Fixing orphaned Azure DevOps org

Question

We have an ADO org where the owner has left the company. This account has been disabled. I am an Azure Global Admin and an ADO Admin in Entra ID - all active.

When I go to the Org Settings for the Org, the Change Owner button is greyed out.

There is a warning above it that states: Warning: The owner and project collection administrator(s) for this organization are inactive in Microsoft Entra. This provides a Change Owner button, which is also greyed out.

I have followed all the steps explained here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/organizations/accounts/resolve-orphaned-organization?view=azure-devops

Any help appreciated.

Answer 1

Hi AL,

Use Azure DevOps CLI-based method and REST API to resolve this issue:

• Install the Azure DevOps CLI extension and configure your organization context using the below commands:

az extension add --name azure-devops
az login
az devops configure --defaults organization=https://dev.azure.com/org_name

Replace org_name with your actual ADO organization name.

• Forcibly add yourself as a Project Collection Administrator (PCA)

az devops security group membership add --group-id "Project Collection Administrators" --member-id ENTRA_OBJECT_ID --org https://dev.azure.com/org_name

Replace ENTRA_OBJECT_ID with your Microsoft Entra user object ID (you can get it using az ad signed-in-user show --query objectId --output tsv) and org_name with your Azure DevOps organization name.

• Change the organization owner via the REST API and Generate a Personal Access Token (PAT):

Navigate to: https://dev.azure.com/org_name/_usersSettings/tokens

Create a new PAT with Organization > Manage scope.

curl -X PATCH -u user_name:PAT -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"newOwnerId": "ENTRA_OBJECT_ID"}' https://dev.azure.com/org_name/_apis/organizationmanagement/OrganizationSettings?api-version=7.1-preview.1

Replace user_name with your email or Azure DevOps username, PAT with your actual Personal Access Token (used in the format username:PAT for basic authentication), and ENTRA_OBJECT_ID with your Entra user object ID.

This method will successfully resolve the orphaned Azure DevOps organization issue and restore full administrative control.

Hope it helps!

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