A computing device includes an interface configured to interface and communicate with a dispersed storage network (DSN), a memory that stores operational instructions, and a processing module operably coupled to the interface and memory such that the processing module, when operable within the computing device based on the operational instructions, is configured to perform various operations. The computing device receives data object information for a data object and stores the data object information in a dispersed index of a dispersed or distributed storage network (DSN). The computing device also dispersed error encodes the data object to generate sets of encoded data slices (EDSs) (e.g., for data segments of the data object) and updates the index entry state of the dispersed index to moving to indicate that the data object is moving. The computing device distributedly stores the sets of EDSs among a storage units (SUs) of the DSN.