---
title: "Delete a bucket"
description: "Empty a bucket's objects or delete the bucket outright, and clear what blocks a delete when it fails."
content_type: "how-to"
product: "object-storage"
platform: "MyAccount"
url: "/myaccount/object-storage/how-to/delete-a-bucket/"
topic: ["manage-objects"]
---

# Delete a bucket

**Empty** clears every object out of a bucket while keeping the bucket itself; **Delete**
removes the bucket and everything in it. Both are on the bucket's **Actions** menu, and neither
can be undone. If you still need some of the data, copy it out first with a tool such as `mc`;
see [Connect with the mc client](/myaccount/object-storage/how-to/connect-with-the-mc-client/).

## Empty a bucket

Open the **Actions** menu, select **Empty**, and confirm. Every object in the bucket is
permanently deleted; the bucket stays and can be reused.

## Delete a bucket

Open the **Actions** menu, select **Delete**, and confirm. Deletion is processed in the
background and can take a while depending on how much data is in the bucket. When it finishes,
the bucket is gone from your bucket list.

## If the bucket will not delete

A default lock policy on the bucket, or an active replication rule with this bucket as the
source or the destination, each block deletion until cleared. A version under Legal Hold blocks
deleting that version, not the bucket itself; see
[Lock objects with Object Lock](/myaccount/object-storage/how-to/lock-objects-with-object-lock/)
to clear it. See
[Troubleshooting E2E Object Storage](/myaccount/object-storage/troubleshooting/object-storage/#my-bucket-will-not-delete)
for exactly what to check.

To remove old objects on a schedule instead, without deleting the bucket, see
[Set a lifecycle rule](/myaccount/object-storage/how-to/set-a-lifecycle-rule/).