There was no resolution for this, but i reached out to MS support via my partner status, and it ended on the table of the DevOps technical support, which deleted the user in the backend.
No other way i think
Azure DevOps ghost user
JakobStrm-2195
11
Reputation points
i am having troubles with a ghost user in my organization that doesnt exist anymore, and have absolutely no idea how to get help about this?
It takes up a basic license, and cant remove it from the website, and also not from the api.
Azure DevOps
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Rakesh Mishra 6,730 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator2026-03-02T14:59:16.2066667+00:00 Hi @JakobStrm-2195 ,
Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A Platform! Thank you for asking your question here.
Please try below steps and share your findings.
- Check the Azure DevOps UI first
- Go to Organization settings > Users
- In the filter dropdown, select All users (not just Active)
- See if the ghost user still appears—if so, click the ellipsis (…) next to their name and choose Remove from organization
- If they don’t show up in the UI, use the Azure DevOps CLI
- Install and sign in with
az devops loginif you haven’t already - List all user entitlements so you can find the ghost account
az devops user list --org https://dev.azure.com/<YourOrg> --top 500 - Locate the ghost user’s email or descriptor in that list
- Remove them with:
az devops user remove --user <ghost-user-email_or_id> --org https://dev.azure.com/<YourOrg> --yes
- Install and sign in with
- (Alternate) Use the REST API to delete the entitlement
- GET all entitlements:
GET https://vsaex.dev.azure.com/<YourOrg>/_apis/userentitlements?api-version=7.1-preview.3 - Find the
idfor the ghost user - DELETE it:
DELETE https://vsaex.dev.azure.com/<YourOrg>/_apis/userentitlements/<userEntitlementId>?api-version=7.1-preview.3
- GET all entitlements:
- Double-check group-based licensing
- If you assign access via Microsoft Entra group rules, make sure that deleted users aren’t still members of any access-granting group
- Go to Organization settings > Group rules and remove the ghost user’s group membership or adjust the rule so it no longer applies
- Verify in your identity provider
- If this was a B2B guest or Entra user, ensure the guest account is fully removed or disabled in Azure AD
- Then repeat step 1 or 2 to clear out the leftover Azure DevOps entitlement
Once you’ve removed the entitlement, the Basic license seat will free up immediately. Hope this helps—let me know if you hit any snags!
Reference docs
- Remove users from Azure DevOps via the portal
- Group-based licensing (group rules).
- Manage Azure AD groups in Azure DevOps
- REST API to delete user entitlements
Note: This response is drafted with the help of AI systems.
- Check the Azure DevOps UI first
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JakobStrm-2195 11 Reputation points
2026-03-02T16:47:52.12+00:00 I have tried all of the suggestions. And everything is accepted both in the UI and via the Api. The user is gone, until you refresh your browser, it is back.
Through the Api you can just keep deleting the userentitlement with no error all the time.The user is still present and takes up a basic license.
Also when trying to change license to Stakeholder it gives me an error[{from: "", op: 2, path: "/accessLevel", value: {accountLicenseType: 5, licensingSource: 1}}]
- 0: {from: "", op: 2, path: "/accessLevel", value: {accountLicenseType: 5, licensingSource: 1}}
- from: ""
- op: 2
- path: "/accessLevel"
- value: {accountLicenseType: 5, licensingSource: 1}
- accountLicenseType: 5
- licensingSource:
{
"$id": "1", "innerException": null, "message": "Sequence contains no elements", "typeName": "System.InvalidOperationException, mscorlib", "typeKey": "InvalidOperationException", "errorCode": 0, "eventId": 0}
The user is not in entra id anymore. In the past this has been a synced user from AD to AAD, but that user has not existed for a couple of years, and the user is also not in deleted users in entra. It simply doesnt exist.
- 0: {from: "", op: 2, path: "/accessLevel", value: {accountLicenseType: 5, licensingSource: 1}}
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Rakesh Mishra 6,730 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
2026-03-10T09:17:14.3866667+00:00 Hi @JakobStrm-2195 , I have reached out to you on Private message. Please check and share the requested information to assist you further.
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JakobStrm-2195 11 Reputation points
2026-03-10T09:40:36.7+00:00 -
Rakesh Mishra 6,730 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
2026-03-10T09:42:48.95+00:00 Glad to hear that issue is resolved. I would have also reached out to internal team to check the issue from backend and provide a fix.
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