Moving Terraform state isn’t just a “file copy” — it’s an operational change that can affect locking, collaboration, and the safety of your next plan/apply. Whether you’re migrating from local state to a remote backend, or switching between remote backends, you want a workflow that keeps state consistent and avoids accidental drift or destructive plans.
In the full guide, we cover:
- When state migration makes sense (team workflows, reliability, compliance, scaling)
- The safest Terraform-native path using
terraform init -migrate-state - How to validate the migration (so your first plan after the move is clean)
- Realistic backend move scenarios (e.g., local → S3/Azure Blob, remote → remote)
- Common pitfalls (credentials, locking, backend config changes) and how to avoid them
➡️ Read the full article on our blog:
https://spacelift.io/blog/terraform-migrate-state
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