I need to transfer an entire S3 bucket, including all data and permissions, from my current AWS account to another one. I’m worried about losing data and want to avoid downtime. Has anyone done this before? Any step-by-step advice or best practices would be really helpful right now.
Moving Data Between S3 Buckets (Across AWS Accounts): My Process
Alright, here’s my saga with wrestling Amazon S3 buckets, especially when you need to shuffle stuff between accounts. If you want the dry, official playbook, Amazon’s got you covered with a step-by-step walkthrough here: Tutorial: Transferring data between Amazon S3 buckets across AWS accounts - AWS DataSync. It’s not exactly bedtime reading, but it gets the job done if you’re the meticulous type.
Turning S3 Buckets Into Regular Folders (Desktop Style)
Okay, let’s be real—sometimes, these cloud dashboards are a pain. You click a hundred tabs, you wait for refreshes, and who has time for figuring out what policy is blocking your upload this time? This is where tools that let you mount S3 buckets like they’re just folders on your desktop come in handy. You literally open Finder (or Explorer, whatever your flavor is), and boom, there’s your S3 stuff chilling alongside Downloads and Documents.
I stumbled upon this neat little app called CloudMounter. You can pick just one S3 bucket, toss in a couple, or hook up to the whole AWS circus if that’s how you roll. Bonus points: it recognizes every AWS region you can think of, and it’ll treat your buckets the same way no matter where they live.
But here’s the kicker—CloudMounter doesn’t just speak S3. It speaks Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, FTP, and a bunch of others. So if your digital life’s a mess scattered across platforms, this could be the consolidation move you didn’t know you needed. You essentially turn cloud chaos into something you can drag, drop, and copy like you were dealing with ordinary folders.
Uploads, Downloads, and That Shady Keypair Dance
Transferring files? Easy enough—drag to upload, drag out to download. Copy file links? Public or private URLs, one right-click. But don’t get too comfy. Don’t expect to log in with your email and password like you do with most apps. Nope. AWS wants you to wrangle an Access Key ID and Secret Access Key. So, you’ll be spending a hot minute in the AWS console creating users and permissions if you haven’t already.
It’s a bit of a backflip, and you’ll find the keypair dance isn’t skippable if you want to keep things secure. But once you’re through, honestly, this setup feels way more seamless than doing everything through the web. If you’ve ever tried “just a quick upload” through the native AWS UI, you know why this feels revolutionary.
Final Thoughts
Look, I wouldn’t say CloudMounter is the answer to every problem (nothing ever is), but if you’re managing buckets or juggling files across clouds constantly, giving this app a spin might save you some serious time (and sanity). Plus, poking around, you’ll probably find a couple other surprises in there you didn’t even know you wanted.
2 Likes
Honestly, I appreciate where @mikeappsreviewer is coming from—making S3 feel like a drag-and-drop folder is a gamechanger for casual file work or if you’re shuffling a few gigs. But if you’re talking a full S3 bucket migration, including all data and also permissions, the folder-mount approach like CloudMounter is handy for quick moves but not really bulletproof for a production move with minimal downtime and zero data loss.
First thing: AWS DataSync (yeah, that old doc) actually does a better job for full migrations, and more importantly, can handle millions of objects with checksum validation, parallel transfers, and error reporting. If you want the sleep-at-night confidence, launch a DataSync task between buckets in separate accounts. Set up appropriate IAM cross-account roles so DataSync can read in source, write to destination, and your transfer is resumable if stuff goes sideways. No accidental partial uploads thanks to your WiFi deciding it’s nap time.
About “permissions”—cloud-mount tools don’t replicate bucket policies, ACLs, or S3 object ownership. You gotta script that (think AWS CLI or boto3, or the “bucket replication” feature for continuous sync). If you want an exact copy, including permissions and object metadata (crucial for static sites, backups, etc.), you’ll want to script the migration. CLI copy commands (aws s3 cp --recursive or even aws s3 sync) paired with dumping/reapplying policies will do it. There’s no magic “copy bucket universe” button, unfortunately.
Some downtime worry? Setup the destination bucket, copy all existing data, then — this is the key — either use S3 Replication (if available between accounts) or a script to keep syncing new changes until the cutover. Switch your apps/services over once you’re satisfied the destination is up to date. No single-step “move,” it’s a migrate-then-switch.
TL;DR: For “folderization” and individual object work, CloudMounter is neat and great for multi-cloud chaos. For large, permission-sensitive bucket moves with minimal downtime, lean on AWS’s native tools, accept it’ll need a little scripting, and maybe keep CloudMounter in your toolbox for cleanup or odd jobs after the main event. And don’t forget to double-check object ownership and permissions at the end or you’ll be in for a world of 403 errors.
I’ll just put it out there: anyone who’s handed a “move this S3 bucket” task and says it’s easy is either lying or hasn’t tried to keep permissions and metadata intact, not to mention maintain zero downtime. Read @mikeappsreviewer and @codecrafter—they nailed the pros and cons—but let’s cut through the fluff and get into the messier bits.
First, all the AWS DataSync talk is cute (and yes, it works if you like to stay strictly AWS), but IMO, the permissions headache is where people actually trip. Data is easy to move—keeping your bucket policies, ACLs, AND making sure that all the transferred files are owned by the right account in the target bucket? That’s where the AWS “just use --acl bucket-owner-full-control” suggestion falls apart as soon as you hit that one weird object someone uploaded with a unique canned ACL.
For me, here’s how I’d attack a real-world migration (not just a “demo”):
- Prep: Make the bucket in the target account, match all the policies and versioning settings.
- Bulk Copy: Use AWS CLI (
aws s3 sync), but watch out: by default, you might lose old versions or some metadata unless you tweak it. For millions of files? CLI might choke, so DataSync or even an S3 Batch Operation can help. - Permissions: After migration, run a script to compare/list object ACLs and policies, then fix ownership (and logs! Don’t forget logs or you’ll be hunting 403s on Monday).
- Delta Sync: After the cutover, re-sync changed files to catch edits/uploads during migration (yup, it’s always a moving target).
- Switch DNS/endpoints: Then point consumers at the new bucket, and watch your error logs like a hawk.
If you only care about data and zero downtime is a must-have, you could use S3 Replication to parallelize updates and do a final sync at cutover. But S3 Replication needs versioning enabled and cross-account trust. Sometimes, that’s more political than technical.
BTW, CloudMounter (as mentioned) is stellar for ad-hoc moves, small-to-midsize bucket cleanups, or when you want to treat S3 like Dropbox. I still keep it handy for spot-jobs—way less brain damage than remembering AWS CLI flags at 2AM. But trying to copy 10TB through your ISP using CloudMounter? Nah, that’ll make you hate life.
Don’t trust a one-step tool. Double-check your permissions, run object ownership reports, and always compare source/destination with something like aws s3api list-objects. Human error is real. No shame in paranoia!
In short: there is no magic “move S3 bucket with no pain” button. It’s a rough ride, no matter how many scripts or handy desktop apps you throw at it. Brace yourself, verify everything, and keep your caffeine supply ready.