CloudFront Invalidation Failed: Fix Steps

Quick Fix (30 seconds) – Check Your Paths

Most times, a failed invalidation is just a typo or wrong path. You'd be surprised how often I see this.

1. Go to your CloudFront distribution in the AWS console.
2. Click the Invalidations tab.
3. Find the failed invalidation. Look at the Object paths column.
4. Check the paths you typed. Common mistakes:
   • /images/photo.jpg works fine. But images/photo.jpg (missing leading slash) fails.
   • /images/* works. /images* (no slash after images) fails.
   • Wildcards only work at the end of a path: /images/* is good. /*.jpg is not.
5. Fix the path and create a new invalidation. Wait a few minutes – you should see Completed.

Expected outcome: The new invalidation completes within 2–5 minutes. If you still see “Failed”, move to the next section.

Moderate Fix (5 minutes) – Check Invalidation Limits

CloudFront has limits on how many invalidations you can request. If you hit a limit, new invalidations fail immediately. This happens a lot when someone runs a script that invalidates too many paths.

1. Open the CloudFront console, select your distribution.
2. Click Invalidations again. Look at the list – do you see many pending or completed ones?
3. Go to the Account level limits page (search “Service Quotas” in the console).
4. Find CloudFront Invalidation Requests – the default is 3000 per month. You might have used them up.
5. If you're close to the limit, request a quota increase. Or wait until next month.
6. Another limit: you can’t have more than 15 invalidations running at the same time. If you see a stuck one (status “InProgress” for hours), cancel it first.
7. To cancel a stuck invalidation: click the invalidation ID, then Cancel. Then retry.

Expected outcome: After canceling stuck ones or increasing the quota, your new invalidation should work. If not, go to the advanced fix.

Advanced Fix (15+ minutes) – Distribution Audit & API Debugging

If the simple stuff didn’t help, the problem is more subtle. Could be a permission issue, or the distribution itself has a problem. Let me walk you through the real fix.

Step 1: Check IAM Permissions

If you’re using an IAM user or role to run invalidations, it needs the right permissions. The user who created the distribution might have full access, but the one making the invalidation might not.

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "cloudfront:CreateInvalidation",
        "cloudfront:GetInvalidation",
        "cloudfront:ListInvalidations"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    }
  ]
}

Add that policy to your user/role. Then test again.

Step 2: Check the AWS CLI or SDK Error

If you’re using the AWS CLI, run this command to see the exact error:

aws cloudfront create-invalidation --distribution-id E1234567890ABC --paths "/*"

If it fails, the CLI shows an error message. Common ones:

• InvalidArgument – path is malformed. Fix it as in the quick fix.
• TooManyInvalidations – you hit the limit. See moderate fix.
• AccessDenied – missing permissions. See step 1.
• DistributionNotEnabled – the distribution is disabled. Enable it.

Step 3: Check the Distribution Status

A distribution that’s in InProgress status (still deploying) can reject invalidations. Wait until it says Deployed. Then retry.

Step 4: Check for Stuck Invalidations That Block New Ones

Sometimes the console shows “Completed” but the real status is “InProgress”. The API sees it differently. Use the CLI to list invalidations and look for any with Status: InProgress that have been there for over 30 minutes. Those are stuck. Cancel them via API:

aws cloudfront list-invalidations --distribution-id E1234567890ABC
# Find the ID of the stuck one
aws cloudfront get-invalidation --distribution-id E1234567890ABC --id STUCK_ID
# No cancel command in CLI – you must use the console or SDK to cancel

Step 5: Last Resort – Recreate the Distribution

I’ve seen distributions where invalidations just break. No clear reason. If you’ve tried everything and it still fails, create a new distribution pointing to the same origin. Then delete the old one. This is a pain, but it works.

Export the old distribution’s config first (use aws cloudfront get-distribution-config). Then create a new one with the same settings. You’ll lose the old ID, but the new one will work.

Expected outcome after advanced fix: Invalidation completes within minutes. If not, you might have a regional AWS issue – check the AWS Service Health Dashboard.

One more thing: If you’re invalidating thousands of paths every day, consider using a custom origin with cache-control headers instead. Invalidations cost money after the first 1000/month. A versioned URL pattern (e.g., /images/v2/photo.jpg) avoids invalidations entirely. But that’s a whole other topic.