How to fix Error: Error creating Cloud Storage Bucket: BucketAlreadyOwnedByYou in Terraform

First, confirm that the bucket actually exists by checking your Google Cloud Console or using the gcloud CLI:

gcloud storage buckets list

Look for your bucket name in the list. You can also check properties of the specific bucket:

gcloud storage buckets describe gs://your-bucket-name

If the bucket appears in the output, proceed to the next step. This confirms the bucket exists and is owned by you.

If you want Terraform to manage the bucket going forward, import it using the terraform import command. This adds the bucket to your Terraform state without trying to recreate it.

terraform import google_storage_bucket.my_bucket your-bucket-name

For buckets in a specific project, use the format project/bucket-name:

terraform import google_storage_bucket.my_bucket my-project-id/your-bucket-name

After import, run a plan to verify no changes are needed:

terraform plan

The plan should show no changes if the import was successful. The bucket is now tracked by Terraform.

If you imported the bucket, update your Terraform resource configuration to match the actual bucket settings. Check the bucket's current configuration:

gcloud storage buckets describe gs://your-bucket-name --format=json

Then update your resource definition to match (location, storage_class, versioning, etc.). For example:

resource "google_storage_bucket" "my_bucket" {
  name          = "your-bucket-name"
  location      = "US"
  storage_class = "STANDARD"

  uniform_bucket_level_access = true
}

After updating, run terraform plan again to ensure no unwanted changes.

If you don't want Terraform to manage the bucket lifecycle, use a data source to reference the existing bucket instead of creating it. This prevents conflicts while allowing other resources to depend on it:

data "google_storage_bucket" "existing_bucket" {
  name = "your-bucket-name"
}

# Use the bucket in other resources
resource "google_storage_bucket_object" "file" {
  name   = "path/to/file"
  bucket = data.google_storage_bucket.existing_bucket.name
  source = "local/path/to/file"
}

This approach is useful when the bucket is managed outside of this Terraform configuration or in a separate module.

If terraform import fails with a permission error, ensure your service account or user has the Storage Admin role (roles/storage.admin) on the project. You can check and grant permissions using:

# List current IAM bindings
gcloud projects get-iam-policy PROJECT_ID

# Grant Storage Admin role to a service account
gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding PROJECT_ID \
  --member serviceAccount:[email protected] \
  --role roles/storage.admin

After granting permissions, retry the terraform import command.

Once the bucket is imported and your configuration is updated, run terraform apply to synchronize any remaining configuration:

terraform apply

The command should show no changes if the import and configuration update were successful. If there are changes, review them carefully before confirming. This completes the process of bringing the existing bucket under Terraform management.