How to fix deposed object in Terraform

The simplest fix is to let Terraform try again. Run:

terraform apply

Terraform will attempt to destroy the deposed object in this run. If there were temporary API issues or network problems, this often succeeds. Monitor the output carefully to see if the deposed resource gets cleaned up.

This should be your first attempt — in many cases, transient failures resolve on retry.

Before removing from state, verify the old resource actually exists in your cloud provider:

- Check your AWS/GCP/Azure/etc console for the resource
- Look at resource IDs in terraform state to match them in your provider
- Run terraform show to see current state details

terraform show | grep -A 5 "deposed"

This confirms whether the resource is still running or already deleted externally.

If the old resource was manually deleted in your cloud provider but Terraform still thinks it exists, remove it from state:

terraform state rm 'resource_type.resource_name'

For example:

terraform state rm 'aws_instance.web_server'

Important: This removes BOTH the current and deposed versions from state. Only do this if the resource no longer exists in your infrastructure.

If you removed the resource from state but the infrastructure still exists and you want Terraform to manage it again:

terraform import resource_type.resource_name resource_id

For example:

terraform import aws_instance.web_server i-0123456789abcdef0

Check your provider documentation for the correct import syntax for your resource type.

If the resource is too problematic, you can replace it entirely:

1. Remove the resource from state:

terraform state rm 'resource_type.resource_name'

2. Manually delete the old resource in your cloud provider

3. Update your Terraform configuration with the new resource definition

4. Run terraform apply to create the new version:

terraform plan
terraform apply

This is the "clean slate" approach when other methods fail.