InvalidInstanceID.NotFound
AWS InvalidInstanceID.NotFound means the specified instance ID does not exist in the current scope, or it has not fully propagated yet.
Last reviewed: February 23, 2026|Editorial standard: source-backed technical guidance
What Does Invalid Instance ID Not Found Mean?
EC2 cannot find the referenced instance in current scope or timing window, so follow-up actions fail until instance identity and lifecycle state are revalidated.
Common Causes
- -Instance ID is incorrect, stale, or belongs to a different account/region.
- -Instance was terminated and automation still references old identifier.
- -Operation executes immediately after launch/termination where visibility is not yet consistent.
- -State store or queue delivers outdated instance IDs after replacement events.
How to Fix Invalid Instance ID Not Found
- 1Resolve current instance IDs from authoritative inventory before issuing dependent API calls.
- 2Confirm account and region context with
DescribeInstancesin the target environment. - 3Handle lifecycle transitions by waiting for expected state before follow-up operations.
- 4Remove stale IDs from queues/state stores after replacement or autoscaling events.
Step-by-Step Diagnosis for Invalid Instance ID Not Found
- 1Capture failing instance ID, region, account, and request ID from EC2 API response.
- 2Correlate launch/terminate/replacement events around failure timestamp in CloudTrail.
- 3Diff runtime target IDs versus autoscaling/IaC current desired-state outputs.
- 4Check for eventual-consistency windows in workflows that chain immediate follow-up calls.
Instance Identity Scope Validation
- -Verify instance ID against account and region of the caller (example: operation targets us-east-1 while instance exists only in us-west-2).
- -Inspect instance lifecycle transitions around failure time (example: ID referenced after termination during rolling replacement).
Eventual Consistency and Cache Invalidation
- -Apply short wait-and-requery when chaining immediate post-launch operations (example: API call occurs before instance visibility propagates).
- -Expire cached instance IDs after ASG replacements (example: worker queue still contains IDs for instances already recycled).
How to Verify the Fix
- -Run
DescribeInstancesfor the target ID in the intended account and region and confirm it resolves. - -Replay the follow-up EC2 action after the instance reaches the expected lifecycle state.
- -Confirm async workers no longer process terminated or replaced instance IDs.
How to Prevent Recurrence
- -Resolve instance targets from fresh inventory queries, not long-lived cached IDs.
- -Use EC2 waiters between launch/terminate transitions and dependent API actions.
- -Expire stale instance identifiers aggressively in queues, caches, and state stores.
Pro Tip
- -bind follow-up operations to fresh
DescribeInstanceslookups with strict account-region assertions instead of reusing cached instance IDs.
Decision Support
Compare Guide
403 Forbidden vs 404 Not Found: When to Hide Resources
Use 403 for explicit access denial, or 404 to conceal resource existence when security policy requires reducing endpoint and object enumeration risk.
Compare Guide
404 Not Found vs 410 Gone: Missing vs Permanent Removal
Learn when to return 404 (missing or temporary absence) versus 410 (intentional permanent removal), including redirect and cache implications.
Playbook
Resource State Playbook (404 / 410 / ResourceNotFound)
Use this playbook to separate temporary missing-resource lookups from permanent removals, then fix scope, lifecycle, and identifier drift safely.
Official References
Provider Context
This guidance is specific to AWS services. Always validate implementation details against official provider documentation before deploying to production.