I am experiencing issues while deleting objects

Reviewed on July 16, 2025

Before you start

To complete the actions presented below, you must have:

• Owner status or IAM permissions allowing you to perform actions in the intended Organization

Problem

I am experiencing issues while deleting objects

Cause

• The object you are trying to delete is locked
• The bucket is versioned, and deleting an object adds a delete marker rather than deleting the object

Possible solutions

Object lock

Check if the object is locked using the HeadObject command. If it is locked with the Governance retention mode, you can bypass it with the DeleteObject command using the x-amz-bypass-governance-retention header. You must also specify the VersionId of the object, as buckets with object lock enabled are automatically versioned.

Bucket versioning

A DeleteObject operation on a versioned bucket with no VersionId specified will create a delete marker, and the targeted objects will keep existing. To permanently delete it, list all the versions with ListObjectVersions (you can specify the name of your object as a prefix), then use the DeleteObject operation on each version.

Going further

• Refer to the object lock documentation for more information.

• Refer to the bucket versioning documentation for more information.

• If you did not manage to identify the error and solve it by yourself, open a support ticket, and provide as many details as possible, along with the necessary information below:

  • Object Storage Endpoint (e.g. s3.fr-par.scw.cloud)
  • Bucket name
  • Object name (if the request concerns an object)
  • Request type (PUT, GET, etc.)
  • HTTP status code
  • Date and time (timestamp)
  • User-agent (SDK, client, console, etc.)
  • Transaction ID (if possible)
  • Log / trace of the error (if possible)