Filter and preview child objects
Filters in Modify child objects… and Modify child object versions… determine which objects in the bucket or folder will be modified. They apply during recursive traversal of the bucket or folder; browser display filters do not affect that traversal.
Define the scope
In the S3 pane, select one bucket or current logical folder and open the modification command. Check Location and Apply to, prepare at least one change, then select Filters in the left-hand menu.
Current-object mode examines current objects; version mode examines current and noncurrent versions. Delete markers are ignored. The object representing the selected folder is not a child. All keys ending in / and their versions are ignored before filtering, regardless of their size or the requested changes. Inclusion rules cannot select them. Objects under those prefixes are still processed normally.
Include and exclude rules
Under Include or Exclude, click Add, fill in Add rule, then click OK. Select a rule to use Edit or Remove.
| Field | Choices and meaning |
|---|---|
| Target | Name (last key component) compares the last component; Key relative to selected location compares the key with the selected folder prefix removed. |
| Syntax | Literal, Wildcard or Regular expression. |
| Pattern | The complete value or expression to match. |
| Case sensitive | Selected by default; clear it to ignore case. |
Initially, no rules or size bounds are active. A new rule selects Name (last key component) and Literal, with a required, nonempty Pattern. For Regular expression, the checkbox is labeled Case sensitive by default.
For logs/2026/report.json under logs/, the name is report.json and the relative key is 2026/report.json. Folder objects are outside the scope, so their keys are not matched against the rules.
- Literal requires equality with the entire value. Special characters are not interpreted.
- Wildcard uses
*for zero or more characters and?for one character, including/. Backslash is not an escape character; use[*]or[?]to match those characters literally. Character sets[abc], ranges[a-c]and their negations[!abc]or[!a-c]match one character. The pattern must match the entire value. - Regular expression must match the entire value. Inline modifiers such as
(?i)can override the default case setting. Invalid expressions display a diagnostic and position.
Without inclusion rules, every eligible object satisfying the size conditions is included. Otherwise, at least one inclusion must match. A matching exclusion always takes precedence. Rules do not determine which properties to change.
You can define up to 256 rules, with at most 4,096 UTF-16 code units per pattern and 32,768 across all patterns. Some characters occupy two UTF-16 code units. S3Client rejects patterns that exceed these limits. A complex expression can slow down the preview and delay stopping it after you click Stop.
Size conditions
Under Object size, select Minimum or Maximum to enable each bound. Choose the operator:
- Greater than (>) or At least (≥) for the lower bound.
- Less than (<) or At most (≤) for the upper bound.
Enter a nonnegative integer using ASCII digits in Quantity, then choose Unit: B, KiB, MiB, GiB or TiB. Units are binary; Exact bytes shows the conversion used. Decimals, negative values, overflow and ranges with no possible size are rejected.
Minimum and Maximum are initially unchecked. The initial operators are Greater than (>) and Less than (<), with unit B. An enabled bound requires a quantity. This numeric input is limited to 64 digits; the converted size cannot exceed 9,223,372,036,854,775,807 bytes.
Both bounds, inclusions and exclusions apply together. Equality with a bound is allowed only with an inclusive operator. In version mode, the size tested belongs to each individual version.
Run and read the preview
Preview requires listing permission and, depending on the instructions, additional read permissions. It writes no properties. At least one valid change must be prepared to enable it; results depend on requested changes as well as patterns.
Version mode requires Object versions and, on Amazon S3, s3:ListBucketVersions. When the bucket supports reading its state with Read bucket versioning, versioning must be confirmed enabled or suspended; that read requires s3:GetBucketVersioning. When reading the state is unsupported, an unknown local state does not prevent listing. A bucket known never to have had versioning enabled remains excluded.
Also meet the instruction prerequisites. To determine how to apply an encryption change, the preview reads the properties of selected objects; an SSE-C source may require the key supplied under Source SSE-C key: > Provide key….
On the Preview page, the Run preview, Load more and Stop buttons are below the results list. The preview status appears below the buttons.
- Select Preview in the left-hand menu.
- Click Run preview below the results list.
- Inspect Selected, Excluded and Ignored.
- Click Load more to continue after partial results, or Stop to interrupt reading.
- If you change instructions, filters or the source SSE-C key, rerun Run preview for the new selection.
Selected contains entries matching the filters with at least one applicable change. Excluded contains entries rejected by size or a rule. Ignored contains entries outside the scope or with no applicable change, including delete markers and objects with keys ending in /.
Columns show Key, Version ID, Type, Size (bytes), Version state, Applicable changes, Verdict and Reason. An entry may accept only some requested changes; read Applicable changes. With an encryption instruction, Encryption operation shows Update in place, Copy required or Unavailable. Selected therefore does not guarantee a successful write.
Version ID and Version state are shown only in version mode. Hover over Encryption operation to read the diagnostic, particularly for Unavailable results.
The Copy raw key context command copies the exact key, even when characters are escaped for display.
Understand partial results
Each read adds at most 250 entries and the preview retains at most 5,000 entries across all categories. Partial means more entries can be read; Complete means traversal is finished for this preview; Limit reached means the preview cap has been reached and the results remain incomplete.
Stop keeps the results already displayed and discards the read in progress. Wait for it to stop, then click Load more if that button is available, or Run preview otherwise. After an error, follow the same steps: reading resumes after the last retained group of results. Changing instructions, filters or the source SSE-C key clears the preview; rerun Run preview. If the account has changed, close and reopen the dialog.
Apply is not limited to rows loaded in the preview: the operation traverses the entire target using the same filters. Objects may change between preview and execution. Before applying, check the scope and instruction consequences.