Intermediate Guide

Working with Amazon S3 Pro

Connect to Amazon S3 buckets and browse cloud storage directly in Captain's Deck.

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Prerequisites

Before connecting, you'll need:

  • An AWS account
  • Access Key ID and Secret Access Key
  • Appropriate IAM permissions for S3 access

Creating AWS Credentials

If you don't have credentials yet:

  1. Log into the AWS IAM Console
  2. Go to Users -> Add user
  3. Select Programmatic access
  4. Attach the AmazonS3FullAccess policy (or more restrictive as needed)
  5. Save the Access Key ID and Secret Access Key

Security Note: Never share your Secret Access Key. Captain's Deck stores it securely in macOS Keychain.

Connecting to S3

  1. Go to Go -> Connect to S3 in the menu bar
  2. Enter your connection details:
    • Access Key ID: Your AWS access key
    • Secret Access Key: Your AWS secret key
    • Region: AWS region (e.g., us-east-1, eu-west-1)
    • Bucket: S3 bucket name
  3. Optionally enter a name to save this connection
  4. Click Connect

S3-Compatible Services

Captain's Deck works with S3-compatible storage providers:

  • DigitalOcean Spaces
  • Backblaze B2
  • MinIO
  • Wasabi

For these services, enter the Custom Endpoint URL provided by your provider.

Browsing S3

Once connected, you can:

  • Navigate bucket contents like a file system
  • View file details (size, modified date, storage class)
  • Download files to local storage
  • Upload files from local storage
  • Create "folders" (prefixes)
  • Delete objects

Note: S3 doesn't have real folders - it uses prefixes. Captain's Deck presents these as folders for easier navigation.

Uploading Files

  1. Open your local folder in one pane
  2. Open your S3 bucket in the other pane
  3. Select files to upload
  4. Press F5 to copy

Large files are automatically uploaded using multipart upload for reliability.

Downloading Files

  1. Navigate to the S3 location
  2. Select files to download
  3. Press F5 to copy to the local pane

Storage Classes

Captain's Deck shows the storage class for each object:

  • STANDARD: Regular storage
  • STANDARD_IA: Infrequent Access
  • GLACIER: Archive storage (requires restore before download)
  • DEEP_ARCHIVE: Deep archive (longer restore time)

Troubleshooting

"Access Denied"

  • Verify your credentials are correct
  • Check IAM permissions include required S3 actions
  • Ensure bucket policy allows your user

"Bucket not found"

  • Verify bucket name is spelled correctly
  • Check the region matches where the bucket was created

Slow listing

  • Buckets with many objects (10,000+) may take time to list
  • Consider organizing into prefixes (folders)

Related Guides

Connecting to SFTP/SSH Servers Copying and Moving Files