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# Delete a bucket

Deleting a bucket removes the bucket, all its files and all their versions. It cannot be undone, so copy anything you still need first. Access you gave sub-users to this bucket is removed too. Only the account owner can delete buckets.

## Delete a bucket

#### Select Delete Bucket

In the Zata console, open **Buckets** and select the bin icon (**Delete Bucket**) in the bucket's row. Inside a bucket, you can also use **Delete Bucket** in the **Bucket Details** panel.

![The Bucket List with an arrow pointing at the red bin icon in the Actions column](/_fern-img/c1409cece087fb8dfb68f2c98f68bd3a0834b074e1370762857a2539ba140c40.webp)

#### Confirm the name

Type the bucket name exactly as shown and select **Delete Bucket**.

![The Delete Bucket window with the bucket name typed in and the Delete Bucket button](/_fern-img/7bd038962891eebb339b45339e73fb1ec556ee1b566f53234d15d7892ca6423c.webp)

#### Delete the contents (if the bucket is not empty)

If the bucket still holds files, the console shows **Force Delete Required**. Select **Delete All Contents** to delete every file and every version, then the bucket.

## If the bucket will not delete

| You see                                                                | Why                                                                                                     | What to do                                                                                                                                                                                           |
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Cannot delete bucket while uploads are in progress**                 | The bucket has an unfinished multipart upload. Uploads that were stopped and never cancelled count too. | Wait for running uploads to finish. Remove stopped ones with a [lifecycle rule](/buckets/lifecycle-rules) (**Discard unfinished uploads**) or with an S3 tool ([below](#cancel-unfinished-uploads)). |
| **This bucket has Object Lock enabled, so it cannot be force-deleted** | **Delete All Contents** is not available for buckets with [Object Lock](/buckets/object-lock/overview)  | Delete the files yourself (locked versions only after their lock ends), then delete the empty bucket                                                                                                 |
| The deletion fails or takes too long                                   | The bucket holds a very large number of files                                                           | Empty it first: see [Delete a large bucket](/buckets/delete-a-large-bucket)                                                                                                                          |

### Cancel unfinished uploads

With the AWS CLI and the bucket owner's key, list the unfinished uploads, then cancel each one with its `Key` and `UploadId` from the list:

```bash
aws s3api list-multipart-uploads --bucket my-bucket --profile zata
aws s3api abort-multipart-upload --bucket my-bucket --key KEY --upload-id UPLOAD_ID --profile zata
```

After a bucket is deleted, its name can be used again.