gcloud app deploy : This deployment has too many files

gcloud app deploy writes a log file, and tells you where that log is early in its output. Examine that log. It’ll tell you what’s being uploaded.

Two common ways I’ve seen people get into trouble are

1. Using virtualenv, but not adding venv (or .venv, if that’s the name you picked) to skip_files.
2. Using git, but forgetting to add .git to skip_files

For python runtime 3.7, this error is solved by adding these files to a .gcloudingore not to skip_files in the app.yaml

I was able to reduce my uploaded files by adding the google cloud sdk folder to .gcloudignore in the project root folder.

Few things:

1. Sometimes the static folder can get a bit messy. Try deleting it and rerunning python manage.py collectstatic, this cut down about 2000 files for me.
2. Make sure your .gcloudignore file ignores the assets folder, given they’ve just been moved to static.
3. Ignore virtualenv folders, they’re big

Maybe your need ignore some files in file .gcloudignore

/vendor/
/node_modules/
/.git/

This work for me!

As mentioned in some comment, virtualenv folder can have a lot of files.

I just added venv/ as a new line into .gcloudignore file.

I made a request to Google Cloud support, and this is their official response to this issue:

Thank you for contacting Google Cloud Support. I understand you’re
unable to deploy your app since you’re hitting a 10,000 file limit
upload as indicated in the error message, let me know if I
misunderstood.

GAE is unable to perform deployments with over 10,000 files. Please
run the following command to see the number of files being deployed:
find . -type f | wc -l. In case you see that the number is above
10,000; make sure to prevent unnecessary files from being deployed by
using the app.yaml option skip_files [1]. This element helps you to
indicate which files should not be uploaded [1].

If the error persists, there are two other ways to solve this problem:

1. If the files that you are using are static content, use Cloud Storage bucket to store your files. You can store them in a GCS bucket
   and serve them through App Engine [2]. When you create an app, App
   Engine creates a default bucket. To use it you will have to list the
   bucket in your project [3] and then declare Cloud Storage as a
   dependency by adding it to the app’s dependency files [4]. This will
   allow you to upload or download data from the buckets [5][6]. Please
   consider that using this alternative may impact your monthly expenses.

2. Increase the number of uploaded files by submitting a quota increase. To do so, I will require the following information which
   will be submitted to the product team so they can review it and make a
   decision on it: A business justification for this quota increase The
   new desired limit.

1. https://cloud.google.com/appengine/docs/standard/python/config/appref#skip_files
2. https://cloud.google.com/appengine/docs/standard/java/using-cloud-storage
3. https://cloud.google.com/storage/docs/listing-buckets
4. https://cloud.google.com/storage/docs/reference/libraries#installing_the_client_library
5. https://cloud.google.com/storage/docs/uploading-objects
6. https://cloud.google.com/storage/docs/downloading-objects

I had the same issue. Using .gcouldignore helped reduce from 15000 plus to 30.

 node_modules/
.gitignore
.git

Like other answers, my problem was that gcloud app deploy does not ignore virtual envs or node modules. The following helped me figure it out:

1. gcloud meta list-files-for-upload will show you the list of files that will be uploaded, without having to go through the deploy process.

2. Add the line:

   #!include:.gitignore
   

   to your .gcloudignore file, unless there are git-ignored files you want to upload. You can’t add .gitignore files from other directories, but this can get you a lot of the way there.

3. Add additional entries to .gcloudignore as needed until the list of files for upload is manageable.