Why are there versions saved on my Blob Storage even with versioning disabled on my storage account? Being billed for version storage

Question

Why are there versions saved on my Blob Storage even with versioning disabled on my storage account? Being billed for version storage

Ian Weston 5

I have a Hot tier Blob Service in a Standard LRS StorageV2 general purpose storage account. The blob service has the following settings.

I'm being billed for 6TiB and not the 350GiB that is active. Why am I being billed for 6TiB of version space when versions have never been disabled?

Thanks.

Settings below

Azure Blob Storage Configuration

Hierarchical namespace : Disabled

Default access tier : Hot

Blob anonymous access : Disabled

Blob soft delete : Disabled

Container soft delete : Disabled

Versioning : Disabled

Change feed : Disabled

NFS v3 : Disabled

Allow cross-tenant replication : Disabled

Storage tasks assignments : None

Keshavulu Dasari 4,750 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-05-05T19:42:47.4166667+00:00

Hi Ian Weston ,

When you disable versioning, any existing versions remain in your storage account

These versions will continue to occupy space and incur costs until they are manually deleted.

If you have any lifecycle management policies that previously created versions or snapshots, those versions might still be present, although you mentioned soft delete is disabled, if it was enabled at any point, deleted blobs might have been retained as versions

To resolve this issue, you can: Check for and delete any existing versions of your blobs. Ensure no policies are inadvertently creating versions.

If you have any other questions or are still running into more issues, let me know in the "comments" and I would be glad to assist you.
Ian Weston 5 Reputation points

2025-05-05T20:14:29.6433333+00:00
I'm still confused as to how versions were captured with versioning disabled (and never previously enabled).

I didn't have any lifecycle management policies but I created one a couple hours ago to delete versions/snapshots

If snapshots created more than 1 day ago delete the blob snapshot
If versions created more than 1 day ago delete the blob version

However, this seemingly hasn't ran yet since the account is still showing 6TiB.
(Update: 16 hours later and the version size is still 6 TiB so the lifecycle management policy doesn't seem to be working)

This is certainly degrading my trust in azure cloud storage as I've been billed $1,170 this year for storage when according to the azure calculator it should have been about $100 max

Questions:

Is the lifecycle management policy the correct way to make sure versions aren't billed for storage?

Why are versions being created if versioning is disabled and soft deletes are disabled?

Am I eligible for a refund of the previous months since my settings do not match the storage behavior?

Thanks!
Keshavulu Dasari 4,750 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-05-07T17:43:17.7866667+00:00

Hi Ian Weston ,

Just checking in to see if the response helped. If you have any questions, let me know in the "comments" and I would be glad to assist you.
Keshavulu Dasari 4,750 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-05-08T15:17:19.6666667+00:00

Hi Ian Weston ,

If you have any other questions or are still running into more issues, let me know in the "comments" and I would be glad to assist you.

1 answer

Your answer

Keshavulu Dasari 4,750 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-05-05T19:42:47.4166667+00:00

Hi Ian Weston ,

When you disable versioning, any existing versions remain in your storage account

These versions will continue to occupy space and incur costs until they are manually deleted.

If you have any lifecycle management policies that previously created versions or snapshots, those versions might still be present, although you mentioned soft delete is disabled, if it was enabled at any point, deleted blobs might have been retained as versions

To resolve this issue, you can: Check for and delete any existing versions of your blobs. Ensure no policies are inadvertently creating versions.

If you have any other questions or are still running into more issues, let me know in the "comments" and I would be glad to assist you.
Ian Weston 5 Reputation points

2025-05-05T20:14:29.6433333+00:00

I'm still confused as to how versions were captured with versioning disabled (and never previously enabled).

I didn't have any lifecycle management policies but I created one a couple hours ago to delete versions/snapshots

If snapshots created more than 1 day ago delete the blob snapshot
If versions created more than 1 day ago delete the blob version

However, this seemingly hasn't ran yet since the account is still showing 6TiB.
(Update: 16 hours later and the version size is still 6 TiB so the lifecycle management policy doesn't seem to be working)

This is certainly degrading my trust in azure cloud storage as I've been billed $1,170 this year for storage when according to the azure calculator it should have been about $100 max

Questions:

Is the lifecycle management policy the correct way to make sure versions aren't billed for storage?

Why are versions being created if versioning is disabled and soft deletes are disabled?

Am I eligible for a refund of the previous months since my settings do not match the storage behavior?

Thanks!
Keshavulu Dasari 4,750 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-05-07T17:43:17.7866667+00:00

Hi Ian Weston ,

Just checking in to see if the response helped. If you have any questions, let me know in the "comments" and I would be glad to assist you.
Keshavulu Dasari 4,750 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-05-08T15:17:19.6666667+00:00

Hi Ian Weston ,

If you have any other questions or are still running into more issues, let me know in the "comments" and I would be glad to assist you.

Answer 1

Hi Ian Weston ,

Yes, a lifecycle management policy is generally the correct approach to manage and delete old versions and snapshots to optimize costs, it seems like your policy hasn't executed as expected. Ensure that the policy is correctly configured and applied to the storage account. You might also want to check if there are any delays or errors in the policy execution.

Unexpected Version Creation:

Versions should not be created if versioning is disabled. However, there might be other factors at play:

Even with versioning disabled, snapshots can be created manually or by other processes.

If object replication was enabled at any point, it relies on versioning, check the settings to ensure versioning was never enabled inadvertently.

Review the activity logs to identify any operations that might have created versions or snapshots.

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

If you have any other questions or are still running into more issues, let me know in the "comments" and I would be glad to assist you.

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Why are there versions saved on my Blob Storage even with versioning disabled on my storage account? Being billed for version storage

1 answer

Your answer