Troubleshooting Cloud Object Storage for projects

Symptoms

When you create a project, the following error occurs:

Error retrieving Administrator API key token for your Cloud Object Storage instance

Possible Causes

• You have not been assigned the Editor role in the IBM Cloud account.

Possible Resolutions

The account administrator must complete the following tasks:

• Invite users to the IBM Cloud account and assign the Editor role. See Add non-administrative users to your IBM Cloud account.

Symptoms

When you create a project and associate it to a Cloud Object Storage instance, the following error occurs:

Unable to configure credentials for your project in the selected Cloud Object Storage instance.

Possible Causes

• You have exceeded the access policy limit for the account.

Possible Resolutions

For exceeding access policies:

1. Verify that you are the owner of the Cloud Object Storage instance or that the owner has granted you Administrator and Manager roles for this service instance. Otherwise, ask your IBM Cloud administrator to fix this problem.
2. Check the total number of access policies to determine whether you have reached a limit. See IBM Cloud IAM limits for the limit information.
3. Delete at least 4 or more unused access policies for the service ID.

See Reducing time and effort managing access for strategies that you can use to ensure that you don't reach the limit.

Symptoms

When you create or work with a project, the following error occurs:

User login from given IP address is not permitted. The user has configured IP address restriction for login. The given IP address 'XX.XXX.XXX.XX' is not contained in the list of allowed IP addresses.

Possible Causes

Restrict IP address access has been configured to allow specific IP addresses access to watsonx.ai Studio. The IP address of the computer you are using is not allowed.

Possible Resolutions

Add the IP address to the allowed IP addresses, if your security qualifications allow it. See Allow specific IP addresses.

Symptoms

When you create a project, the following error occurs:

Project cannot be created.

Possible Causes

The Cloud Object Storage instance is not available, due to the Global location is not enabled for your services. Cloud Object Storage requires the Global location.

Possible Resolutions

Enable the Global location in your account profile. From your account, click your avatar and select Profile and settings to open your profile. Under Service Filters > Locations, check the Global location as well as other locations where services are present. See Manage your profile.

Symptoms

When you create or work with a project, one or more service instances are not visible. This issue can manifest in one or more of the following ways:

• An error such as “service instance not found” is displayed.
• Cloud Object Storage or other service instances do not appear during project creation.

Possible Causes

• An incorrect IBM Cloud account is selected.
• Filters applied for resource group or location do not include the service instance.
• Filters under the user profile settings are misconfigured.
• Stale browser cache or cookies.
• A UI-related issue, such as hardcoded service mappings.
• A mismatch between data returned by the API and what is displayed in the UI.

Possible Resolutions

Follow the steps below to diagnose and resolve the issue:

1. Verify the service instance in IBM Cloud

Ensure that the service instance is visible in the IBM Cloud Resource List.

2. Check account selection

Confirm that the account selected in the account dropdown matches the account used in https://dataplatform.cloud.ibm.com/.

3. Validate filters

Ensure that the following filters are applied:

• Resource group: Default
• Location: Leave empty or select Global and Dallas (us-south)

4. Check profile and settings filters

Navigate to Profile and Settings and ensure that the filters are configured correctly.

5. Clear browser cache

Clear your browser cache and cookies, and then retry the operation.

6. Validate service instances using the API

To determine whether the issue is related to the UI or the API, run the following API call. The API should return the same service instances that appear in the IBM Cloud Resource List.

curl --location 'https://api.global-search-tagging.cloud.ibm.com/v3/resources/search?account_id=<account-id>&limit=1000' \
--header 'Authorization: <token>' \
--header 'json: true' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data '{
  "query": "((region:global OR region:us-south) AND ((type:cf-service-instance AND (organization_guid:undefined)) OR (type:resource-instance))) AND (service_name:placeholder OR service_name:aiopenscale OR service_name:conversation OR service_name:discovery OR service_name:language-translator OR service_name:natural-language-understanding OR service_name:speech-to-text OR service_name:text-to-speech OR service_name:tone-analyzer OR service_name:predictive-modeling OR service_name:data-science-experience OR service_name:datacatalog OR service_name:datacatalog-broker-ys1prod OR service_name:datacatalog-broker-ypprod OR service_name:pm-20 OR service_name:pm-20-devops OR service_name:code-assistant OR service_name:cloud-object-storage OR service_name:cloudantnosqldb OR service_name:databases-for-mongodb OR service_name:databases-for-postgresql OR service_name:dashdb OR service_name:dashdb-for-transactions OR service_name:securegateway OR service_name:messagehub OR service_name:sql-query OR service_name:data-replication OR service_name:mdm-oc OR service_name:ibmanalyticsengine OR service_name:spark OR service_name:databases-for-enterprisedb OR service_name:databases-for-elasticsearch OR service_name:databases-for-cassandra OR service_name:cognos-analytics OR service_name:data-virtualization OR service_name:datastage OR service_name:data-warehouse OR service_name:planning-analytics OR service_name:lakehouse OR service_name:data-product-hub OR service_name:watsonx-intelligence OR service_name:watsonx-data-integration)",
  "fields": [
    "crn",
    "service_instance",
    "service_name",
    "doc.*",
    "name",
    "type",
    "region",
    "creation_date",
    "modification_date",
    "organization_guid"
  ]
}'

Expected sample response:

{
  "items": [
    {
      "type": "resource-instance",
      "id": "instance-id-1",
      "name": "example-service-1",
      "service_name": "service-type",
      "region": "us-south",
      "state": "active",
      "creation_date": "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z",
      "modification_date": "2026-01-01T00:10:00Z",
      "crn": "crn:v1:example",
      "doc": {
        "resource_group_id": "resource-group-id",
        "resource_plan_id": "plan-id",
        "created_at": "2026-01-01T00:00:00Z",
        "updated_at": "2026-01-01T00:10:00Z",
        "account_id": "account-id",
        "state": "active",
        "region_id": "us-south",
        "parameters": {},
        "last_operation": {
          "type": "create",
          "state": "succeeded",
          "description": "Completed create instance operation"
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "type": "resource-instance",
      "id": "instance-id-2",
      "name": "example-service-2",
      "service_name": "another-service",
      "region": "global",
      "state": "active",
      "creation_date": "2026-02-01T00:00:00Z",
      "modification_date": "2026-02-01T00:05:00Z",
      "crn": "crn:v1:example2",
      "doc": {
        "resource_group_id": "resource-group-id",
        "resource_plan_id": "plan-id",
        "created_at": "2026-02-01T00:00:00Z",
        "updated_at": "2026-02-01T00:05:00Z",
        "account_id": "account-id",
        "state": "active",
        "region_id": "global",
        "parameters": {},
        "last_operation": {
          "type": "create",
          "state": "succeeded",
          "description": "Completed create instance operation"
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

7. Service instances not visible on the Upgrade page

If service instances appear in the IBM Cloud Resource List with the correct filters, but do not appear on the Upgrade page, the UI is likely using hardcoded service mappings. Contact the UI team to investigate.