Not Able to delete Storage Account after my Free Tier subsciption got disabled after one month duration

Shweta Dixit 0 Reputation points
2023-07-13T13:59:28.6966667+00:00

hello Everyone ,

Need your help with respect to deletion of Storage Account after my Azure Free Trier subscription disabled .
I am on not able view or edit settings for Containers as well within storage account . Can someone suggest on this please .

Azure Storage Accounts
Azure Storage Accounts
Globally unique resources that provide access to data management services and serve as the parent namespace for the services.
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  1. Tushar Kumar 3,356 Reputation points MVP
    2023-07-13T14:27:48.85+00:00

    If your Azure Free Trial subscription has been disabled, it means that you no longer have access to the resources and services associated with that subscription, including your storage account.

    Welcome to Microsoft QNA!

    If your Azure Free Trial subscription has been disabled, it means that you no longer have access to the resources and services associated with that subscription, including your storage account.

    Usually upon cancellation Microsoft sends an email stating the data deletion date as per retention policy:

    User's image

    If you want to delete the data Immediately then you have 2 options :

    • Activate subscription by converting into PAYG(please note this will start your billing)
    • Contact Azure support by raising support request.

    Please "Accept as answer" if this helps.


  2. Sumarigo-MSFT 47,486 Reputation points Microsoft Employee
    2023-07-17T06:48:27.8833333+00:00

    @Shweta Dixit Adding more information to the above response!

    Firstly, Once the Subscription is disabled you cannot make any write operations on resources, the subscription needs to be under active state. 

    Once your credit runs out, Azure disables your services and subscription. To continue using Azure services, you must upgrade your subscription to a pay-as-you-go subscription by contacting Azure support. After you upgrade, your subscription still has access to free services for 12 months from your sign-up date.

    Once you're account is enabled , you can try the below mentioned suggestion to delete the Azure Storage account.

    Based on the error message/screenshot, your storage account is protected by a WORM policy.

    In all likelihood, a blob container in your storage account has version-level immutability enabled which is preventing that storage account from being deleted.

    To delete the storage account, you would first need to find that container and disable the version level immutability (or simply delete the container). After that you should be able to delete the account.

    You may find this link helpful to learn more about the data protection options: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/blobs/data-protection-overview#overview-of-data-protection-options.

    To clear the legal hold on a container, please see this: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/blobs/immutable-policy-configure-container-scope?tabs=azure-portal#configure-or-clear-a-legal-hold.

    Note: Deleting a locked immutability policy is not allowed, only way is to delete the container after deleting all blobs inside the container.

    What happens if I try to delete a container with a time-based retention policy or legal hold?

    The Delete Container operation will fail if at least one blob exists within the container with either a locked or unlocked time-based retention policy or if the container has a legal hold. The Delete Container operation will succeed only if no blobs exist within the container and there are no legal holds.

    What happens if I try to delete a storage account with a container that has a time-based retention policy or legal hold?

    The storage account deletion will fail if there is at least one container with a legal hold set or a locked time-based policy. A container with an unlocked time-based policy does not protect against storage account deletion. You must remove all legal holds and delete all locked containers before you can delete the storage account.

    Please let us know if you have any further queries. I’m happy to assist you further.


    Please do not forget to and “up-vote” wherever the information provided helps you, this can be beneficial to other community members.

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