diff --git a/frontend/server/handlers/artifacts.ts b/frontend/server/handlers/artifacts.ts
index b32a27c591c..64710a771b4 100644
--- a/frontend/server/handlers/artifacts.ts
+++ b/frontend/server/handlers/artifacts.ts
@@ -68,8 +68,10 @@ export function getArtifactsHandler(artifactsConfigs: {
         if (minio.useV3IO) {
           const protocol = minio.useSSL ? 'https' : 'http';
           const baseUrl = minio.endPoint + ':' + minio.port;
-          console.log('Using V3IO minio, redirecting to ', protocol.toUpperCase());
-          getHttpArtifactsHandler(getHttpUrl(protocol, baseUrl, bucket, key), http.auth)(req, res);
+          console.log(`Using V3IO minio, redirecting to ${protocol.toUpperCase()}`);
+
+          // forceDefaultAuth - do not use the personalized header when trying to get metadata artifacts
+          getHttpArtifactsHandler(getHttpUrl(protocol, baseUrl, bucket, key), http.auth, true)(req, res);
         } else {
           getMinioArtifactHandler({
             bucket,
@@ -89,7 +91,8 @@ export function getArtifactsHandler(artifactsConfigs: {
 
       case 'http':
       case 'https':
-        getHttpArtifactsHandler(getHttpUrl(source, http.baseUrl || '', bucket, key), http.auth)(
+        console.log(`Getting artifact from webapi with: ${http.auth} path: ${key}`);
+        getHttpArtifactsHandler(getHttpUrl(source, http.baseUrl || '', bucket, key), http.auth, false)(
           req,
           res,
         );
@@ -121,15 +124,22 @@ function getHttpArtifactsHandler(
     key: string;
     defaultValue: string;
   } = { key: '', defaultValue: '' },
+  forceDefaultAuth: boolean,
 ) {
   return async (req: Request, res: Response) => {
     const headers = {};
 
     // add authorization header to fetch request if key is non-empty
     if (auth.key.length > 0) {
-      // inject original request's value if exists, otherwise default to provided default value
-      headers[auth.key] =
-        req.headers[auth.key] || req.headers[auth.key.toLowerCase()] || auth.defaultValue;
+      if (forceDefaultAuth) {
+
+        // force using default auth
+        headers[auth.key] = auth.defaultValue;
+      } else {
+
+        // inject original request's value if exists, otherwise default to provided default value
+        headers[auth.key] = req.headers[auth.key] || req.headers[auth.key.toLowerCase()] || auth.defaultValue;
+      }
     }
     const response = await fetch(url, { headers });
     const content = await response.buffer();
diff --git a/frontend/src/lib/Apis.ts b/frontend/src/lib/Apis.ts
index 540a783abdc..c614056d9bf 100644
--- a/frontend/src/lib/Apis.ts
+++ b/frontend/src/lib/Apis.ts
@@ -329,13 +329,22 @@ export class Apis {
             `Path: ${path} is a compressed file. Decompressing`,
         );
         const responseBuffer = await response.arrayBuffer();
-        let responseUint8array = gzip.unzip(Buffer.from(responseBuffer));
-        responseText = new TextDecoder("utf-8").decode(Buffer.from(responseUint8array));
-
-        // cleanup and extract contents only
-        let startIndex = responseText.indexOf("{");
-        let endIndex = responseText.lastIndexOf("}");
-        responseText = responseText.substring(startIndex, endIndex + 1);
+        try {
+          let responseUint8array = gzip.unzip(Buffer.from(responseBuffer));
+          responseText = new TextDecoder("utf-8").decode(Buffer.from(responseUint8array));
+
+          // cleanup and extract contents only
+          let startIndex = responseText.indexOf("{");
+          let endIndex = responseText.lastIndexOf("}");
+          responseText = responseText.substring(startIndex, endIndex + 1);
+        } catch (e) {
+          responseText = new TextDecoder("utf-8").decode(Buffer.from(responseBuffer));
+
+          // just log and return the response text
+          Utils.logger.error(
+              `Failed to decompress file: ${path}. \nError: ${e}\nContents: ${responseText}`,
+          );
+        }
       } else {
         responseText = await response.text();
       }
diff --git a/frontend/src/lib/GkeMetadata.tsx b/frontend/src/lib/GkeMetadata.tsx
index 9b237fea009..2bee939116e 100644
--- a/frontend/src/lib/GkeMetadata.tsx
+++ b/frontend/src/lib/GkeMetadata.tsx
@@ -1,6 +1,4 @@
-import React, { FC, useState, useEffect } from 'react';
-import { logger, extendError } from './Utils';
-import { Apis } from './Apis';
+import React, { FC, useState } from 'react';
 
 export interface GkeMetadata {
   projectId?: string;
@@ -9,13 +7,13 @@ export interface GkeMetadata {
 export const GkeMetadataContext = React.createContext<GkeMetadata>({});
 export const GkeMetadataProvider: FC<{}> = props => {
   const [metadata, setMetadata] = useState({});
-  useEffect(() => {
-    Apis.getClusterName()
-      .then(clusterName => setMetadata(metadata => ({ ...metadata, clusterName })))
-      .catch(err => logger.warn(extendError(err, 'Failed getting GKE cluster name')));
-    Apis.getProjectId()
-      .then(projectId => setMetadata(metadata => ({ ...metadata, projectId })))
-      .catch(err => logger.warn(extendError(err, 'Failed getting GKE project ID')));
-  }, []);
+  // useEffect(() => {
+  //   Apis.getClusterName()
+  //     .then(clusterName => setMetadata(metadata => ({ ...metadata, clusterName })))
+  //     .catch(err => logger.warn(extendError(err, 'Failed getting GKE cluster name')));
+  //   Apis.getProjectId()
+  //     .then(projectId => setMetadata(metadata => ({ ...metadata, projectId })))
+  //     .catch(err => logger.warn(extendError(err, 'Failed getting GKE project ID')));
+  // }, []);
   return <GkeMetadataContext.Provider value={metadata} {...props} />;
 };