Lock one object version or place a legal hold

Protect one version of an object with its own governance lock, a legal hold, or both. A legal hold stays until someone removes it.

Before you begin

• A bucket created with object lock, and an object version in it; see Set a default object lock on a bucket.
• Permission to update datasets in the project. A Member gets it through a policy that allows updating datasets. To view a version’s lock settings, read permission is enough.
• The Owner or an Admin role, if you need to change or remove a governance lock. Only these two roles can change or remove one.

Open the lock settings

1. On the Data Objects tab, select the View Versions button on the object’s row.
2. In Object Versions, open the version’s Actions and select Lock Settings. You can lock a version only in a bucket with object lock, on any version except a delete marker.

Lock Settings has two kinds of lock: Legal Hold and Governance Lock.

Place a legal hold

Select Enable legal hold. A legal hold stops the version from being deleted or overwritten by anyone, or by a lifecycle rule, until someone selects Remove hold. A legal hold wins over governance: the version stays protected even after its retention has ended.

Set a governance lock

A governance lock protects the version from deletes and overwrites by lifecycle rules and by everyone other than the Owner or an Admin, until the retention ends.

1. Tick Enable governance lock on this version.
2. Enter the number of days. The field starts at 30.
3. Select Save changes.

Governance Lock then shows Retained until and the days left, which count down to 0. Use Edit to change the retention and Remove lock to remove the lock. Remove Governance Lock asks “Are you sure you want to remove the governance lock on the selected version? It can be deleted straight away afterwards.”

Delete a locked version

A version under retention or a legal hold is protected from deletion. To delete it, remove a legal hold in Lock Settings first. As the Owner or an Admin, you can also select I want to bypass the governance lock and delete this version in the Delete Version dialog.

A locked version stays protected until its lock ends. If a delete is refused, see Troubleshooting TIR Object Storage.