Objects: move

Moves an object within a bucket.

This operation moves a source object to a destination object in the same bucket by renaming the object. 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:

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.
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
- The destination object is moved to Standard storage if the bucket has Autoclass enabled
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. The replaced object will become noncurrent or soft-deleted depending on whether Object Versioning or soft delete is enabled. 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

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)
storage.objects.getIamPolicy (only required if projection is full and the relevant bucket has uniform bucket-level access disabled )

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.

projection

string

Set of properties to return. Defaults to noAcl .

Acceptable values are:

full : Include all properties.
noAcl : Omit the owner , acl property.

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.

The following errors could occur:

If the source object is subject to either an object retention policy or bucket retention policy , the request fails with a 403 Forbidden error with the reason retentionPolicyNotMet .
Likewise, if a live object already exists at the destination and it is subject to either an object retention policy or bucket retention policy , the request fails with a 403 Forbidden error with the reason retentionPolicyNotMet .

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.