How to fix Error: Moved block with source resource that has count or for_each in Terraform

First, modify the resource definition to remove the count or for_each meta-argument. If you have multiple instances created by count or for_each, you'll need to handle each instance individually in the next steps.

# Before:
resource "aws_instance" "web" {
  count = 3
  # ...
}

# After:
resource "aws_instance" "web" {
  # remove count = 3
  # ...
}

If you had multiple instances from count or for_each, you must create separate moved blocks for each one. Map the old indexed references to new addresses.

moved {
  from = aws_instance.web[0]
  to   = aws_instance.web_primary
}

moved {
  from = aws_instance.web[1]
  to   = aws_instance.web_secondary
}

For large-scale migrations with many count or for_each instances, use the terraform state mv command to handle the refactoring before applying configuration changes. This bypasses the moved block limitation.

terraform state mv 'aws_instance.web[0]' 'aws_instance.web_primary'
terraform state mv 'aws_instance.web[1]' 'aws_instance.web_secondary'

Alternatively, generate the moved blocks using an external script to avoid manual errors.

After removing count/for_each and creating moved blocks, run terraform plan to verify that the changes will update the state correctly.

terraform plan

The plan should show that resources will be moved in the state without being destroyed and recreated. You should see entries indicating the moved resources with no creation or deletion.

Once the plan looks correct and shows moved entries with no destroys, apply the configuration to update the Terraform state.

terraform apply