How to delete a unconfirmed AWS SNS subscription

Question

I am trying to delete a subscription to an SNS topic (specifically an email address) that is unconfirmed, but the AWS console won't let me. It will let me delete subscriptions that are confirmed however. Any ideas?

You can always delete then recreate the topic. Easy to do with IaC (and minimal downtime). — Brent Bradburn, Feb 17 '22 at 17:00

score 34 · Answer 1 · edited Mar 18 '20 at 15:22

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According to SNS architecture and design:

If subscription is APPROVED so no matter whether there is topic associated to it or not. User will be able to delete the subscription.)

If subscription is PENDING so no matter whether there is topic associated to it or not. Amazon will delete automatically the subscription after 3 days of creation.

See the FAQ for more info (scroll down to the question titled "How long will subscription requests remain pending, while waiting to be confirmed?")

edited Mar 18 '20 at 15:22

Peter

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answered Jun 06 '19 at 15:15

Minnie

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¿Do you have a link to this part of the documentation? – Matt Jan 25 '20 at 08:42
@Matt I added a link to an FAQ. – Peter Mar 18 '20 at 15:22
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It makes absolutely no sense to not be able to delete it from the console. What if I put a wrong URL? What's the big deal if I were able to remove it? After all I'm the owner of the topic. I can delete the topic itself but not a subscription to the topic ?! – Bogdan Calmac Jul 11 '20 at 01:11
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https://docs.aws.amazon.com/sns/latest/dg/sns-tutorial-delete-subscription-topic.html `You can't delete a pending confirmation. After 3 days, Amazon SNS deletes it automatically.` – gomisha Aug 24 '20 at 21:02
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@gomisha the link in your comment is not valid anymore. Here is the updated link https://docs.aws.amazon.com/sns/latest/dg/sns-delete-subscription-topic.html – Manos Pasgiannis Jan 18 '22 at 08:07
Here is what the FAQ mentions: "Token included in the confirmation message sent to end-points on a subscription request are valid for 3 days". The TOKEN is valid for 3 days. It is not saying that the pending confirmation will be removed. The pending confirmation remains. I have one pending since 3 months. – gk_2000 May 05 '22 at 06:41

score 7 · Answer 2 · answered May 04 '15 at 13:02

I have seen email subscriptions hanging around indefinitely in the PendingConfirmation state and as you mention, they can't be deleted using the web console. Also, after a few days the link in the subscription confirmation email expires, so you can't click to confirm the subscription and then delete it either.

However, assuming you still have access to the email address, you can create a new subscription in the web console for the SNS topic using the same email address. This doesn't actually result in a separate subscription as it seems that an email address can only be subscribed once. However, it does send another email with a new confirmation link which you can click to confirm the subscription. Once it's confirmed, you can finally delete the subscription in the SNS web console.

I am also having the same issue. The subscription has been in Pending status for a long time and it has become orphaned. The Topic got deleted, but the subscription is still there. No matter what I do, I am unable to get rid of this Pending subscription. Any help will be greatly appreciated. — Ven, May 25 '20 at 17:23

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered May 16 '18 at 15:03

I had the problem with an unconfirmed SQS subscription. When deleting the pending subscription, resubscribing the queue resulted in the awkward state that it was subscribed with the deleted pending subscription so no messages would be delivered.

I fixed that by setting up a subscription in the topic's account which triggered a new confirmation message to be send. Once the subscription was confirmed (manually), it replaced the deleted pending subscription and the queue received messages again. Also, the subscription could be fully removed without the deleted pending subscription reappearing.

No idea if a similar approach would work for email subscriptions.

Thanks for sharing, I had the exact same issue where a Successful subscription was not showing up in the console, because earlier I had an unconfirmed subscription. — Shailesh, Nov 10 '22 at 12:44

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 25 '14 at 02:23

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I don't think you can, but they should disappear after 3 days if they are not confirmed....so you may just need to wait.

answered Mar 25 '14 at 02:23

E.J. Brennan

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Hmm, its been more than 3 days with them unconfirmed and they are still lingering... – wjimenez5271 Mar 25 '14 at 19:01

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered May 11 '23 at 17:57

As of May 2023, SNS now supports faster automatic deletion of unconfirmed subscriptions. This has reduced the time for SNS to delete your unconfirmed subscriptions, from the previous 72 hours to 48 hours. This applies to all new subscriptions, and does not require any on-boarding. For more information: https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2023/05/amazon-sns-automatic-deletion-unconfirmed-subscriptions/

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Jul 09 '17 at 20:39

If it doesn't disappear after 3 days, try resending the confirmation request by selecting the subscription and clicking "Request confirmations." This will retrigger the 3-day countdown for automatic removal, and it should be removed after 3 days if the subscription is still not confirmed.

How to delete a unconfirmed AWS SNS subscription

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