Orphaned Azure Visual Studio Professional Subscription

Orlando, Dante, ITD 0 Reputation points
2025-03-19T21:31:29.3366667+00:00

I have an old Visual Studio Professional subscription that I can no longer administer. I recently converted a classic admin account to an owner RBAC, but when I tried to convert the time-based access to permanent access, something went haywire, and it left me with 0 role assignments. This means I am unable to do anything with the subscription and I am unable to create a support ticket. I can still see this subscription when I login to my azure home screen and if I navigate to "My Permissions" it says I am an administrator of the subscription, but when I check IAM, I have no role assignments, and when I try to add one, it says I have insufficient permissions to do so. My question is, what do I do now? Is there a way to restore my access or can I just cancel this subscription entirely? Again, it won't let me even open a support ticket to make either of those requests.

Azure Role-based access control
Azure Role-based access control
An Azure service that provides fine-grained access management for Azure resources, enabling you to grant users only the rights they need to perform their jobs.
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  1. Sanoop M 2,810 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff
    2025-03-21T20:36:15.63+00:00

    Hello @Orlando, Dante, ITD,

    Please note that if you are a Global Administrator in that old Visual Studio Professional subscription, then you can do the following steps.

    If you are a Global Administrator, there might be times when you want to do the following actions:

    • Regain access to an Azure subscription or management group when a user has lost access
    • Grant another user or yourself access to an Azure subscription or management group
    • See all Azure subscriptions or management groups in an organization
    • Allow an automation app (such as an invoicing or auditing app) to access all Azure subscriptions or management groups

    Step 1: Elevate access for a Global Administrator

    Follow these steps to elevate access for a Global Administrator using the Azure portal.

    1. Sign in to the Azure portal as a Global Administrator. If you are using Microsoft Entra Privileged Identity Management, activate your Global Administrator role assignment.
    2. Browse to Microsoft Entra ID > Manage > Properties. Select Properties for Microsoft Entra properties - screenshot
    3. Under Access management for Azure resources, set the toggle to Yes. Access management for Azure resources - screenshot When you set the toggle to Yes, you are assigned the User Access Administrator role in Azure RBAC at root scope (/). This grants you permission to assign roles in all Azure subscriptions and management groups associated with this Microsoft Entra tenant. This toggle is only available to users who are assigned the Global Administrator role in Microsoft Entra ID. When you set the toggle to No, the User Access Administrator role in Azure RBAC is removed from your user account. You can no longer assign roles in all Azure subscriptions and management groups that are associated with this Microsoft Entra tenant. You can view and manage only the Azure subscriptions and management groups to which you have been granted access.
    4. Select Save to save your setting. This setting is not a global property and applies only to the currently signed in user. You can't elevate access for all members of the Global Administrator role.
    5. Sign out and sign back in to refresh your access. You should now have access to all subscriptions and management groups in your tenant. When you view the Access control (IAM) page, you'll notice that you have been assigned the User Access Administrator role at root scope.
    6. Make the changes you need to make at elevated access.

    For additional details, please refer to the below document for your reference.

    Elevate access to manage all Azure subscriptions and management groups | Microsoft Learn

    I hope this above information provided is helpful. Please feel free to reach out if you have any further questions.

    If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".


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