Delete a large bucket

For most buckets, Delete All Contents in the console is enough: see Delete a bucket. A bucket with hundreds of thousands or millions of files can be too big for that. Empty it first with one of the methods below, then delete it.

Both methods delete files for good. Copy anything you still need before you start.

	Lifecycle rules (recommended)	rclone or AWS CLI
Runs on	The Zata storage cluster	Your computer or server
Takes	A few days (rules run once a day)	Minutes to hours, depending on the number of files
Works for	Any size, with or without versioning	Buckets where versioning was never turned on
You need	The Zata console	An access key, the tool, and a computer that stays on

Method 1: Lifecycle rules

The storage cluster deletes the files for you, so the size of the bucket does not matter.

Add a lifecycle rule

Open the bucket’s settings, expand Lifecycle Rules and select Add lifecycle rule.

Tick the cleanup actions

Tick these actions and set each one to 1 day:

Expire objects
Discard unfinished uploads: unfinished uploads are hidden from the file list but still block deleting the bucket.
Clear old versions, if the bucket has or had versioning. Leave keep newest empty.

Select Next.

New lifecycle rule step 1 with Expire objects, Clear old versions and Discard unfinished uploads ticked

Apply it to the entire bucket

Choose Entire bucket and select Create rule. Do not use a filter: files outside it would stay and the bucket could not be deleted.

Step 2 with Entire bucket selected and the rule summary

Add a second rule for delete markers (versioned buckets only)

If the bucket has or had versioning, add another rule with only Tidy delete markers, for the Entire bucket. It cannot share a rule with Expire objects.

New lifecycle rule with only Tidy delete markers ticked

Wait, then delete the bucket

Rules run once a day, and in a versioned bucket each step follows the one before. Check the bucket every day. When it is empty (with Show Versions on, too), delete it.

In a bucket with Object Lock, locked versions are skipped until their lock ends.

Method 2: rclone or the AWS CLI

Use this for a bucket where versioning was never turned on. In a versioned bucket these commands only hide the files behind delete markers: the old versions stay and the bucket cannot be deleted. Use Method 1 for those.

rclone

AWS CLI

Create a zata remote with the account owner’s key from the bucket’s region (for Mumbai, use https://bom01.zata.ai). See rclone for details.

Create the remote

rclone config create zata s3 provider=Other access_key_id=YOUR_ACCESS_KEY secret_access_key=YOUR_SECRET_KEY region=us-east-1 endpoint=https://idr01.zata.ai force_path_style=true no_check_bucket=true sign_accept_encoding=false

Check what is in the bucket, then preview the deletion:

rclone size zata:my-bucket
rclone purge zata:my-bucket --dry-run

Delete all files and the bucket itself. There is no confirmation and no undo:

rclone purge zata:my-bucket --fast-list --checkers 32 -P

--checkers 32 deletes 32 files at a time, --fast-list lists the bucket with fewer requests and -P shows progress. To empty the bucket but keep it, use rclone delete zata:my-bucket -P instead.

Deleting millions of files can take hours. Run the command inside tmux or screen so that a dropped SSH connection does not stop it.

If the bucket still will not delete, it usually has unfinished uploads: see If the bucket will not delete.

Need help?

If a bucket does not empty, raise a support ticket with the bucket name, its region, roughly how many files it holds, the method you tried and the exact error.