NoSuchBucket
AWS NoSuchBucket (No Such Bucket) means the specified bucket does not exist. In Amazon S3, this error returns HTTP 404.
Last reviewed: February 4, 2026|Editorial standard: source-backed technical guidance
What Does No Such Bucket Mean?
S3 could not resolve the target bucket name in the current account context, so requests fail until bucket identity and ownership references are corrected.
Common Causes
- -The bucket name in the request is misspelled or truncated by runtime configuration.
- -The bucket was deleted, never created in this account workflow, or replaced by a new name.
- -Environment variables or IaC outputs point clients to an outdated bucket name.
- -Cross-account deployment assumes a bucket exists in the target account when it does not.
How to Fix No Such Bucket
- 1Confirm the exact bucket name from source-of-truth config and replay with that value.
- 2Check bucket existence and ownership with
aws s3api head-bucketusing the same credentials. - 3If the bucket was intentionally replaced, update all dependent services to the new bucket name.
- 4Recreate the bucket only when lifecycle policy and naming governance allow it.
Step-by-Step Diagnosis for No Such Bucket
- 1Capture request ID, bucket name, and calling principal from the failing S3 operation.
- 2Review CloudTrail for recent CreateBucket/DeleteBucket activity on that name.
- 3Diff runtime config against IaC outputs to find stale name propagation.
- 4Validate account context for each environment to avoid cross-account bucket assumptions.
Bucket Identity Validation
- -Inspect the final bucket token after template expansion and environment substitution (example:
logs-prodversuslog-prodfrom variable truncation). - -Verify account and partition context before lookup (example: workload runs in prod account but references a bucket created only in sandbox).
Lifecycle and Ownership Checks
- -Audit
CreateBucket/DeleteBuckethistory around incident time (example: cleanup automation removed the bucket minutes before deployment). - -Confirm bootstrap ordering for cross-account setups (example: account B depends on a seed bucket that account A never provisioned).
How to Verify the Fix
- -Run the same S3 API call and confirm NoSuchBucket is no longer returned.
- -Confirm dependent upload, list, and policy operations complete successfully.
- -Check logs and traces to verify old bucket names are no longer emitted.
How to Prevent Recurrence
- -Treat bucket names as immutable infrastructure outputs and avoid hard-coded duplicates.
- -Add preflight checks that fail deployments when referenced buckets are missing.
- -Track bucket lifecycle events and propagate rename/deletion changes through config pipelines.
Pro Tip
- -store bucket ARN/name in signed release metadata and fail rollout when runtime bucket values drift from that artifact.
Decision Support
Compare Guide
403 Forbidden vs 404 Not Found: When to Hide Resources
Use 403 for explicit access denial, or 404 to conceal resource existence when security policy requires reducing endpoint and object enumeration risk.
Compare Guide
404 Not Found vs 410 Gone: Missing vs Permanent Removal
Learn when to return 404 (missing or temporary absence) versus 410 (intentional permanent removal), including redirect and cache implications.
Playbook
Resource State Playbook (404 / 410 / ResourceNotFound)
Use this playbook to separate temporary missing-resource lookups from permanent removals, then fix scope, lifecycle, and identifier drift safely.
Official References
Provider Context
This guidance is specific to AWS services. Always validate implementation details against official provider documentation before deploying to production.