diff --git a/packages/api/src/utils/uploads.ts b/packages/api/src/utils/uploads.ts
index 2209a9139..e53fe079d 100644
--- a/packages/api/src/utils/uploads.ts
+++ b/packages/api/src/utils/uploads.ts
@@ -158,16 +158,16 @@ export const downloadStringFromBucket = async (
   filePath: string
 ): Promise<string | null> => {
   try {
-    const bucket = storage.bucket(bucketName)
+    const file = storage.bucket(bucketName).file(filePath)
 
-    const [exists] = await bucket.file(filePath).exists()
+    const [exists] = await file.exists()
     if (!exists) {
       logger.error(`File not found: ${filePath}`)
       return null
     }
 
     // Download the file contents as a string
-    const [data] = await bucket.file(filePath).download()
+    const [data] = await file.download()
     return data.toString()
   } catch (error) {
     logger.info('Error downloading file:', error)
diff --git a/packages/content-fetch/src/request_handler.ts b/packages/content-fetch/src/request_handler.ts
index 51283e497..706430063 100644
--- a/packages/content-fetch/src/request_handler.ts
+++ b/packages/content-fetch/src/request_handler.ts
@@ -54,10 +54,17 @@ const storage = process.env.GCS_UPLOAD_SA_KEY_FILE_PATH
 const bucketName = process.env.GCS_UPLOAD_BUCKET || 'omnivore-files'
 
 export const uploadToBucket = async (filename: string, data: string) => {
-  await storage
-    .bucket(bucketName)
-    .file(`originalContent/${filename}`)
-    .save(data, { public: false, timeout: 30000 })
+  const file = storage.bucket(bucketName).file(`originalContent/${filename}`)
+
+  // check if the file already exists
+  const [exists] = await file.exists()
+
+  if (exists) {
+    console.log('file already exists', filename)
+    return
+  }
+
+  await file.save(data, { public: false, timeout: 30000 })
 }
 
 const hash = (content: string) =>