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Download blobs from Azure Blob Storage by using AzCopy

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You can download blobs and directories from Blob storage by using the AzCopy v10 command-line utility.

To see examples for other types of tasks such as uploading files, synchronizing with Blob storage, or copying blobs between accounts, see the links presented in the Next Steps section of this article.

Get started

See the Get started with AzCopy article to download AzCopy and learn about the ways that you can provide authorization credentials to the storage service.

Note

The examples in this article assume that you've provided authorization credentials by using Microsoft Entra ID.

If you'd rather use a SAS token to authorize access to blob data, then you can append that token to the resource URL in each AzCopy command. For example: 'https://<storage-account-name>.blob.core.windows.net/<container-name><SAS-token>'.

Download a blob

Download a blob by using the azcopy copy command.

Tip

This example encloses path arguments with single quotes (''). Use single quotes in all command shells except for the Windows Command Shell (cmd.exe). If you're using a Windows Command Shell (cmd.exe), enclose path arguments with double quotes ("") instead of single quotes ('').

Syntax

azcopy copy 'https://<storage-account-name>.<blob or dfs>.core.windows.net/<container-name>/<blob-path>' '<local-file-path>'

Example

azcopy copy 'https://mystorageaccount.blob.core.windows.net/mycontainer/myTextFile.txt' 'C:\myDirectory\myTextFile.txt'

Example (Data Lake Storage endpoint)

azcopy copy 'https://mystorageaccount.dfs.core.windows.net/mycontainer/myTextFile.txt' 'C:\myDirectory\myTextFile.txt'

Note

If the Content-md5 property value of a blob contains a hash, AzCopy calculates an MD5 hash for downloaded data and verifies that the MD5 hash stored in the blob's Content-md5 property matches the calculated hash. If these values don't match, the download fails unless you override this behavior by appending --check-md5=NoCheck or --check-md5=LogOnly to the copy command.

Download a directory

Download a directory by using the azcopy copy command.

Tip

This example encloses path arguments with single quotes (''). Use single quotes in all command shells except for the Windows Command Shell (cmd.exe). If you're using a Windows Command Shell (cmd.exe), enclose path arguments with double quotes ("") instead of single quotes ('').

Syntax

azcopy copy 'https://<storage-account-name>.<blob or dfs>.core.windows.net/<container-name>/<directory-path>' '<local-directory-path>' --recursive

Example

azcopy copy 'https://mystorageaccount.blob.core.windows.net/mycontainer/myBlobDirectory' 'C:\myDirectory'  --recursive

Example (Data Lake Storage endpoint)

azcopy copy 'https://mystorageaccount.dfs.core.windows.net/mycontainer/myBlobDirectory' 'C:\myDirectory'  --recursive

This example results in a directory named C:\myDirectory\myBlobDirectory that contains all of the downloaded blobs.

Download directory contents

You can download the contents of a directory without copying the containing directory itself by using the wildcard symbol (*).

Tip

This example encloses path arguments with single quotes (''). Use single quotes in all command shells except for the Windows Command Shell (cmd.exe). If you're using a Windows Command Shell (cmd.exe), enclose path arguments with double quotes ("") instead of single quotes ('').

Note

Currently, this scenario is supported only for accounts that don't have a hierarchical namespace.

Syntax

azcopy copy 'https://<storage-account-name>.blob.core.windows.net/<container-name>/*' '<local-directory-path>/'

Example

azcopy copy 'https://mystorageaccount.blob.core.windows.net/mycontainer/myBlobDirectory/*' 'C:\myDirectory'

Append the --recursive flag to download files in all subdirectories.

Download specific blobs

You can download specific blobs by using complete file names, partial names with wildcard characters (*), or by using dates and times.

Tip

These examples enclose path arguments with single quotes (''). Use single quotes in all command shells except for the Windows Command Shell (cmd.exe). If you're using a Windows Command Shell (cmd.exe), enclose path arguments with double quotes ("") instead of single quotes ('').

Specify multiple complete blob names

Use the azcopy copy command with the --include-path option. Separate individual blob names by using a semicolon (;).

Syntax

azcopy copy 'https://<storage-account-name>.<blob or dfs>.core.windows.net/<container-or-directory-name>' '<local-directory-path>' --include-path <semicolon-separated-file-list>

Example

azcopy copy 'https://mystorageaccount.blob.core.windows.net/mycontainer/FileDirectory' 'C:\myDirectory'  --include-path 'photos;documents\myFile.txt' --recursive

Example (Data Lake Storage endpoint)

azcopy copy 'https://mystorageaccount.dfs.core.windows.net/mycontainer/FileDirectory' 'C:\myDirectory'  --include-path 'photos;documents\myFile.txt'--recursive

In this example, AzCopy transfers the https://mystorageaccount.blob.core.windows.net/mycontainer/FileDirectory/photos directory and the https://mystorageaccount.blob.core.windows.net/mycontainer/FileDirectory/documents/myFile.txt file. Include the --recursive option to transfer all blobs in the https://mystorageaccount.blob.core.windows.net/mycontainer/FileDirectory/photos directory.

You can also exclude blobs by using the --exclude-path option. To learn more, see azcopy copy reference docs.

Use wildcard characters

Use the azcopy copy command with the --include-pattern option. Specify partial names that include the wildcard characters. Separate names by using a semicolin (;).

Syntax

azcopy copy 'https://<storage-account-name>.<blob or dfs>.core.windows.net/<container-or-directory-name>' '<local-directory-path>' --include-pattern <semicolon-separated-file-list-with-wildcard-characters>

Example

azcopy copy 'https://mystorageaccount.blob.core.windows.net/mycontainer/FileDirectory' 'C:\myDirectory'  --include-pattern 'myFile*.txt;*.pdf*'

Example (hierarchical namespace)

azcopy copy 'https://mystorageaccount.dfs.core.windows.net/mycontainer/FileDirectory' 'C:\myDirectory'  --include-pattern 'myFile*.txt;*.pdf*'

You can also exclude blobs by using the --exclude-pattern option. To learn more, see azcopy copy reference docs.

The --include-pattern and --exclude-pattern options apply only to blob names and not to the path. If you want to copy all of the text files (blobs) that exist in a directory tree, use the -recursive option to get the entire directory tree, and then use the -include-pattern and specify *.txt to get all of the text files.

Download blobs that were modified before or after a date and time

Use the azcopy copy command with the --include-before or --include-after option. Specify a date and time in ISO-8601 format (For example: 2020-08-19T15:04:00Z).

The following examples download files that were modified on or after the specified date.

Syntax

azcopy copy 'https://<storage-account-name>.<blob or dfs>.core.windows.net/<container-or-directory-name>/*' '<local-directory-path>' --include-after <Date-Time-in-ISO-8601-format>

Example

azcopy copy 'https://mystorageaccount.blob.core.windows.net/mycontainer/FileDirectory/*' 'C:\myDirectory'  --include-after '2020-08-19T15:04:00Z'

Example (Data Lake Storage endpoint)

azcopy copy 'https://mystorageaccount.dfs.core.windows.net/mycontainer/FileDirectory/*' 'C:\myDirectory'  --include-after '2020-08-19T15:04:00Z'

For detailed reference, see the azcopy copy reference docs.

Download previous versions of a blob

If you've enabled blob versioning, you can download one or more previous versions of a blob.

First, create a text file that contains a list of version IDs. Each version ID must appear on a separate line. For example:

2020-08-17T05:50:34.2199403Z
2020-08-17T05:50:34.5041365Z
2020-08-17T05:50:36.7607103Z

Then, use the azcopy copy command with the --list-of-versions option. Specify the location of the text file that contains the list of versions (For example: D:\\list-of-versions.txt).

Download a blob snapshot

You can download a blob snapshot by referencing the DateTime value of a blob snapshot.

Syntax

azcopy copy 'https://<storage-account-name>.<blob or dfs>.core.windows.net/<container-name>/<blob-path>?sharesnapshot=<DateTime-of-snapshot>' '<local-file-path>'

Example

azcopy copy 'https://mystorageaccount.blob.core.windows.net/mycontainer/myTextFile.txt?sharesnapshot=2020-09-23T08:21:07.0000000Z' 'C:\myDirectory\myTextFile.txt'

Example (Data Lake Storage endpoint)

azcopy copy 'https://mystorageaccount.dfs.core.windows.net/mycontainer/myTextFile.txt?sharesnapshot=2020-09-23T08:21:07.0000000Z' 'C:\myDirectory\myTextFile.txt'

Note

If you are using a SAS token to authorize access to blob data, then append snapshot DateTime after the SAS token. For example: 'https://mystorageaccount.blob.core.windows.net/mycontainer/myTextFile.txt?sv=2018-03-28&ss=bjqt&srs=sco&sp=rjklhjup&se=2019-05-10T04:37:48Z&st=2019-05-09T20:37:48Z&spr=https&sig=/SOVEFfsKDqRry4bk3qz1vAQFwY5DDzp2%2B/3Eykf/JLs%3D&sharesnapshot=2020-09-23T08:21:07.0000000Z'.

Download with optional flags

You can tweak your download operation by using optional flags. Here's a few examples.

Scenario Flag
Automatically decompress files. --decompress
Specify how detailed you want your copy-related log entries to be. --log-level=[WARNING|ERROR|INFO|NONE]
Specify if and how to overwrite the conflicting files and blobs at the destination. --overwrite=[true|false|ifSourceNewer|prompt]

For a complete list, see options.

Next steps

Find more examples in these articles:

See these articles to configure settings, optimize performance, and troubleshoot issues: