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A guide for downloading your SMS contents

Why is this needed?

The technology on which The Streaming Media Service (SMS) is built has reached the end of its serviceable life. To manage the decommissioning process, we plan to offer institutions an export of media files and associated metadata from the SMS.

Uploads to the SMS were disabled in December 2024. Since this point a new 'read-only' version of the SMS has been available to support existing links embedded on external sites. This 'read-only' version of the SMS will be available until December 2025 at which point the SMS will be withdrawn.

Requesting media for bulk export

The deadline for requesting bulk export of SMS media files closes 31 January 2025.

Processing your request

After you have requested your bulk export, UIS will export your media files (including both public and private media) to a Google Cloud Platform storage bucket.

Once the export is completed, we will contact you with the following information:

  • Service Account Authentication Key file. This will be transferred via a secure system called 1Password.
  • A Service Account name. This will look like an e-mail in the format <inst>-service-account@sms-export-prod-b6e4d536.iam.gserviceaccount.com where <inst> is your institute or department.
  • A bucket name.

How to download your files

Below you will find instructions about how to download your files depending on your operating system.

Confirming your download

Once you have completed your download, please let us know so we can arrange for the bucket to be removed.

Warning

All buckets will be removed on 28 February 2025. We will contact you before this happens.

Other Questions

  • Can I use my cam.ac.uk account rather than a service account? Service accounts are our preferred method of authentication. These are not tied to a user and can be shared with authorised users to download their items. On request, we can give access to a specific Google Account. This is useful if you manage multiple departments or buckets. Please contact us with details of the CRSID and GCP bucket you wish to be added.

  • Are there any GUI-based tools we can use? There are also a number of graphical tools that support GCP, such as Cyberduck or FreeFileSync. We cannot give support on these tools, but they are being used by some departments.

Help and Support

Our preferred support method is by Gitlab issue, however you can also contact us via the UIS Service desk (servicedesk@uis.cam.ac.uk), or by using HEAT.