Recover deleted files in file share

Hello **Kappes Ernst,
**
That’s really frustrating when files are deleted and you don’t have backup enabled.

The key point for Azure Files (file shares) is:

• Soft delete works at the file share level only. It can restore the entire share (including its contents), but it does not let you recover individual deleted files.
• If your files were deleted via a mechanism that deleted only files/directories (not the whole share), and soft delete for shares / Azure Backup / snapshots aren’t available, then individual file recovery isn’t possible by design.

**What you can try now
**
1) Check whether soft delete for file shares was enabled (7–365 days retention)

If soft delete is enabled on the storage account, you may be able to undelete the entire file share (and restore its contents back to the pre-deletion state).

Portal

1. Go to your Storage account
2. Select File shares
3. Enable Show deleted shares
4. Select the deleted share and choose undelete
5. Confirm the status becomes Active

PowerShell / Azure CLI You’ll need the deleted share “version”/“deleted-version” value, then restore the share.

2) If the share can’t be restored, see if you have snapshots / Azure Backup

The documentation notes:

• Azure Backup can support file or file share recovery (including item-level recovery).
• If soft delete retention expired, recovery may still be possible using File Share Snapshots (not guaranteed; depends on what exists).

3) If only individual files were deleted (and no backup/snapshots exist)

For Azure Files, the docs state that recovery of individual files is not possible by design unless the entire file share was deleted (and you can undelete it via soft delete), or you have backups/snapshots available.

Can you please update us if the action plan provided was helpful?

Should there be any follow-up questions or concerns, please let us know and we shall try to address them.

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Hello @Kappes Ernst, BKW Energie AG , following up to see if you had a chance to check the above response and if it was helpful. Please let me know if you have any questions.