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S3 Buckets

Browse, upload, download, and manage files in Amazon S3 buckets.

Overview

The S3 Browser provides a file management interface for Amazon S3. Browse buckets and objects, upload and download files, manage metadata, and organize objects using prefix-based virtual folders — all from within Stackpane.

Browsing Buckets

When you select an AWS connection, Stackpane calls ListAllMyBuckets to load all S3 buckets accessible by your IAM credentials. Buckets appear in the sidebar.

  • Click any bucket name to browse its contents.
  • Stackpane detects each bucket’s region using GetBucketLocation and displays it alongside the bucket name.
  • Click Refresh to reload the bucket list.

Browsing Objects

Select a bucket to view its objects in a table with the following columns:

  • Name — the object key (file name), with a folder icon for common prefixes
  • Size — object size in human-readable format (B, KB, MB, GB)
  • Content Type — the MIME type of the object
  • Last Modified — when the object was last updated

Virtual Folders

S3 is a flat object store, but Stackpane presents prefix-delimited keys as a folder hierarchy for easier navigation:

  • Objects with shared prefixes (e.g., images/photo1.jpg, images/photo2.jpg) appear under a images/ folder entry.
  • Click a folder to navigate into it. The table updates to show objects under that prefix.
  • A breadcrumb navigation bar at the top shows your current path. Click any segment to jump back to that level.

Folders always appear before files in the listing, regardless of the current sort order.

Uploading Files

Upload files to the current prefix location:

  1. Click the Upload button in the toolbar and select one or more files.
  2. Or drag files from Finder directly onto the object browser.
  3. Upload progress is displayed in a progress bar.
  4. Files are uploaded to the currently browsed prefix path.

Stackpane sends a PutObject request for each file. The content type is automatically detected based on the file extension.

Downloading Files

  1. Select an object in the table.
  2. Click Download in the inspector or use the context menu.
  3. Choose a save location in the file dialog.

Stackpane sends a GetObject request and streams the object content to disk.

Deleting Objects

  1. Select an object and click Delete in the inspector or context menu.
  2. Confirm the deletion in the dialog.

Stackpane sends a DeleteObject request. Deletions are permanent — S3 does not have a recycle bin unless versioning is enabled on the bucket.

For bulk deletion, enable selection mode and select multiple objects, then click Delete Selected.

Copying Objects

Copy an object to a new location within the same bucket or to a different key:

  1. Select an object and click Copy in the inspector.
  2. Enter the destination key (the full object path including prefix).
  3. Click Copy.

Stackpane sends a CopyObject request. The original object is preserved.

Object Metadata

Select an object to view its metadata in the inspector:

  • Key — the full object key
  • Size — object size in bytes
  • Content Type — MIME type
  • Last Modified — timestamp
  • ETag — the entity tag (typically an MD5 hash of the object content)
  • Custom Metadata — any user-defined x-amz-meta-* headers set on the object

Setting Content Type

When uploading a file, Stackpane sets the content type automatically based on the file extension. To override it:

  1. Select an uploaded object.
  2. Click Edit Metadata in the inspector.
  3. Change the Content Type value.
  4. Click Save.

Custom Metadata

View custom metadata key-value pairs on any object. Custom metadata is set at upload time or via the S3 Console and is returned with GetObject responses.

Bucket Region Detection

Stackpane automatically detects each bucket’s region using the GetBucketLocation API. This ensures that API calls for objects in a bucket are routed to the correct region, even if the bucket is in a different region than your connection’s default.

Sorting and Columns

Click column headers to sort by name, size, content type, or last modified date. Toggle column visibility with the column configuration button for a cleaner view.

Tips

  • Use the search field to filter objects by name within the currently loaded page
  • The breadcrumb trail provides one-click navigation back to any parent prefix
  • Large files upload in the background — you can continue browsing while an upload is in progress
  • S3 bucket policies and access controls are managed in the AWS Console — Stackpane operates with the permissions granted to your IAM user