Access lost to repos in DevOps

George Hendrickson 201 Reputation points
2026-04-24T15:15:16.6333333+00:00

I have the basic access level to DevOps under the Visual Studio Dev Essentials and I now suddenly can't access any of my repos I have there. I can't seem to contact tech support about it either. There is something weird going on with my access too. From my work login, i can access them but not from my personal account anymore. I'm not sure how my personal devops repos got associated with my work account. How do I fix this?

Azure DevOps
Answer accepted by question author
Pravallika KV 18,850 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
2026-04-27T04:32:14.21+00:00

Hi @George Hendrickson ,

This looks like your personal DevOps identity no longer has Basic-level access on that organization, so you’ve been bumped down to Stakeholder and can’t see private Repos. Your work account still shows up because it’s been explicitly added with the right access level.

Here’s what you can try:

  1. Check your access level
  • Sign in at https://dev.azure.com/<yourOrg> with your personal account.
  • Go to Organization settings → Users and verify your personal email is listed as Basic (not Stakeholder).
  • If it shows Stakeholder or “Invalid,” your Visual Studio Dev Essentials subscription may have expired. You’ll need to renew it or have an admin assign you Basic access manually.
  • Manage expired Visual Studio subscriptions
  1. Add your personal account to the project/repo security
  • In the project, go to Project settings → Repositories (or Permissions).
  • Select your repo, open the Security tab, search for your personal account, and set “Read” (and “Contribute” if you need it) to Allow.
  • You must be in the Project Administrators group or have Manage permissions to do this; otherwise ask your project admin to grant you those rights.
  • Set Git repo permissions
  1. Ensure the Repos service is enabled
  • In Project settings → Overview → Azure DevOps services, make sure Repos is turned on.
  1. (Optional) Update your org’s default access level
  • If new users are defaulting to Stakeholder, an admin can change the default for new users to Basic under Organization settings → Billing → Default access level.

Once your personal account has an active Basic license and is explicitly granted read rights on your repos, you should immediately see them again when you sign in.

Hope this helps!

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  1. AI answer

    2026-04-24T15:15:33.5233333+00:00

    The most likely causes are:

    1. The personal identity is no longer in the Azure DevOps organization or has insufficient permissions.
    2. The organization is now recognizing the work identity instead of the personal one because of account-type/UPN confusion.
    3. The access level or subscription backing the personal identity changed (for example, Visual Studio entitlement expired, or the organization’s billing/subscription changed), and only the work identity still has valid access.

    Use these steps to fix it:

    1. Confirm which identity has access
      • Sign out completely using https://aka.ms/VsSignout and clear browser cookies (Ctrl+Shift+Delete), as described in the connection troubleshooting guidance.
      • Open a private/incognito browser window.
      • Go to https://dev.azure.com/{organizationName} and sign in only with the personal account.
      • If a 401 Not Authorized or similar access error appears, the personal identity either isn’t in the organization or doesn’t have permissions.
    2. Check for account-type/alias confusion
      • Azure DevOps requires the exact User Principal Name (UPN) or primary Microsoft account email; aliases are not supported.
      • If the personal email has both a Microsoft personal account and a Microsoft Entra (work/school) account, ensure the correct account type is chosen at sign-in (for example, “Work or school” vs “Personal”).
      • Always use the actual UPN (for example, ******@contoso.com) rather than an alias (for example, ******@contoso.com).
    3. Verify the personal account is still a user in the organization
      • Ask the Azure DevOps organization owner or a Project Collection Administrator to:
        • Open Organization Settings → Users.
        • Confirm the personal identity appears in the Users list.
        • If it does not, add the personal identity back to the organization.
      • If the organization is connected to Microsoft Entra ID, the UPN in Azure DevOps must exactly match the Entra UPN.
    4. Check access level and subscription status for the personal account
      • In Organization Settings → Users, have the admin verify:
        • The personal identity has at least Stakeholder or Basic access.
        • If the personal identity previously relied on a Visual Studio subscription and that subscription expired, the account may have lost its higher access level.
      • If a Visual Studio subscription expired, the user can still work as a Stakeholder or be granted a Basic seat until the subscription is renewed.
    5. Verify security group membership and repo permissions
      • Still in Organization Settings → Users and project settings, have the admin check:
        • The personal identity is in a group such as Project Contributors or another group with Read/Contribute permissions to the repos.
        • No explicit Deny permissions are set on the repos for the personal identity or its groups.
      • If the personal account was recently added or changed, refresh the browser or sign out and back in so the permission changes take effect.
    6. Resolve identity mix-up between work and personal accounts
      • If the repos were created while signed in with the work identity (even if using the same email address), Azure DevOps will treat the work identity as the owner.
      • To restore personal access:
        • Sign in with the work identity (which currently works).
        • Share the repos or project with the personal identity by adding it as a user and assigning appropriate access level and permissions.
      • If the wrong identity was used initially and the organization owner wants to standardize on the personal account, they can:
        • Add the personal identity with the desired access level.
        • Optionally remove or downgrade the work identity once the personal account is confirmed to have full access.
    7. If permissions were accidentally removed
      • If personal permissions were accidentally revoked and there is no way to restore them from within the account, the only path is to request a permission increase from an organization owner or Project Collection Administrator.

    If these steps are followed, the personal account should either regain access directly or be re-added with the correct access level and repo permissions, while avoiding further confusion between work and personal identities.

    References:

    AI-generated content may be incorrect. Read our transparency notes for more information.

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  2. George Hendrickson 201 Reputation points
    2026-04-24T16:55:24.8+00:00

    Screenshot 2026-04-24 125143

    There seems to be something wrong with my account. I can't log out successfully or completely. From DevOps from my work account, I can see my personal devops repos there. I feel like that has something to do with it and I can't seem to disconnect it there either. How do i unassociate my devops personal account from my work account? When i try to log out of my.visualstudio.com i get that error in the screenshot. same similarity when trying to sign out of devops in my personal account and work account.

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  3. George Hendrickson 201 Reputation points
    2026-05-04T10:25:23.0333333+00:00

    I had to go to the User settings and change my user to Basic and they came back. It somehow had been set to visual studio enterprise user, probably left over from years ago. I think Microsoft recently fixed that and it messed up some stuff for people. Go into the organization settings and change your user to Basic. That should bring them back.

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