EC2 EBS volume shows "no attachments" but still "in-use". Won't detach or force-detach

Question

I have an EC2 EBS volume that won't detach or force-detach

```
D:\repos> aws ec2 describe-volumes
{
    "Volumes": [
        {
            "AvailabilityZone": "us-east-1b",
            "Attachments": [],
            "Encrypted": false,
            "VolumeType": "standard",
            "VolumeId": "vol-cd8365a4",
            "State": "in-use",
            "SnapshotId": "",
            "CreateTime": "2009-03-17T23:20:21.000Z",
            "Size": 20
        }
    ]
}
```

I have no instances running in us-east-1b, so it can't be attached to anything. It won't detach or force detach.

If I try to detach it, it says the volume is 'in-use'

```
D:\repos> aws ec2 delete-volume --volume-id vol-cd8365a4

An error occurred (IncorrectState) when calling the DeleteVolume operation: The volume 'vol-cd8365a4' is 'in-use'
D:\repos>
```

If I try to force detach it, it says the volume is in the 'available state'

```
D:\repos> aws ec2 detach-volume --force --volume-id vol-cd8365a4

An error occurred (IncorrectState) when calling the DetachVolume operation: Volume 'vol-cd8365a4' is in the 'available' state.
D:\repos>
```

Is there anyway to get rid of this? I'm being billed monthly for it.

Thrill Science · Accepted Answer

I found the answer!

I was doing nothing wrong, and Amazon had a bug. I was able to get someone at Amazon tech support to kick the thing for me and unstick it. Because I don't pay for support, I filed an issue with "billing" as I was being billed for a volime that couldn't be deleted.

EC2 "volumes" really do get stuck and can't be force-detached and the only option is to get technical support from Amazon.

larryjkl · Answer

Are you able to get more details about the volume using AWS Config? A query something like the below and then looking at the configuration to see if it gives you any additional data?

```
SELECT
  resourceId,  resourceName,  resourceType,  tags,  configuration
WHERE
  resourceType = 'AWS::EC2::Volume'
  and resourceId = 'vol-cd8365a4'
```

Steve_M · Answer

Just a thought, is your account's "home" region in your config/env settings the same region as the volume is in (us-east-1)? If it isn't then maybe append `--region us-east-1` to the command.

If you think this is superfluous then I agree, as Resource IDs should be globally unique. But it's surely worth a try.

EC2 EBS volume shows "no attachments" but still "in-use". Won't detach or force-detach

Relevant content