Recover deleted blobs

If the storage account was deleted, recovery is only supported for the storage account, not for permanently deleted blobs when blob protection was not enabled.

Supported storage account recovery requires all of these conditions:

1. The storage account was deleted within the past 14 days.
2. It was created with the Azure Resource Manager deployment model.
3. No new storage account with the same name has been created since deletion.
4. The account used for recovery has an Azure RBAC role with Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/write permission.
5. The original resource group must exist. If it was deleted, recreate it manually first.
6. If the account used customer-managed keys and the Key Vault was also deleted, restore the Key Vault first.

For the blobs themselves:

• If soft delete and versioning were not enabled, Azure Blob Storage does not provide blob recovery from the storage service.
• Microsoft explicitly states that Azure Blob files recovery without enabling blob file protection isn't supported.

What can be done:

1. Try to recover the deleted storage account in Azure portal:
   • Go to the list of storage accounts.
   • Select Restore.
   • Choose the subscription.
   • Select the deleted account from the drop-down list.
   • Select Restore.
   • If the deleted account does not appear in the list, it cannot be recovered by this method.
2. Open a Microsoft support request for storage account recovery:
   • In Azure portal, go to Help + support.
   • Select Create a support request.
   • On Problem description:
     • Issue type: Technical
     • Subscription: the subscription that contained the deleted storage account
     • Service: Storage Account Management
     • Resource: select any storage account resource
     • Problem type: Deletion and Recovery
     • Problem subtype: Recover deleted storage account
   • On Recommended solution, select Customer-Controlled Storage Account Recovery.
   • Select the deleted account from the list and choose Recover.

Important:

• Recovery of a deleted storage account is a best-effort attempt and is not guaranteed.
• Linked private endpoints are removed when the storage account is deleted and are not automatically recreated after recovery.
• The “6 days / 3 days” guidance is not supported here for deleted blob recovery without protection enabled.

References:

• Recover a deleted storage account
• Best practices for Azure Storage data protection, backup, and recovery