket')
 * @param string $objectName The name of your Cloud Storage object.
 *        (e.g. 'my-object')
 */
function set_metadata(string $bucketName, string $objectName): void
{
    $storage = new StorageClient();
    $bucket = $storage->bucket($bucketName);
    $object = $bucket->object($objectName);
    $object->update([
        'metadata' => [
            'keyToAddOrUpdate' => 'value',
        ]
    ]);

    printf('Updated custom metadata for object %s in bucket %s', $objectName, $bucketName);
}

Python

For more information, see the Cloud Storage Python API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Cloud Storage, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for client libraries. 

from google.cloud import storage


def set_blob_metadata(bucket_name, blob_name):
    """Set a blob's metadata."""
    # bucket_name = 'your-bucket-name'
    # blob_name = 'your-object-name'

    storage_client = storage.Client()
    bucket = storage_client.bucket(bucket_name)
    blob = bucket.get_blob(blob_name)
    metageneration_match_precondition = None

    # Optional: set a metageneration-match precondition to avoid potential race
    # conditions and data corruptions. The request to patch is aborted if the
    # object's metageneration does not match your precondition.
    metageneration_match_precondition = blob.metageneration

    metadata = {'color': 'Red', 'name': 'Test'}
    blob.metadata = metadata
    blob.patch(if_metageneration_match=metageneration_match_precondition)

    print(f"The metadata for the blob {blob.name} is {blob.metadata}")

Ruby

For more information, see the Cloud Storage Ruby API reference documentation.

To authenticate to Cloud Storage, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for client libraries. 

def set_metadata bucket_name:, file_name:
  # The ID of your GCS bucket
  # bucket_name = "your-unique-bucket-name"

  # The ID of your GCS object
  # file_name = "your-file-name"

  require "google/cloud/storage"

  storage = Google::Cloud::Storage.new
  bucket  = storage.bucket bucket_name, skip_lookup: true
  file    = bucket.file file_name

  file.update do |file|
    # Fixed key file metadata
    file.content_type = "text/plain"

    # Custom file metadata
    file.metadata["your-metadata-key"] = "your-metadata-value"
  end

  puts "Metadata for #{file_name} has been updated."
end

REST APIs

JSON API

  1. Have gcloud CLI installed and initialized, which lets you generate an access token for the Authorization header.

  2. Create a JSON file that contains the metadata you want to modify.

    To add or modify fixed-key metadata such as contentType, use the following format:

    {
  "STANDARD_METADATA_KEY": "STANDARD_METADATA_VALUE"
}

    Where:

    • STANDARD_METADATA_KEY is the key for the metadata you want to add or modify. For example, Content-Type.
    • STANDARD_METADATA_VALUE is the value for the metadata you want to add or modify. For example, image/png.

    To add or modify custom metadata, use the following format:

    {
  "metadata": {
    "CUSTOM_METADATA_KEY": "CUSTOM_METADATA_VALUE"
  }
}

    Where:

    • CUSTOM_METADATA_KEY is the custom metadata key that you want to add or modify. For example, dogbreed.
    • CUSTOM_METADATA_VALUE is the value you want associated with the custom metadata key. For example, shibainu.

    To delete a custom metadata entry, use the following format:

    {
  "metadata": {
    "CUSTOM_METADATA_KEY": null
  }
}

    Where:

    • CUSTOM_METADATA_KEY is the key for the custom metadata that you want to delete. For example, dogbreed.

  3. Use cURL to call the JSON API with a PATCH Object request:

    curl -X PATCH --data-binary @JSON_FILE_NAME \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $(gcloud auth print-access-token)" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  "https://storage.googleapis.com/storage/v1/b/BUCKET_NAME/o/OBJECT_NAME"

    Where:

    • JSON_FILE_NAME is the path for the file that you created in Step 2.
    • BUCKET_NAME is the name of the bucket containing the object whose metadata you want to edit. For example, my-bucket.
    • OBJECT_NAME is the URL-encoded name of the object whose metadata you want to edit. For example, pets/dog.png, URL-encoded as pets%2Fdog.png.

Note that you can also change an object's metadata with an UPDATE Object request. When using this method, any metadata that is not explicitly specified in the request is removed from the object's metadata.

XML API

When working with the XML API, metadata can only be set at the time the object is written, such as when uploading, moving, or replacing the object. Follow instructions such as uploading an object with the following guidelines:

  • Add -H "METADATA_KEY:METADATA_VALUE" to the request header for each metadata value you are setting. For example, -H "Content-Type:image/png".

  • Prefix x-goog-meta- to any custom metadata values. An example of custom "METADATA_KEY:METADATA_VALUE" is "x-goog-meta-dogbreed:shibainu".

For more information, see Upload an Object for XML.

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