I need to recover soft deleted container past 30 days

Jakub Ozga 0 Reputation points
2026-11-02T15:37:27.6566667+00:00

Is there any way to do that? I made mistake and deleted it and havent checked it for 30 days. Now its 32th day I wanted to undelete it. Unfortunately I dont see my container in the list to undelete.

Azure Blob Storage
Azure Blob Storage

An Azure service that stores unstructured data in the cloud as blobs.

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  1. Andreas Baumgarten 133.1K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2026-11-02T16:48:01.16+00:00

    Hi @Jakub Ozga ,

    in short:

    After the retention period expires, Azure Storage permanently deletes the container and you can't recover it.

    Source: How container soft delete works

    If you don't have a separate backup of the container with a longer retention time your container ist "gone" and there is no chance to recover the data. Sorry.

    (If the reply was helpful please don't forget to upvote and/or accept as answer, thank you)

    Regards

    Andreas Baumgarten

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  2. AI answer

    2026-11-02T15:38:05.6766667+00:00

    A container deleted 32 days ago cannot be undeleted if its 30-day container soft-delete retention period has expired; Azure Storage permanently deletes it when that period ends.^1^

    Changing the retention period now will not recover or extend that deleted container. Retention changes apply only to containers deleted after the change; containers already deleted retain the period that was active when they were deleted.^1^

    Remaining recovery options

    1. Check for a separate copy or backup that existed before deletion, such as:
      • Another storage account or replicated application-level copy.
      • An exported/on-premises backup.
      • A previously configured vaulted Azure Blob backup.
      Vaulted backup stores an offsite copy of block-blob data and can protect against source data loss.^2^
    2. Do not rely on operational Azure Blob backup to undelete the container. Microsoft documents that operational backup cannot restore a container deleted through the Delete Container operation; container soft delete is the protection mechanism for that scenario.^3^
    3. If a separate backup existed, create a replacement container and restore or copy the backed-up blobs into it according to that backup system’s restore procedure. If no independent copy existed, the expired soft-deleted container and its contents are not recoverable through Azure Blob Storage.

    For future protection, increase Storage account → Data protection → Enable soft delete for containers to a suitable value, up to 365 days. This protects only future deletions and is not retroactive.^1^

    References

    1. Soft delete for containers
    2. Architecture best practices for Azure Blob Storage
    3. Configure and manage backup for Azure Blobs using Azure Backup
    AI-generated content may be incorrect. Read our transparency notes for more information.

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