How can I restore a specific file from an Azure VM backup without restoring the entire VM?

Question

How can I restore a specific file from an Azure VM backup without restoring the entire VM?

Kushi Yadav 100

Suchitra Suregaunkar 16,045 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-07-02T01:28:55.4666667+00:00

Hello Kushi,

Thanks for reaching out. You don't need to restore the entire VM to recover a single file. Azure Backup includes a built-in feature called File Recovery (Item-Level Recovery / ILR) that lets you mount a recovery point as a local drive on any compatible machine and copy only the files you need.

Thanks,

Suchitra.

Answer accepted by question author

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Suchitra Suregaunkar 16,045 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-07-02T01:28:55.4666667+00:00

Hello Kushi,

Thanks for reaching out. You don't need to restore the entire VM to recover a single file. Azure Backup includes a built-in feature called File Recovery (Item-Level Recovery / ILR) that lets you mount a recovery point as a local drive on any compatible machine and copy only the files you need.

Thanks,

Suchitra.

Answer 1

Hello Kushi,

Thanks for reaching out. You don't need to restore the entire VM to recover a single file. Azure Backup includes a built-in feature called File Recovery (Item-Level Recovery / ILR) that lets you mount a recovery point as a local drive on any compatible machine and copy only the files you need. It's fast, free, and doesn't create any additional VM or storage.

Azure generates a small executable (Windows) or Python script (Linux) tied to the recovery point you choose. When you run it on a target machine, it uses iSCSI to attach the recovery point disks as local volumes, you then simply browse and copy the required files.

Points to keep in mind:

Supported only for Resource Manager–model Azure VMs protected in a Recovery Services vault.
Not supported for VMs protected using Azure Disk Encryption (ADE) — for those, use a full disk restore instead.
Recommended when the total recovery size is ≤ 10 GB (expected transfer speed ~1 GB/hour). For larger data, use Restore Disk or Create new VM.
The downloaded script is valid for 12 hours — after that, generate a new one from the portal.
Make sure the target machine has outbound access to Azure over HTTPS (443) and iSCSI (3260).

Official Microsoft Documentation Reference:

Hope this helps! If you found the comment helpful, please consider clicking "Upvote it".

Thanks,

Suchitra.

Suchitra Suregaunkar 16,045 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-07-02T17:07:26.9733333+00:00

Hello Kushi,

If the answer is helpful, could you please click "Accept Answer" & "upvote" it and this helps other community members who may encounter a similar issue in the future.

If you’re still experiencing the problem or need further clarification, please feel free to share additional information so we can continue investigating and assist you further.

Thanks,

Suchitra.

Answer 2

Hi,

You can use File Recovery if you only need to restore specific file. In this technique you navigate to the VM in the portal, on left click Backup + disaster recovery -- Backup, click File Recovery at the top, select restore point, download exe/script, and then run script on local PC.

It will mount a drive on your local PC so you can browse the files included in the backup and copy them off as needed.

This works okay if you have fast Internet connection to Azure and only need to restore relatively small number of files with total storage up to several gigabytes. Exactly how many files and amount stored that will be acceptable will depend on your connection and needs.

The process to set things up can be a little confusing and it may have issues functioning properly, but usually you can work through them. Below article details the steps you need to follow:

Recover files from Azure virtual machine backup

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/backup/backup-azure-restore-files-from-vm

Please click Accept Answer and upvote if the above was helpful.

Thanks.

-TP