Unable to delete Azure AI Studio Project due to missing / soft-deleted workspace dependency

Question

Unable to delete Azure AI Studio Project due to missing / soft-deleted workspace dependency

Nandhini K 20

I am trying to delete an Azure AI Studio project, but I am encountering multiple errors related to the associated workspace. Earlier, I had manually deleted the Azure Machine Learning workspace that was connected to this AI Studio project. After that, the AI Studio project started showing errors and I am unable to delete it.

Current Situation

• The Azure AI Studio project still appears in the portal. • The original workspace that the project was connected to was deleted earlier. • When I try to recreate the workspace with the same name, Azure sometimes reports that a soft-deleted workspace already exists. • In some cases, the workspace shows as "Deleting" or fails during provisioning.

Anshika Varshney 9,655 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-03-06T19:08:58.0033333+00:00

Hi Nandhini K,

This usually happens when the Azure AI Studio project still has something linked to it in the background. Even though the project looks empty in the portal, Azure does not allow deletion if any dependent resources still exist.

A few things you can check first. Open the project and make sure there are no agents, deployments, connections, indexes, vector stores, or evaluation runs still present. Sometimes these do not show up immediately, so refreshing the page or reopening the project helps surface hidden items.

Next, check the resource group linked to the project in the Azure portal. Look for Azure AI Foundry related resources such as model deployments, managed identities, storage accounts, or application insights that were created with the project. If any of those are still present and tied to the project, the delete action will fail.

Another common reason is role or permission propagation. If you recently changed access or removed yourself from a role, the portal can still show the project but block deletion. Logging out and back in, or waiting a little for permissions to sync, often resolves this.

If the project was created using the new Foundry portal, try deleting it from the same portal where it was created instead of switching between classic and new experiences. Mixing portals can sometimes cause delete operations to get stuck.

Once all linked resources are removed and permissions are fully in place, the project delete option usually works without any further action.

Hope this helps. Do let me know if you have any further queries.

Thankyou!
Nandhini K 20 Reputation points

2026-03-09T05:13:19.5833333+00:00

Hi **Anshika Varshney,
**i have tried all these methods and deleted everything inside my resource group , still i couldn't delete the ai studio.I neither connected my ai studio to any of the agent nor deployed any models over there. Even i couldn't open my ai studio as well.
Thankyou.
Anshika Varshney 9,655 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-03-09T15:27:01.2+00:00

Hi Nandhini K,

Thank you for letting us know about this issue. We have escalated it to our Product Group team and are currently reviewing the details. The team is investigating, and we will share updates as soon as we have more information. Please check the private chat and complete the form to help with the investigation.

Thank you for your patience.
Anshika Varshney 9,655 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-03-11T12:39:25.2233333+00:00

Hi Nandhini K,

Thanks for your patience while we reviewed this internally.

Based on the investigation with our engineering team, the behavior you’re seeing is due to a dependency on an Azure Machine Learning workspace that is either soft‑deleted or missing. When an AI Studio project still references such a workspace, the project deletion gets blocked and results in an orphaned project.

Here’s what you can do depending on your situation:

If the Azure ML workspace was soft‑deleted Recreating a workspace with the same name will not work. In this case, please restore the soft‑deleted Azure ML workspace first, and then retry deleting the Azure AI Studio project. Once the workspace is restored, the project cleanup should succeed. Workspace soft deletion - Azure Machine Learning | Microsoft Learn

If the Azure ML workspace was permanently deleted or cannot be restored In this scenario, the project cannot be cleaned up from the customer side because the backend dependency no longer exists. This requires backend intervention to remove the orphaned reference.

We’ve shared this pattern with the product team as it impacts resource cleanup, governance, and automation workflows when projects become stuck due to missing ML workspace dependencies. Engineering is aware and reviewing improvements for handling these orphaned project states more gracefully.

Hope this helps. Please let us know whether the workspace can be restored on your side.

Thankyou!
Nandhini K 20 Reputation points

2026-03-11T13:02:56.5533333+00:00

Hi Anshika Varshne,
I was not able to restore my deleted workspace as I deleted it permanently. kindly requesting the Team to delete the ai studio or guide me how to procced with the further steps.
Thank you!!!
Anshika Varshney 9,655 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-03-12T17:50:37.0266667+00:00
Hi Nandhini K,

Thanks for the update.

If the Azure Machine Learning workspace was permanently deleted and is no longer in a soft‑deleted state, then it unfortunately cannot be restored. In this situation, the Azure AI Studio project is left with an orphaned backend reference to the old workspace, which is why the project delete action is failing.

At this point, there are no additional steps you can perform from the portal to remove the AI Studio project yourself, because the dependency it expects no longer exists.

What happens next is:

The AI Studio project still has a backend link to the deleted workspace.

Since the workspace cannot be restored, that reference needs to be manually cleaned up on the service side.

This requires backend intervention to remove the orphaned workspace reference and complete the project deletion.

Please provide the details of the orphaned resources for further investigation.

Thankyou!
Nandhini K 20 Reputation points

2026-03-13T05:24:04.1433333+00:00

Hi **Anshika Varshne,
**Thanks for the reply.
PFB the details of the orphaned resource
Azure Ai Project name - .

Resource group - .

Location - .

Subscription - .

Subscription ID - .

Studio web URL - .

Azure AI hub - .

Project ID - .
Kindly reach me for further details.
Regards,
Nandhini.K
Anshika Varshney 9,655 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-03-16T15:28:17.2133333+00:00

Hi Nandhini K,

I got the response from the backend team, they suggest that the hub is scheduled to be purged on 3/20. Please restore the hub workspace first. Then try to delete the project first and then the hub.
Nandhini K 20 Reputation points

2026-03-17T04:39:17.2833333+00:00

Hi **Anshika Varshne,
**Thanks for the reply . Could you please help me with steps to restore the hub workspace.
Regards,
Nandhini.K
Anshika Varshney 9,655 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-03-18T18:02:56.57+00:00

Hi Nandhini K,
Below document for your reference.
Workspace soft deletion - Azure Machine Learning | Microsoft Learn

Thankyou!
Nandhini K 20 Reputation points

2026-03-19T15:09:34.4166667+00:00

Hi Anshika Varshney,

Thanks for sharing.

Regards,

Nandhini K
Anshika Varshney 9,655 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-03-23T18:00:59.48+00:00

Hi Nandhini K,

Based on the backend checks, the hub workspace was scheduled to be purged on March 20, 2026 and that date has already passed. Could you please try deleting the AI Studio project again now and let us know the result. If the delete still fails, please share the latest error message and the approximate time you tried the delete so we can review the latest logs after the purge. Also, please note you do not need to do any extra backend cleanup from your side. Just retry the project delete and share the latest outcome if it does not go through.

Thankyou!
Nandhini K 20 Reputation points

2026-03-24T05:06:43.8433333+00:00

Hi Anshika Varshney,
I could not delete the AI studio even now.
PFB the screenshot of error message .I tried to delete the resource by 10.33 AM.

Thanks!!
Anshika Varshney 9,655 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-03-24T14:26:54.7666667+00:00

Hi Nandhini K,

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We have escalated this issue to our Product Group (PG) team and internally T2 team and are currently reviewing the details. we will update you as soon as we have more information.

Thank you for your patience.
Nandhini K 20 Reputation points

2026-03-25T05:59:03.35+00:00

Hi Anshika varshney,
Thanks for the help.
Manas Mohanty 16,105 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-03-30T05:38:42.8066667+00:00
Hi Nandhini K,

Good day. Went through the case history and respective engineering ticket

It seems hub was deleted at your side before deleting the project; while deleting the project it throws below message as per design.

Failed to delete workspace <redacted>/rg-infra-insureliv-dedicated/openai-insureliv-dev-test-project because of exception Common.WebApi.Exceptions.ResourceNotFoundException: Unable to find workspace: /subscriptions/<redacted>/resourcegroups/rg-infra-insureliv-dedicated/providers/Microsoft.MachineLearningServices/workspaces/openai-insureliv-**-test-hub

Common.WebApi.Exceptions.ResourceNotFoundException: Unable to find workspace - Project is corrupted and usable anymore.

Project was set to be purged at 03/20/2026 09:16:47 +00:00.

Please retry deleting the project from UI/CLI

CLI commands

az resource delete --ids /subscriptions/{subscriptionId}/providers/Microsoft.CognitiveServices/locations/{location}/resourceGroups/{resourceGroup}/deletedAccounts/{resourceName}

Reference used - Recover or purge deleted resources

Please create new Foundry hub-based project to reduce downtime.

Thank you.
Manas Mohanty 16,105 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-03-31T02:13:07.3833333+00:00

Hey Nandhini K

Good day.

Please let us know if the issue still persists for you.

Have reached you via private message for the same.

Thank you.
Nandhini K 20 Reputation points

2026-03-31T05:15:53.2166667+00:00

Hi Manas Mohanty,
i couldn't delete the Ai studio even now, It shows the same error.
PFB the screenshot.

Your private messages are not accessible .
Thanks,
Nandhini.K

Answer accepted by question author

1 additional answer

Your answer

Anshika Varshney 9,655 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-03-06T19:08:58.0033333+00:00

Hi Nandhini K,

This usually happens when the Azure AI Studio project still has something linked to it in the background. Even though the project looks empty in the portal, Azure does not allow deletion if any dependent resources still exist.

A few things you can check first. Open the project and make sure there are no agents, deployments, connections, indexes, vector stores, or evaluation runs still present. Sometimes these do not show up immediately, so refreshing the page or reopening the project helps surface hidden items.

Next, check the resource group linked to the project in the Azure portal. Look for Azure AI Foundry related resources such as model deployments, managed identities, storage accounts, or application insights that were created with the project. If any of those are still present and tied to the project, the delete action will fail.

Another common reason is role or permission propagation. If you recently changed access or removed yourself from a role, the portal can still show the project but block deletion. Logging out and back in, or waiting a little for permissions to sync, often resolves this.

If the project was created using the new Foundry portal, try deleting it from the same portal where it was created instead of switching between classic and new experiences. Mixing portals can sometimes cause delete operations to get stuck.

Once all linked resources are removed and permissions are fully in place, the project delete option usually works without any further action.

Hope this helps. Do let me know if you have any further queries.

Thankyou!
Nandhini K 20 Reputation points

2026-03-09T05:13:19.5833333+00:00

Hi **Anshika Varshney,
**i have tried all these methods and deleted everything inside my resource group , still i couldn't delete the ai studio.I neither connected my ai studio to any of the agent nor deployed any models over there. Even i couldn't open my ai studio as well.
Thankyou.
Anshika Varshney 9,655 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-03-09T15:27:01.2+00:00

Hi Nandhini K,

Thank you for letting us know about this issue. We have escalated it to our Product Group team and are currently reviewing the details. The team is investigating, and we will share updates as soon as we have more information. Please check the private chat and complete the form to help with the investigation.

Thank you for your patience.
Anshika Varshney 9,655 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-03-11T12:39:25.2233333+00:00

Hi Nandhini K,

Thanks for your patience while we reviewed this internally.

Based on the investigation with our engineering team, the behavior you’re seeing is due to a dependency on an Azure Machine Learning workspace that is either soft‑deleted or missing. When an AI Studio project still references such a workspace, the project deletion gets blocked and results in an orphaned project.

Here’s what you can do depending on your situation:

If the Azure ML workspace was soft‑deleted Recreating a workspace with the same name will not work. In this case, please restore the soft‑deleted Azure ML workspace first, and then retry deleting the Azure AI Studio project. Once the workspace is restored, the project cleanup should succeed. Workspace soft deletion - Azure Machine Learning | Microsoft Learn

If the Azure ML workspace was permanently deleted or cannot be restored In this scenario, the project cannot be cleaned up from the customer side because the backend dependency no longer exists. This requires backend intervention to remove the orphaned reference.

We’ve shared this pattern with the product team as it impacts resource cleanup, governance, and automation workflows when projects become stuck due to missing ML workspace dependencies. Engineering is aware and reviewing improvements for handling these orphaned project states more gracefully.

Hope this helps. Please let us know whether the workspace can be restored on your side.

Thankyou!
Nandhini K 20 Reputation points

2026-03-11T13:02:56.5533333+00:00

Hi Anshika Varshne,
I was not able to restore my deleted workspace as I deleted it permanently. kindly requesting the Team to delete the ai studio or guide me how to procced with the further steps.
Thank you!!!
Anshika Varshney 9,655 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-03-12T17:50:37.0266667+00:00

Hi Nandhini K,

Thanks for the update.

If the Azure Machine Learning workspace was permanently deleted and is no longer in a soft‑deleted state, then it unfortunately cannot be restored. In this situation, the Azure AI Studio project is left with an orphaned backend reference to the old workspace, which is why the project delete action is failing.

At this point, there are no additional steps you can perform from the portal to remove the AI Studio project yourself, because the dependency it expects no longer exists.

What happens next is:

The AI Studio project still has a backend link to the deleted workspace.

Since the workspace cannot be restored, that reference needs to be manually cleaned up on the service side.

This requires backend intervention to remove the orphaned workspace reference and complete the project deletion.

Please provide the details of the orphaned resources for further investigation.

Thankyou!
Nandhini K 20 Reputation points

2026-03-13T05:24:04.1433333+00:00

Hi **Anshika Varshne,
**Thanks for the reply.
PFB the details of the orphaned resource
Azure Ai Project name - .

Resource group - .

Location - .

Subscription - .

Subscription ID - .

Studio web URL - .

Azure AI hub - .

Project ID - .
Kindly reach me for further details.
Regards,
Nandhini.K
Anshika Varshney 9,655 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-03-16T15:28:17.2133333+00:00

Hi Nandhini K,

I got the response from the backend team, they suggest that the hub is scheduled to be purged on 3/20. Please restore the hub workspace first. Then try to delete the project first and then the hub.
Nandhini K 20 Reputation points

2026-03-17T04:39:17.2833333+00:00

Hi **Anshika Varshne,
**Thanks for the reply . Could you please help me with steps to restore the hub workspace.
Regards,
Nandhini.K
Anshika Varshney 9,655 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-03-18T18:02:56.57+00:00

Hi Nandhini K,
Below document for your reference.
Workspace soft deletion - Azure Machine Learning | Microsoft Learn

Thankyou!
Nandhini K 20 Reputation points

2026-03-19T15:09:34.4166667+00:00

Hi Anshika Varshney,

Thanks for sharing.

Regards,

Nandhini K
Anshika Varshney 9,655 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-03-23T18:00:59.48+00:00

Hi Nandhini K,

Based on the backend checks, the hub workspace was scheduled to be purged on March 20, 2026 and that date has already passed. Could you please try deleting the AI Studio project again now and let us know the result. If the delete still fails, please share the latest error message and the approximate time you tried the delete so we can review the latest logs after the purge. Also, please note you do not need to do any extra backend cleanup from your side. Just retry the project delete and share the latest outcome if it does not go through.

Thankyou!
Nandhini K 20 Reputation points

2026-03-24T05:06:43.8433333+00:00

Hi Anshika Varshney,
I could not delete the AI studio even now.
PFB the screenshot of error message .I tried to delete the resource by 10.33 AM.

Thanks!!
Anshika Varshney 9,655 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-03-24T14:26:54.7666667+00:00

Hi Nandhini K,

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We have escalated this issue to our Product Group (PG) team and internally T2 team and are currently reviewing the details. we will update you as soon as we have more information.

Thank you for your patience.
Nandhini K 20 Reputation points

2026-03-25T05:59:03.35+00:00

Hi Anshika varshney,
Thanks for the help.
Manas Mohanty 16,105 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-03-30T05:38:42.8066667+00:00

Hi Nandhini K,

Good day. Went through the case history and respective engineering ticket

It seems hub was deleted at your side before deleting the project; while deleting the project it throws below message as per design.

Failed to delete workspace <redacted>/rg-infra-insureliv-dedicated/openai-insureliv-dev-test-project because of exception Common.WebApi.Exceptions.ResourceNotFoundException: Unable to find workspace: /subscriptions/<redacted>/resourcegroups/rg-infra-insureliv-dedicated/providers/Microsoft.MachineLearningServices/workspaces/openai-insureliv-**-test-hub

Common.WebApi.Exceptions.ResourceNotFoundException: Unable to find workspace - Project is corrupted and usable anymore.

Project was set to be purged at 03/20/2026 09:16:47 +00:00.

Please retry deleting the project from UI/CLI

CLI commands

az resource delete --ids /subscriptions/{subscriptionId}/providers/Microsoft.CognitiveServices/locations/{location}/resourceGroups/{resourceGroup}/deletedAccounts/{resourceName}

Reference used - Recover or purge deleted resources

Please create new Foundry hub-based project to reduce downtime.

Thank you.
Manas Mohanty 16,105 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-03-31T02:13:07.3833333+00:00

Hey Nandhini K

Good day.

Please let us know if the issue still persists for you.

Have reached you via private message for the same.

Thank you.
Nandhini K 20 Reputation points

2026-03-31T05:15:53.2166667+00:00

Hi Manas Mohanty,
i couldn't delete the Ai studio even now, It shows the same error.
PFB the screenshot.

Your private messages are not accessible .
Thanks,
Nandhini.K

Answer 1

Hi Nandhini K,

Thank you for confirming that you were able to delete the ghost studio project eventually.

Attached case summary for reference.

Issue

Customer was not able to studio project post deletion of Foundry Hub and always faced "project not found" error.

Pointer shared from Support

Share CLI command to delete the purged resources.

Justified that ghost project won't incur any cost and suggested to move ahead with new studio project already

Investigation from PG

Product group found out that there was a bug on backend prohibiting.

Status:

Customer was able to delete the resource post confirmation from product group on 6th April

Thank you for staying patient so far.

Answer 2

Nandhini K 20

Hi **Anshika Varshne,
**I was not able to restore my deleted workspace as I deleted it permanently .
kindly requesting the Team to delete the ai studio or guide me how to procced with the further steps.
Thank you!!!

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Unable to delete Azure AI Studio Project due to missing / soft-deleted workspace dependency

1 additional answer

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