remotion-dev/remotion · error · Exception

Failed to create bucket: {$exception->getMessage()}

Error message

Failed to create bucket: {$exception->getMessage()}

What it means

Thrown by PHPClient when the AwsException caught during createBucket is re-raised as a generic Exception. The PHP client replicates the JS SDK bucket-creation logic, including the us-east-1 special case (no LocationConstraint). The most common root causes are missing s3:CreateBucket permission, an invalid region string, or hitting the account bucket quota.

Source

Thrown at packages/lambda-php/src/PHPClient.php:186

        }

        $bucket = $this->makeBucketName();
        $s3Client = $this->createS3Client();

        try {
            $params = ['Bucket' => $bucket];

            if ($this->region !== self::REGION_US_EAST) {
                $params['CreateBucketConfiguration'] = [
                    'LocationConstraint' => $this->region
                ];
            }

            $s3Client->createBucket($params);

            return $bucket;
        } catch (AwsException $exception) {
            throw new Exception("Failed to create bucket: " . $exception->getMessage());
        }
    }

    /**
     * Upload payload to S3
     */
    private function uploadToS3(string $bucket, string $key, string $payload): void
    {
        $s3Client = $this->createS3Client();

        try {
            $s3Client->putObject([
                'Bucket' => $bucket,
                'Key' => $key,
                'Body' => $payload,
                'ContentType' => 'application/json',
            ]);
        } catch (AwsException $exception) {

View on GitHub (pinned to 78fe4bb3fd)

Solutions

1. Read $exception->getMessage() / $exception->getAwsErrorCode(): AccessDenied → add s3:CreateBucket; IllegalLocationConstraintException → fix region; BucketAlreadyExists → retry.
2. Pre-create the `remotionlambda-` bucket and let the client discover it instead of creating.
3. Validate the region string against the AWS region list before calling render.
4. Request a quota increase if the account hit its bucket limit.

Example fix

// before
try {
    $s3Client->createBucket($params);
} catch (AwsException $exception) {
    throw new Exception("Failed to create bucket: " . $exception->getMessage());
}

// after - surface the AWS error code so the cause is diagnosable
} catch (AwsException $exception) {
    throw new Exception(sprintf(
        "Failed to create bucket in %s: [%s] %s",
        $this->region,
        $exception->getAwsErrorCode() ?? 'Unknown',
        $exception->getMessage()
    ), 0, $exception);
}

try {
    $bucket = $this->getOrCreateBucket();
} catch (Exception $e) {
    if (strpos($e->getMessage(), 'AccessDenied') !== false) {
        // grant s3:CreateBucket to the caller role
    }
    throw $e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: $s3Client->createBucket($params) throws AwsException — AccessDenied (no s3:CreateBucket), BucketAlreadyExists (random-name collision, essentially impossible), InvalidLocationConstraint (region string invalid), or AccountCountExceedsLimit (bucket quota).

Common situations: Production IAM roles that forbid bucket creation. Typo in the region like `us-east1`. Account already at the 100-bucket soft limit. Running the client with credentials from a role assumption that lacks the create permission.

Related errors

• failed to create bucket: %w
• You have multiple buckets (%s) in your S3 region (%s) starti
• Failed to upload to S3: {$exception->getMessage()}
• could not get location of S3 bucket %q: %w
• could not list S3 buckets: %w

AI-assisted analysis of remotion-dev/remotion@78fe4bb3fd (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/41215534a113a4c0. Report an issue: GitHub.