# Configure a dead-letter queue using the Amazon SQS console
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A dead-letter queue (DLQ) is a queue that receives messages that were not successfully processed from another queue, known as the source queue. Amazon SQS does *not* create the dead-letter queue automatically. You must first create the queue before using it as a dead-letter queue. When configuring a DLQ, the queue type must match the source queue type—a [FIFO queue](sqs-fifo-queues.md) can only use a FIFO DLQ, and a [standard queue](standard-queues.md) can only use a standard DLQ. You can configure a dead-letter queue when you create or edit a queue. For more details, see [Using dead-letter queues in Amazon SQS](sqs-dead-letter-queues.md).

**To configure a dead-letter queue for an existing queue (console)**

1. Open the Amazon SQS console at [https://console.aws.amazon.com/sqs/](https://console.aws.amazon.com/sqs/).

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

1. Select the **source queue** (the queue that will send failed messages to the dead-letter queue), then choose **Edit**. 

1. Scroll to the **Dead-letter queue** section and toggle **Enabled**.

1. Under **Dead-letter queue settings**, choose the Amazon Resource Name (ARN) of an existing queue that you want to use as the **dead-letter queue**.

1. Set the **Maximum receives** value, which defines how many times a message can be received before being sent to the dead-letter queue (valid range: **1 to 1,000**).

1. Choose **Save**.