File Appears Deleted Despite Object Lock and Retention – Due to Delete Marker in S3-Compatible Storage (4379096)

In S3-compatible storage, files may appear deleted or missing even when Object Lock and Compliance Retention are enabled on the bucket.

This can be confusing, especially in regulated environments where data is expected to be immutable and protected against deletion.

This behavior is expected in versioned S3 buckets. When a user deletes a file, Amazon S3 does not remove the actual object. Instead, it creates a delete marker, which becomes the latest version of the object.

With a delete marker in place:

• The file appears missing in standard object listings.

• The actual, locked object versions still exist and remain protected by Object Lock and retention policies.

1. Use a version-aware tool (such as the AWS Management Console or AWS CLI) to view all versions of the object.

1. Identify the delete marker.

2. Delete the delete marker to restore visibility of the object in the bucket.

How to Delete a Delete Marker:

AWS provides detailed instructions here:
Managing Delete Markers – Amazon S3 Documentation

⚠️ Deleting a delete marker does not violate Object Lock — it simply restores visibility of the locked object version.