hashicorp/terraform · error

Can't ask approval for state migration when interactive inpu

Error message

Can't ask approval for state migration when interactive input is disabled.

Please remove the "-input=false" option and try again.

What it means

Returned by backendMigrateState (meta_backend_migrate.go:437) — the generic state-migration confirmation path. When opts.force is false the code must ask the user to approve copying/overwriting state, but if m.input is false (input disabled) it cannot prompt and returns errInteractiveInputDisabled. This covers both the empty-destination and non-empty-destination confirm cases (backendMigrateEmptyConfirm / backendMigrateNonEmptyConfirm).

Source

Thrown at internal/command/meta_backend_migrate.go:437

			confirmFunc = m.backendMigrateEmptyConfirm
		}

	// Both states are non-empty, meaning we need to determine which
	// state should be used and update accordingly.
	case !source.Empty() && !destination.Empty():
		log.Print("[TRACE] backendMigrateState: both source and destination workspaces have states, so might overwrite destination with source")
		confirmFunc = m.backendMigrateNonEmptyConfirm
	}

	if confirmFunc == nil {
		panic("confirmFunc must not be nil")
	}

	if !opts.force {
		// Abort if we can't ask for input.
		if !m.input {
			log.Print("[TRACE] backendMigrateState: can't prompt for input, so aborting migration")
			return errors.New(strings.TrimSpace(errInteractiveInputDisabled))
		}

		// Confirm with the user whether we want to copy state over
		confirm, err := confirmFunc(sourceState, destinationState, opts)
		if err != nil {
			log.Print("[TRACE] backendMigrateState: error reading input, so aborting migration")
			return err
		}
		if !confirm {
			log.Print("[TRACE] backendMigrateState: user cancelled at confirmation prompt, so aborting migration")
			return nil
		}
	}

	// Confirmed! We'll have the statemgr package handle the migration, which
	// includes preserving any lineage/serial information where possible, if
	// both managers support such metadata.
	log.Print("[TRACE] backendMigrateState: migration confirmed, so migrating")

View on GitHub (pinned to c9def3e214)

Solutions

1. Remove -input=false and run `terraform init -migrate-state` interactively to answer the prompt.
2. Use `-migrate-state -force-copy` (force=true) to skip the confirmation when input is disabled.
3. If you do not want migration, run `terraform init -reconfigure` to discard the previous backend state instead of migrating.

Example fix

# before
 terraform init -input=false -migrate-state
# after (auto-approve the copy)
 terraform init -input=false -migrate-state -force-copy

// Before `terraform init -migrate-state` non-interactively, decide the copy policy.
 if nonInteractive {
     args = append(args, "-force-copy") // skip confirmFunc approval
 }

out, err := exec.Command("terraform", "init", "-input=false", "-migrate-state").CombinedOutput()
 if err != nil && bytes.Contains(out, []byte("interactive input is disabled")) {
     // retry with -force-copy (or run interactively)
     exec.Command("terraform", "init", "-input=false", "-migrate-state", "-force-copy").Run()
 }

When it happens

Trigger: Running `terraform init -migrate-state` (or changing the backend block and running init) with -input=false, where the source has state that needs approval to copy/overwrite into the destination.

Common situations: Switching backend type (e.g. local -> s3, s3 -> local, s3 -> another s3 bucket) in CI with -input=false; the destination already has state so overwrite approval is required.

Related errors

• Error asking for input to configure backend %q: %s
• input is disabled
• Migrating state from HCP Terraform or Terraform Enterprise t
• error starting operation: %s
• Failed to load the backend state file: %s

AI-assisted analysis of hashicorp/terraform@c9def3e214 (2026-08-07). Data as JSON: /api/errors/45c02ae092a2472a. Report an issue: GitHub.