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GKE

GKE image pull failed with 401 Unauthorized

401 Unauthorized

A Google Kubernetes Engine image pull failed with 401 Unauthorized because the node service account or registry credentials are invalid, disabled, or missing.

401 Unauthorizedauthentication

Observed message

401 Unauthorized

Why it happens

  • The node service account is disabled or lacks the required registry permissions.
  • Registry credentials or imagePullSecret configuration are missing or invalid.
  • The workload is pulling from a private registry without correct authentication.

How to fix it

  1. Verify that the node service account is active and has the required permissions.
  2. Check imagePullSecret configuration for private registry access.
  3. Retry after confirming the registry credentials and workload configuration.

Official reference

Google Cloud: Troubleshoot image pulls in GKE

Related errors

0/1 nodes are available: 1 node(s) didn't have free ports for the requested pod ports.GKE could not schedule the pod because nodes did not have free requested pod portsi/o timeoutGKE image pull failed with i/o timeoutNotReadyGKE node entered NotReady statusImagePullBackOffGKE pod failed to pull its container image

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GKE image pull 401 Unauthorized: causes and fixes | Error Atlas