# Edit or delete a CloudWatch alarm
Editing or deleting a CloudWatch alarm

You can edit or delete an existing alarm.

You can't change the name of an existing alarm. You can copy an alarm and give the new alarm a different name. To copy an alarm, select the check box next to the alarm name in the alarm list and choose **Action**, **Copy**.

**To edit an alarm**

1. Open the CloudWatch console at [https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudwatch/](https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudwatch/).

1. In the navigation pane, choose **Alarms**, **All Alarms**.

1. Choose the name of the alarm.

1. To add or remove tags, choose the **Tags** tab and then choose **Manage tags**.

1. To edit other parts of the alarm, choose **Actions**, **Edit**.

   The **Specify metric and conditions** page appears, showing a graph and other information about the metric and statistic that you selected.

1. To change the metric, choose **Edit**, choose the **All metrics** tab, and do one of the following:
   + Choose the service namespace that contains the metric that you want. Continue choosing options as they appear to narrow the choices. When a list of metrics appears, select the check box next to the metric that you want.
   + In the search box, enter the name of a metric, dimension, or resource ID and press Enter. Then choose one of the results and continue until a list of metrics appears. Select the check box next to the metric that you want. 

   Choose **Select metric**.

1. To change other aspects of the alarm, choose the appropriate options. To change how many data points must be breaching for the alarm to go into `ALARM` state or to change how missing data is treated, choose **Additional configuration**.

1. Choose **Next**.

1. Under **Notification**, **Auto Scaling action**, and **EC2 action**, optionally edit the actions taken when the alarm is triggered. Then choose **Next**.

1. Optionally change the alarm description.

   You can't change the name of an existing alarm. You can copy an alarm and give the new alarm a different name. To copy an alarm, select the check box next to the alarm name in the alarm list and choose **Action**, **Copy**.

1. Choose **Next**.

1. Under **Preview and create**, confirm that the information and conditions are what you want, then choose **Update alarm**.

**To update an email notification list that was created using the Amazon SNS console**

1. Open the Amazon SNS console at [https://console.aws.amazon.com/sns/v3/home](https://console.aws.amazon.com/sns/v3/home).

1. In the navigation pane, choose **Topics** and then select the ARN for your notification list (topic).

1. Do one of the following:
   + To add an email address, choose **Create subscription**. For **Protocol**, choose **Email**. For **Endpoint**, enter the email address of the new recipient. Choose **Create subscription**.
   + To remove an email address, choose the **Subscription ID**. Choose **Other subscription actions**, **Delete subscriptions**.

1. Choose **Publish to topic**.

**To delete an alarm**

1. Open the CloudWatch console at [https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudwatch/](https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudwatch/).

1. In the navigation pane, choose **Alarms**.

1. Select the check box to the left of the name of the alarm, and choose **Actions**, **Delete**.

1. Choose **Delete**.