Deleting - Upstash Documentation

This page covers del, which deletes one path, a list of paths, or everything under a prefix, and the calls that clean up multipart uploads that were never completed.

import { bucket } from "@/lib/blob"

await bucket.del("avatars/me.png")                   // one path
await bucket.del(["a.png", "b.png", "c.png"])        // an array of paths
await bucket.del({ prefix: "tmp/" })                 // everything under a prefix

All three shapes resolve to Promise<void> and treat “already gone” as success. They differ in how many requests they make and what they throw when storage refuses part of the work.

type DeleteTarget = string | string[] | { prefix: string; all?: boolean }

Anything else is refused with invalid_input. A path with a . or .. segment throws a TypeError; see Paths. The upload handler also deletes on its own: a throw out of onUploadComplete, or a cancel() from the browser, removes the object that upload wrote. See onUploadComplete.

One path

await bucket.del("drafts/9f3c.txt")
await bucket.del("drafts/9f3c.txt")  // still no throw

One DELETE request. A 404 counts as success, so a delete is safe to run from a retried job or an at-least-once queue consumer. Any other failure throws; see Errors. del never says whether anything was there. To find out, call bucket.exists(path) first.

An array

import { BlobError } from "@upstash/blob"

try {
  await bucket.del(paths)
} catch (e) {
  if (BlobError.is(e) && e.code === "partial_delete") {
    await requeue(e.failed ?? [])  // the paths still in the bucket, verified one by one
    return
  }
  throw e
}

Sent as batch deletes in chunks of 1000 paths, so a 5000-path array is five requests. A bad path fails the chunk it is in; earlier chunks have already run. When storage reports keys as failed, the SDK re-checks each one and keeps only the paths still there. If any survive, del throws partial_delete with them in failed. Everything not in failed was deleted. To recover, retry with e.failed. Use BlobError.is(e), never instanceof. See Errors.

A prefix

await bucket.del({ prefix: "users/7/tmp/" })

Pages through list() at 1000 objects per page and batch-deletes each page as it goes. A prefix with 100,000 objects is 100 list requests and 100 batch deletes, run one after another. It is not atomic; objects written under the prefix while it runs may or may not be caught. Failures work as for an array. Survivors from every page are collected and thrown as partial_delete.

del({ prefix: '' }) would match every object in the bucket, so an empty prefix is refused with invalid_input. This protects against an unset variable or an empty form field. To wipe the bucket on purpose, say so:

await bucket.del({ prefix: "", all: true })

all is only consulted for the empty prefix.

`move` leaves a copy on failure

import { BlobError } from "@upstash/blob"

try {
  await bucket.move("tmp/9f3c", "avatars/7.png")
} catch (e) {
  if (BlobError.is(e) && e.code === "move_left_a_copy") {
    // avatars/7.png exists and is correct. tmp/9f3c is also still there.
    await bucket.del("tmp/9f3c")  // retry the source delete, not the move
    return
  }
  throw e
}

move is a copy followed by a delete, because storage has no rename. If the copy fails, nothing changed and you get the copy’s error. If the copy succeeds and the delete fails, move throws move_left_a_copy and keeps the destination, so you have two objects rather than none. The original error is on cause.

Incomplete multipart uploads

A multipart upload becomes an object only when it is completed. Until then its parts are billed storage that list() cannot see, and the bucket cannot be deleted while one exists. A browser tab closed mid-upload leaves exactly this behind. bucket.put() and a browser cancel() abort their own uploads on failure. Anything else needs a sweep. The cron that runs it is on Abandoned uploads; the calls it uses are below.

listMultipartUploads

const uploads = await bucket.listMultipartUploads({ prefix: "uploads/" })
// [{ path: 'uploads/big.mp4', uploadId: 'ABC...', initiatedAt: Date }, ...]

Returns every upload started and neither completed nor aborted, paging internally until it has them all. prefix is optional.

Field	Meaning
`path`	The key the upload was started for. Nothing is stored there yet.
`uploadId`	Storage’s id for the upload, needed to abort it.
`initiatedAt`	When it was started. What “stale” is measured against.

abortMultipartUpload

await bucket.abortMultipartUpload({ path: "uploads/big.mp4", uploadId: "ABC..." })

Throws the upload away with every part that landed for it. An upload that is already gone counts as success. An empty uploadId is refused with invalid_input. onUploadComplete receives multipartUploadId for exactly this pair. Store it with your row and you can abort a specific upload later without listing the bucket. It is undefined for a single PUT.

abortStaleMultipartUploads

const aborted = await bucket.abortStaleMultipartUploads({
  olderThan: "1d",
  prefix: "uploads/",
})
// [{ path, uploadId, initiatedAt }, ...]

List plus abort in one call, meant for a cron. olderThan is required, a Duration. Only uploads started longer ago than that are touched, so a window longer than your slowest upload never aborts one still running. A day is a reasonable default.

An abandoned upload under the multipart threshold is not a multipart upload. It is an ordinary stored object that list() can see, and none of the calls above can find it. See Abandoned uploads.

Error codes

Code	Raised by
`partial_delete`	An array or prefix delete where objects survived. `failed` lists them.
`move_left_a_copy`	`move`, when the source delete failed.
`invalid_input`	A bad `DeleteTarget`, an empty prefix without `all`, an empty `uploadId`.

del never raises not_found. Statuses and extra fields are on Errors.

​One path

​An array

​A prefix

​move leaves a copy on failure

​Incomplete multipart uploads

​listMultipartUploads

​abortMultipartUpload

​abortStaleMultipartUploads

​Error codes

One path

An array

A prefix

`move` leaves a copy on failure

Incomplete multipart uploads

listMultipartUploads

abortMultipartUpload

abortStaleMultipartUploads

Error codes