---
page_title: terraform untaint command reference
description: |-
  The `terraform untaint` command removes the `tainted` status from infrastructure objects tracked in the Terraform state data.
---

# `terraform untaint` command

This topic provides reference information about the `terraform untaint` command.

## Introduction

Terraform has a marker called `tainted` which it uses to track that an object
might be damaged and so a future Terraform plan ought to replace it.

Terraform automatically marks an object as "tainted" if an error occurs during
a multi-step "create" action, because Terraform can't be sure that the object
was left in a fully-functional state.

You can also manually mark an object as "tainted" using the deprecated command
[`terraform taint`](/terraform/cli/commands/taint), although we no longer recommend that
workflow.

If Terraform currently considers a particular object as tainted but you've
determined that it's actually functioning correctly and need _not_ be replaced,
you can use `terraform untaint` to remove the taint marker from that object.

This command _will not_ modify any real remote objects, but will modify the
state in order to remove the tainted status.

If you remove the taint marker from an object but then later discover that it
was degraded after all, you can create and apply a plan to replace it without
first re-tainting the object, by using a command like the following:

```
terraform apply -replace="aws_instance.example[0]"
```

## Usage

Usage: `terraform untaint [options] address`

The `address` argument is a [resource address](/terraform/cli/state/resource-addressing)
identifying a particular resource instance which is currently tainted.

This command also accepts the following options:

- `-allow-missing` - If specified, the command will succeed (exit code 0)
  even if the resource is missing. The command might still return an error
  for other situations, such as if there is a problem reading or writing
  the state.

- `-lock=false` - Don't hold a state lock during the operation. This is
  dangerous if others might concurrently run commands against the same
  workspace.

- `-lock-timeout=DURATION` - Unless locking is disabled with `-lock=false`,
  instructs Terraform to retry acquiring a lock for a period of time before
  returning an error. The duration syntax is a number followed by a time
  unit letter, such as "3s" for three seconds.

- `-no-color` - Disables terminal formatting sequences in the output. Use this
  if you are running Terraform in a context where its output will be
  rendered by a system that cannot interpret terminal formatting.

For configurations using the [HCP Terraform CLI integration](/terraform/cli/cloud) or the [`remote` backend](/terraform/language/backend/remote)
only, `terraform untaint`
also accepts the option
[`-ignore-remote-version`](/terraform/cli/cloud/command-line-arguments#ignore-remote-version).

For configurations using
[the `local` backend](/terraform/language/backend/local) only,
`terraform untaint` also accepts the legacy options
[`-state`, `-state-out`, and `-backup`](/terraform/language/backend/local#command-line-arguments).
