Project Administrator cannot access Azure DevOps Project Settings via Visual Studio

Question

Project Administrator cannot access Azure DevOps Project Settings via Visual Studio

Tom F 0

Using Azure DevOps and Visual Studio. Recently, when checking in pending changes, started receiving a message that Obsolete policies needed updating:

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Followed the "More info" link to https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/release-notes/2025/sprint-254-update#tfvc-check-in-policies-changes and attempted to follow the instructions within Visual Studio. I am an administrator for the Team Project, but when clicking on Source Control within the Settings:
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I get the following error:
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I had another administrator try, and they experience the same problem. It seems like something is messed up with the permissions for this one project.

Sirra Sneha 550 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-06-05T11:26:13.2633333+00:00

Hello @Tom F ,

Just checking in to see if above information was helpful. If you have any further updates on this issue, please feel free to post back

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Sirra Sneha 550 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-06-05T11:26:13.2633333+00:00

Hello @Tom F ,

Just checking in to see if above information was helpful. If you have any further updates on this issue, please feel free to post back

Answer 1

Sirra Sneha 550 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Hi @Tom F ,

Azure DevOps Sprint 254 removed check-in policy management from Visual Studio. Now, policies can only be set through the Azure DevOps web portal.

Avoid accessing TFVC policy settings via Visual Studio, as it no longer supports editing these settings, The error message is expected behavior due to the deprecated feature.

Use Azure DevOps Web Portal for Policy Configuration,

Go to Azure DevOps web portal -> Project Settings -> Repositories -> [Your TFVC Repo] -> Policies.
Update or manage the check-in policies directly from there.

Verify Repository-Level Permissions,

Go to Project Settings -> Repositories -> [Your Repo] -> Security, and make sure your user or group has Allow for these permissions:

Edit policies , Administer , Edit project-level information

Hope this helps.

Please click Accept Answer and kindly upvote it so that other people who face similar issues may get benefitted from it.

Tom F 0 Reputation points

2025-06-06T11:52:56.7433333+00:00

If I follow the instructions on https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/release-notes/2025/sprint-254-update#tfvc-check-in-policies-changes for the other two projects, I am able to edit Check-in Policies inside Visual Studio. Here's an example for one of the projects:

In addition, if I follow the instructions you posted for this Project, I don't see these two policies that a previous Administrator added anywhere in the Azure DevOps Web Portal. All I see is this:
Sirra Sneha 550 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-06-09T08:53:02.1966667+00:00
Hi @Tom F,

Thanks for the detailed explanation and screenshots, they’re really helpful in understanding the issue.

In projects where you can still access check-in policies in Visual Studio, it's because,

Check-in policies still work in some projects because they use TFVC (not Git) and had the policies set up before the Sprint 254 update. Visual Studio can still show these older policies if they were already there, which is why it works in those projects but not in others where policies weren’t set or TFVC isn’t set up properly.

In projects where you don’t see policies in the Azure DevOps web portal, it’s likely because,

You don’t see those policies in the Azure DevOps web portal because they were likely created only within Visual Studio, and Azure DevOps doesn’t expose those legacy TFVC policies in the portal UI yet.

Those policies may still exist at the client or workspace level, but they aren’t synced to or visible in the portal.

Please confirm that TFVC is enabled in your project:

Go to Project Settings > Repositories in Azure DevOps web portal.

Ensure you see a TFVC repository listed (usually named like $/ProjectName).

If there is no TFVC repo, the policies won’t appear, and you won’t be able to manage TFVC check-in policies in the portal.

Hope this helps.
Sirra Sneha 550 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-06-10T16:12:39.5366667+00:00

Hi @Tom F,

Just checking in to see if above information was helpful. If you have any further updates on this issue, please feel free to post back.
Sirra Sneha 550 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-06-11T16:51:13.6133333+00:00

Hi @Tom F,

Following up to check if the issue is resolved or if you need any further assistance. Let me know how it's going!

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Project Administrator cannot access Azure DevOps Project Settings via Visual Studio

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