Request Parameters Errors Example See Also

ChangeMessageVisibility

Changes the visibility timeout of a specified message in a queue to a new value. The default visibility timeout for a message is 30 seconds. The minimum is 0 seconds. The maximum is 12 hours. For more information, see Visibility Timeout in the Amazon Simple Queue Service Developer Guide.

For example, you have a message with a visibility timeout of 5 minutes. After 3 minutes, you call ChangeMessageVisibility with a timeout of 10 minutes. You can continue to call ChangeMessageVisibility to extend the visibility timeout to the maximum allowed time. If you try to extend the visibility timeout beyond the maximum, your request is rejected.

An Amazon SQS message has three basic states:

Sent to a queue by a producer.
Received from the queue by a consumer.
Deleted from the queue.

A message is considered to be stored after it is sent to a queue by a producer, but not yet received from the queue by a consumer (that is, between states 1 and 2). There is no limit to the number of stored messages. A message is considered to be in flight after it is received from a queue by a consumer, but not yet deleted from the queue (that is, between states 2 and 3). There is a limit to the number of inflight messages.

Limits that apply to inflight messages are unrelated to the unlimited number of stored messages.

For most standard queues (depending on queue traffic and message backlog), there can be a maximum of approximately 120,000 inflight messages (received from a queue by a consumer, but not yet deleted from the queue). If you reach this limit, Amazon SQS returns the OverLimit error message. To avoid reaching the limit, you should delete messages from the queue after they're processed. You can also increase the number of queues you use to process your messages. To request a limit increase, file a support request.

For FIFO queues, there can be a maximum of 20,000 inflight messages (received from a queue by a consumer, but not yet deleted from the queue). If you reach this limit, Amazon SQS returns no error messages.

Important

If you attempt to set the VisibilityTimeout to a value greater than the maximum time left, Amazon SQS returns an error. Amazon SQS doesn't automatically recalculate and increase the timeout to the maximum remaining time.

Unlike with a queue, when you change the visibility timeout for a specific message the timeout value is applied immediately but isn't saved in memory for that message. If you don't delete a message after it is received, the visibility timeout for the message reverts to the original timeout value (not to the value you set using the ChangeMessageVisibility action) the next time the message is received.

Request Parameters

For information about the parameters that are common to all actions, see Common Parameters.

QueueUrl

The URL of the Amazon SQS queue whose message's visibility is changed.

Queue URLs and names are case-sensitive.

Type: String

Required: Yes

ReceiptHandle

The receipt handle associated with the message whose visibility timeout is changed. This parameter is returned by the ReceiveMessage action.

Type: String

Required: Yes

VisibilityTimeout

The new value for the message's visibility timeout (in seconds). Values range: 0 to 43200. Maximum: 12 hours.

Type: Integer

Required: Yes

Errors

For information about the errors that are common to all actions, see Common Errors.

AWS.SimpleQueueService.MessageNotInflight

The specified message isn't in flight.

HTTP Status Code: 400

ReceiptHandleIsInvalid

The specified receipt handle isn't valid.

HTTP Status Code: 400

Example

The following example query request changes the visibility timeout for a message to 60 seconds. The structure of AUTHPARAMS depends on the signature of the API request. For more information, see Examples of Signed Signature Version 4 Requests in the Amazon Web Services General Reference.

Sample Request


https://sqs.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/123456789012/MyQueue/
?Action=ChangeMessageVisibility
&VisibilityTimeout=60
&ReceiptHandle=MbZj6wDWli%2BJvwwJaBV%2B3dcjk2YW2vA3%2BSTFFljT
M8tJJg6HRG6PYSasuWXPJB%2BCwLj1FjgXUv1uSj1gUPAWV66FU/WeR4mq2OKpEGY
WbnLmpRCJVAyeMjeU5ZBdtcQ%2BQEauMZc8ZRv37sIW2iJKq3M9MFx1YvV11A2x/K
SbkJ0=
&Expires=2020-04-18T22%3A52%3A43PST
&Version=2012-11-05
&AUTHPARAMS

Sample Response


<ChangeMessageVisibilityResponse>
    <ResponseMetadata>
        <RequestId>6a7a282a-d013-4a59-aba9-335b0fa48bed</RequestId>
    </ResponseMetadata>
</ChangeMessageVisibilityResponse>