%% added to url public name

[ygl]

I am using Google Cloud Storage to upload simple MP4 files named 1.mp4, 2.mp4, 3.mp4, etc. However, some of the public URLs generated for these files contain % characters, which I know are usually added when there are unallowed special characters in the file names.

I've checked several possibilities:

The filenames do not have hidden or trailing spaces.
The bucket or folder names do not contain any special characters.
There are no visible or invisible characters in the filenames.
The client tool I used for uploading does not apply any special encoding.
I tested with different filenames, and the issue still persists.
Despite checking all of these options, I still don’t understand the reason for this problem. Can you help me figure it out?

[greb]

Hi @ygl,

Welcome to Google Cloud Community!

The % sign in your Google Cloud Storage public URLs looks like it’s due to percent encoding. This occurs when special or non-ASCII characters, which may not be visible, are contained in the filename.

Solution:

1. Check for Hidden Characters: Execute xxd or od -c on the filenames before uploading to spot any Unicode characters that may not be visible.
   
2. Sanitize Filenames: Run the command below:
   mv -- "$file" "$(echo $file | tr -d '\t\r\n' | tr -d '[:space:]')"
   This command takes out any unintentional hidden spaces or characters.
   
   
3. Re-upload Files: Change the file names on your local computer and then upload them to GCS again. Ensure that the filenames adhere to GCS's object naming guidelines
   
   
4. Validate your encoding: Run gsutil ls -L gs://your-bucket/ to check how GCS sees your filenames and verify if your intended encoding was interpreted.

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