---
title: "Beware: S3 doesn't support \"+\" in filenames (properly)"
date: 2017-01-13
updated: 2026-09-26
canonical: https://michaelshadle.com/2017/01/12/beware-s3-doesnt-support-plus-in-filenames-properly
---

# Beware: S3 doesn't support "+" in filenames (properly)

Discovered this issue the other day.

While you can upload a file with a plus `+` in it, it won't reject you. However, you cannot directly access it. You can only access it by encoding the `+` to `%2b` - so unless you are doing that in your links, you'll wind up with "access denied" S3 XML error. Because the `+` is interpreted as a space - instead of the actual `+`

While they could fix this, it looks like they won't at this point, as it will change the behavior that everyone is used to. I found some threads from years ago complaining about it, even back then there was little expectation the behavior would be changed.

Total complaints with S3: 3
Total happiness points with S3: 1,292