Storage Bucket Setup

By default eLMS stores course videos, images and documents on your own server (Local Disk). For a live platform you can store them in a cloud bucket instead: Amazon S3 or Cloudflare R2. This page shows how to create the bucket, get the access keys, connect it to eLMS, and fix the common errors, including the CORS errors that stop course videos and images from loading on the website.

Which one should I choose?

Amazon S3: the standard choice, available in every region.
Cloudflare R2: S3-compatible and has no egress (download) fee, so it is cheaper for video streaming.

Both work the same way in eLMS. Pick one.

Before you start

Open Settings → System → Storage in the admin panel. This is where you enter the keys.
Know your website domains (the Next.js web URL, for example https://yourdomain.com, and your admin panel URL). You need them for the CORS setup.
Keep your keys private. Never share them in screenshots or chats.

Option A: Amazon S3

1. Create the bucket

Sign in to the AWS Console and open S3.
Click Create bucket.
Enter a Bucket name (for example my-elms-bucket) and choose an AWS Region (for example ap-south-1). Note both, you will need them.
Under Block Public Access settings, untick Block all public access and confirm the warning. Course files must be readable by your website and app.
Leave the other options as they are and click Create bucket.

2. Allow public read of files

Open the bucket → Permissions → Bucket policy → Edit, and paste the following. Replace my-elms-bucket with your bucket name.

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Sid": "PublicReadForElms",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Principal": "*",
      "Action": "s3:GetObject",
      "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::my-elms-bucket/*"
    }
  ]
}

Click Save changes.

3. Add the CORS rule (important)

Open the bucket → Permissions → Cross-origin resource sharing (CORS) → Edit, and paste the following. Replace the domains with your own.

[
  {
    "AllowedHeaders": ["*"],
    "AllowedMethods": ["GET", "HEAD", "PUT", "POST", "DELETE"],
    "AllowedOrigins": [
      "https://yourdomain.com",
      "https://www.yourdomain.com",
      "https://admin.yourdomain.com"
    ],
    "ExposeHeaders": ["ETag", "Content-Length", "Content-Range"],
    "MaxAgeSeconds": 3000
  }
]

tip

Use the exact domain, with https:// and no trailing slash. While testing you can temporarily use "*" in AllowedOrigins, but change it to your real domains for production.

4. Create an access key

Create a dedicated user for eLMS instead of using your main AWS account.

Open IAM → Users → Create user. Name it, for example, elms-storage.

Choose Attach policies directly → Create policy → JSON and paste the following (replace the bucket name):

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": ["s3:ListBucket", "s3:GetBucketLocation"],
      "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::my-elms-bucket"
    },
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": ["s3:GetObject", "s3:PutObject", "s3:DeleteObject"],
      "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::my-elms-bucket/*"
    }
  ]
}

Attach this policy to the user and finish creating it.
Open the user → Security credentials → Create access key → choose Application running outside AWS.
Copy the Access key ID and the Secret access key. The secret is shown only once, so save it now.

5. Enter the details in eLMS

In Settings → System → Storage, choose Amazon S3 and fill in:

eLMS field	What to enter
S3 Access Key ID	The access key ID from step 4.
S3 Secret Access Key	The secret access key from step 4.
S3 Bucket Name	Your bucket name, for example `my-elms-bucket`.
AWS Region	The bucket region, for example `ap-south-1`.
Custom S3 Endpoint	Leave empty for Amazon S3. Use it only for S3-compatible services such as Wasabi or MinIO.

Click Test Connection, then Submit. See After saving.

Option B: Cloudflare R2

1. Create the bucket

Sign in to the Cloudflare dashboard and open R2 Object Storage. (You may need to add a payment method first. R2 has a free tier.)
Click Create bucket, enter a name (for example my-r2-bucket) and create it.

2. Copy your Account ID

On the R2 Object Storage overview page, copy the Account ID (a 32-character value). It is also shown in the dashboard under Account Overview.

3. Create an API token (access keys)

On the R2 overview page, click Manage R2 API Tokens → Create API token.
Set the permission to Object Read & Write.
Under Specify bucket(s), choose your bucket (recommended), then click Create API Token.
Copy the Access Key ID and Secret Access Key. The secret is shown only once.

4. Make files publicly readable

Open the bucket → Settings → Public access. Choose one:

R2.dev subdomain: click Allow Access. You get a URL like https://pub-xxxxxxxx.r2.dev. Good for testing.
Custom domain (recommended for production): click Connect Domain and use a domain or subdomain on your Cloudflare account, for example https://cdn.yourdomain.com.

Copy this public URL. You will paste it into eLMS as R2 Public URL.

5. Add the CORS policy (important)

Open the bucket → Settings → CORS Policy → Add CORS policy, and paste the following (replace the domains):

[
  {
    "AllowedOrigins": [
      "https://yourdomain.com",
      "https://www.yourdomain.com",
      "https://admin.yourdomain.com"
    ],
    "AllowedMethods": ["GET", "HEAD", "PUT", "POST", "DELETE"],
    "AllowedHeaders": ["*"],
    "ExposeHeaders": ["ETag", "Content-Length", "Content-Range"],
    "MaxAgeSeconds": 3000
  }
]

6. Enter the details in eLMS

In Settings → System → Storage, choose Cloudflare R2 and fill in:

eLMS field	What to enter
R2 Access Key ID	The access key ID from step 3.
R2 Secret Access Key	The secret access key from step 3.
R2 Bucket Name	Your bucket name, for example `my-r2-bucket`.
Cloudflare Account ID	The 32-character account ID from step 2.
R2 S3 API Endpoint	Filled in automatically from the Account ID (`https://<account-id>.r2.cloudflarestorage.com`). Change it only if you use a custom endpoint.
R2 Public URL	The public URL from step 4, for example `https://cdn.yourdomain.com`. Without it, files may not load on the website.

Click Test Connection, then Submit.

After saving

Make sure the connection shows Online & Connected at the top of the Storage tab.
Upload a small test lecture or image and open it on the website to confirm it loads.
The new driver applies to newly uploaded files. To move existing files, use the File Migration Tool (Settings → File Migration): click Scan & Sync Files, then migrate. Migration runs in the background, so make sure your queue workers are running.
Keep the old files until you have checked that everything loads from the bucket.

note

If the cloud settings are incomplete or invalid, eLMS automatically falls back to Local Disk so the site keeps working. If your files are still going to your server after you saved, the credentials are probably wrong. Run Test Connection again.

Troubleshooting Storage and Course Errors

Most problems come from three things: CORS, public access and wrong keys.

Course video or image does not load on the website (CORS error)

Symptom: The player stays black or spins, images are missing, and the browser console (press F12 → Console) shows a message like blocked by CORS policy: No 'Access-Control-Allow-Origin' header.

Fix:

Add or correct the CORS rule on the bucket (see the steps above for S3 or R2).
AllowedOrigins must contain the exact web domain, with https:// and no trailing slash. Add both the www and non-www versions if you use both.
Allow the GET and HEAD methods, and expose Content-Range and Content-Length, which the video player needs.
Wait a minute, then hard refresh the page (Ctrl + Shift + R). Cloudflare and browsers may cache the old response.

HLS video does not play, or `.m3u8` / `.ts` files are blocked

HLS videos are loaded as many small files by the player in the browser, so each file must be allowed by CORS.

Apply the CORS rule above to the same bucket that stores the encoded videos.
If you use a custom domain on R2 or CloudFront, make sure the CORS headers are not removed by a caching or transform rule.
Check that elms-video-encoding is RUNNING (see Queue Setup).

`403 Forbidden` or `AccessDenied` when opening a file

S3: Untick Block all public access on the bucket and add the public read bucket policy. Also check that the bucket name in the policy matches exactly.
R2: Turn on Public access (R2.dev subdomain or a custom domain) and put that URL in R2 Public URL.

`Connection failed` when you click Test Connection

Message	Cause and fix
`The AWS Access Key Id you provided does not exist`	Wrong access key ID, or the key was deleted. Create a new key.
`SignatureDoesNotMatch`	Wrong secret key, or extra spaces when pasting. Paste it again without spaces.
`AccessDenied` / `not authorized`	The IAM user or R2 token has no write permission. Check the IAM policy or choose Object Read & Write for R2.
`NoSuchBucket`	Wrong bucket name. Names are case-sensitive.
`The bucket you are attempting to access must be addressed using the specified endpoint`	Wrong AWS Region. Use the exact region of the bucket.
`Could not resolve host` / timeout	Wrong or incomplete Account ID or endpoint (R2), or your server blocks outgoing connections.
`Configuration is incomplete`	A required field is empty.

Files are still saved on my server

The cloud credentials are missing or invalid, so eLMS fell back to Local Disk. Fix the keys, run Test Connection, then submit again. Check storage/logs/laravel.log for the exact error.

Video upload fails or is very slow

Check Maximum Video Upload Size in Settings → System → General, and your server's upload_max_filesize and post_max_size.
Make sure the video-process queue worker is running. It moves the uploaded file to the bucket (see Queue Setup).
Make sure the CORS rule allows PUT and POST, and your server date and time are correct (a wrong clock causes signature errors).

Images load on the admin panel but not on the website (or the other way round)

Add both domains to AllowedOrigins: your website and your admin panel.

Mixed content error (`blocked: mixed content`)

Your website uses https:// but the file URL starts with http://. Use an https:// custom domain or the R2.dev https URL, and an HTTPS endpoint.

Making sure the website can read bucket data

The Next.js website loads images, videos and HLS files directly from the bucket in the visitor's browser. For this to work:

Public read is enabled on the bucket (S3 bucket policy, or R2 public access).
CORS lists the exact web domain (https://yourdomain.com).
If you use image optimisation in Next.js, add the bucket host to the allowed image domains in your web project's next.config.js:
```
images: {
  remotePatterns: [
    { protocol: 'https', hostname: 'my-elms-bucket.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com' },
    { protocol: 'https', hostname: 'cdn.yourdomain.com' },
  ],
},
```
Use your own bucket host or CDN domain, then rebuild and redeploy the web project.
If you have a Content Security Policy, allow the bucket domain in img-src and media-src.

To check from the command line, replace the URL with a real file URL from your bucket and the origin with your web domain:

curl -I -H "Origin: https://yourdomain.com" https://cdn.yourdomain.com/path/to/file.jpg

The response should be 200 OK and include access-control-allow-origin: https://yourdomain.com. If that header is missing, the CORS rule is not applied.

Security

Use a dedicated key for eLMS with access to one bucket only.
Never commit keys to Git or share them in screenshots.
If a key is exposed, delete it in AWS or Cloudflare and create a new one.

Before you start​

Option A: Amazon S3​

1. Create the bucket​

2. Allow public read of files​

3. Add the CORS rule (important)​

4. Create an access key​

5. Enter the details in eLMS​

Option B: Cloudflare R2​

1. Create the bucket​

2. Copy your Account ID​

3. Create an API token (access keys)​

4. Make files publicly readable​

5. Add the CORS policy (important)​

6. Enter the details in eLMS​

After saving​

Troubleshooting Storage and Course Errors​

Course video or image does not load on the website (CORS error)​

HLS video does not play, or .m3u8 / .ts files are blocked​

403 Forbidden or AccessDenied when opening a file​

Connection failed when you click Test Connection​

Files are still saved on my server​

Video upload fails or is very slow​

Images load on the admin panel but not on the website (or the other way round)​

Mixed content error (blocked: mixed content)​

Making sure the website can read bucket data​

Before you start

Option A: Amazon S3

1. Create the bucket

2. Allow public read of files

3. Add the CORS rule (important)

4. Create an access key

5. Enter the details in eLMS

Option B: Cloudflare R2

1. Create the bucket

2. Copy your Account ID

3. Create an API token (access keys)

4. Make files publicly readable

5. Add the CORS policy (important)

6. Enter the details in eLMS

After saving

Troubleshooting Storage and Course Errors

Course video or image does not load on the website (CORS error)

HLS video does not play, or `.m3u8` / `.ts` files are blocked

`403 Forbidden` or `AccessDenied` when opening a file

`Connection failed` when you click Test Connection

Files are still saved on my server

Video upload fails or is very slow

Images load on the admin panel but not on the website (or the other way round)

Mixed content error (`blocked: mixed content`)

Making sure the website can read bucket data