Error response from daemon conflict unable to delete

asked Nov 25, 2015 at 3:06

There is a difference between docker images and docker containers. Check this SO Question.

In short, a container is a runnable instance of an image. which is why you cannot delete an image if there is a running container from that image. You just need to delete the container first.

docker ps -a                # Lists containers (and tells you which images they are spun from)

docker images               # Lists images 

docker rm <container_id>    # Removes a stopped container

docker rm -f <container_id> # Forces the removal of a running container (uses SIGKILL)

docker rmi <image_id>       # Removes an image 
                            # Will fail if there is a running instance of that image i.e. container

docker rmi -f <image_id>    # Forces removal of image even if it is referenced in multiple repositories, 
                            # i.e. same image id given multiple names/tags 
                            # Will still fail if there is a docker container referencing image

Update for Docker 1.13+ [Since Jan 2017]

In Docker 1.13, we regrouped every command to sit under the logical object it’s interacting with

Basically, above commands could also be rewritten, more clearly, as:

docker container ls -a
docker image ls
docker container rm <container_id>
docker image rm <image_id>

Also, if you want to remove EVERYTHING you could use:

docker system prune -a

WARNING! This will remove:

• all stopped containers
• all networks not used by at least one container
• all unused images
• all build cache

answered Oct 27, 2016 at 11:43

First, remove the container names

$ sudo docker rm backstabbing_ritchie

The result

$ sudo docker rm backstabbing_ritchie
  backstabbing_ritchie

delete the second part, which is listed on the container to be deleted

$ sudo docker rm drunk_feynman 
  drunk_feynman

Second, remove the container

$ sudo docker rmi training/webapp

The result

$ sudo docker rmi training/webapp  
  Untagged: training/webapp:latest
  Deleted: 54bb4e8718e8600d78a5d7c62208c2f13c8caf0e4fe73d2bc0e474e93659c0b5
  Deleted: f74dd040041eb4c032d3025fe38ea85de8075992bdce6789b694a44b20feb8de
  Deleted: 7cbae69141977b99c44dc6957b032ad50c1379124d62b7d7d05ab7329b42348e
  Deleted: abb991a4ed5e4cde2d9964aec4cccbe0015ba9cc9838b696e7a32e1ddf4a49bd
  Deleted: 1952e3bf3d7e8e6a9b1e23bd4142e3c42ff7f4b7925122189704323593fd54ac
  Deleted: f95ebd363bf27a7546deced7a41a4099334e37a3d2901fa3817e62bb1ade183f
  Deleted: 20dd0c75901396d41a7b64d551ff04952084cc3947e66c67bae35759c80da338
  Deleted: 2505b734adda3720799dde5004302f5edb3f2a2ff71438f6488b530b728ba666
  Deleted: 2ee0b8f351f753f78f1178000ae37616eb5bf241d4ef041b612d58e1fd2aefdc
  Deleted: 2ce633e3e9c9bd9e8fe7ade5984d7656ec3fc3994f05a97d5490190ef95bce8d
  Deleted: 98b15185dba7f85308eb0e21196956bba653cf142b36dc08059b3468a01bf35d
  Deleted: 515565c29c940355ec886c992231c6019a6cffa17ff1d2abdfc844867c9080c5
  Deleted: 2880a3395eded9b748c94d27767e1e202f8d7cb06f1e40e18d1b1c77687aef77

Check the continer

  $ sudo docker ps -as
  CONTAINER ID        IMAGE               COMMAND             CREATED             STATUS                    PORTS               NAMES                  SIZE
  78479ffeba5c        ubuntu              "/bin/bash"         43 hours ago        Exited (0) 43 hours ago                       sharp_wescoff          81 B (virtual 187.7 MB)

answered Nov 25, 2015 at 3:21

If you want to cleanup docker images and containers

CAUTION: this will flush everything

stop all containers

docker stop $(docker ps -a -q)

remove all containers

docker rm $(docker ps -a -q)

remove all images

docker rmi -f $(docker images -a -q)

answered May 4, 2018 at 11:06

you can use -f option to force delete the containers .

sudo docker rmi -f training/webapp

You may stop the containers using sudo docker stop training/webapp before deleting

answered Nov 25, 2015 at 3:19

If you have multiples docker containers launched, use this

$ docker rm $(docker ps -aq)

It will remove all the current dockers listed in the «ps -aq» command.

Source : aaam on https://github.com/docker/docker/issues/12487

answered Jun 21, 2016 at 15:20

1-Stop running container:

docker stop <container-id>

2-Remove container

docker rm <container-id>

3-Remove docker image

docker rmi <image-id>

answered Jun 22, 2021 at 20:52

User3301User3301

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Jinna BaluJinna Balu

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answered Dec 9, 2019 at 21:27

AndrewDAndrewD

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because you have stopped container, please use
docker ps -a to see all containers

maybe https://docs.docker.com/ is good place for you learn

closing, because (as @HackToday explained), this is not a bug

you can remove it force
such as
docker rmi -f 2234oi23u4io2

Using --force to remove an image that’s in use by a container is not really recommended. Remove the container if it’s no longer needed.

@thaJeztah — I’m getting similar myself (found this thread via google search).

Please see steps to diagnose after attempting docker rmi IMAGENAME and receiving message:

~$ docker rmi e5d9538a77db
Error response from daemon: conflict: unable to delete e5d9538a77db (must be forced) — image is referenced in multiple repositories
~$ docker ps -a
CONTAINER ID IMAGE COMMAND CREATED STATUS PORTS NAMES
~$ docker ps -a -q
~$

As you can see no running containers yet the images can’t be deleted. I’m on a Mac running Docker Toolbox

@ljavierrivera different error message;

image is referenced in multiple repositories

Which means you’re trying to remove an image by its ID, however the image is tagged under multiple names. Docker then refuses to remove the image, because it would remove multiple image in a single remove. You can still remove the individual images by name. If you don’t have containers running, you can --force delete the image in that case.

However, using the docker image prune functionality that was added recently may be a better option.

get it. docker rmi -f ${docker id}

Yes, the command docker image prune worked for me followed by docker rmi ...

I receive this error Error response from daemon: conflict: unable to delete b472d6a9286d (cannot be forced) - image is being used by running container 8c2009966994 .

If I stop all the containers built on this image and then they spin up again very fast due to my docker-compose.yml.

version: "3" services: web: # replace username/repo:tag with your name and image details image: ndabas333/hola:newtest deploy: replicas: 5 resources: limits: cpus: "0.1" memory: 50M restart_policy: condition: on-failure ports: - "80:80" networks: - webnet networks: webnet:
This image doesn’t exist on my registry now so help me to delete it along with the containers.

Use the below command to remove it:

docker rmi --force DOCKER_IAMGE_NAME