“Project Key is already being used”

Author: Carmen Santos
Date: January 6, 2026
Audience: Everyone
Environmental Details: Cloud, Customer-Validated Cloud (CVC), Self-hosted, Replicated - KOTS (v9.17.x, 9.22.x, 9.28.x)

Summary

This article explains why the error “Project Key is already being used” may appear when attempting to reuse a project key from a recently deleted project. By the end of this article, you will understand the cause of the error and how to reuse a deleted project key.

Solution

Wait for the nightly cleanup job.

Project deletions only become permanent after a nightly job runs. If the project were deleted today, the system may still prevent the reuse of the project key until the job completes.
Typically, the issue will be resolved the next day after the job runs automatically.

2. Manually trigger the cleanup job (if immediate reuse is required)

For Cloud customers: Support can manually trigger the backend job to make the project key available immediately. Please have your company's Named Support Contacts (NSCs) contact support if you need this done.
For Self-hosted customers: A system administrator can manually trigger the scheduled job that permanently deletes projects.
- Location: Log in to Jama Connect as the root user and select Scheduled Jobs.
- Job name: QueueDeletedDomainObjects

Once the job has run, you can just use the deleted project key without having the error.

Cause

The system keeps recently deleted project keys reserved until a scheduled cleanup job permanently removes them. Attempting to reuse the key before the job completes triggers the error stating that the key is already in use.

Prevention

Plan project key changes to allow for the nightly job to process deletions.

If you need immediate reuse, please use support (Cloud) or your system administrator (Self-hosted) to trigger the cleanup job manually.

Additional Resources

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