Notebooks disappearing in Azure ML

Rob Gouw | HBM Machines 45 Reputation points
2026-06-25T14:20:19.47+00:00

Hi!

It has happened in two different Azure ML workspaces that notebooks that were created have disappeared. How do you recover those notebooks?User's image

Azure Machine Learning
Answer accepted by question author
Karnam Venkata Rajeswari 5,255 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
2026-06-25T14:27:26.8366667+00:00

Hello @Rob Gouw | HBM Machines ,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A .Thank you for reaching out to us.

Based on the screenshot, Azure Machine Learning Studio appears to be loading successfully, including the workspace navigation, notebook toolbar, and other Studio components. However, the Notebooks > Files pane is displaying an empty file list without any visible error message.

Please check if the following steps help-

The first priority is to determine whether the notebook files still exist. This helps identify the correct recovery path.

  1. Notebook files still exist Please review the Storage Account associated with the Azure ML workspace and confirm whether the missing .ipynb files are still present.
    • Review the file shares and storage locations used by the workspace.
    • Verify whether the notebook files remain available.
    • If the files exist in storage, no data loss has occurred.
    • In this scenario, recovery involves restoring access to the existing notebook files and resolving the issue preventing them from appearing in Studio.
  2. Notebook files are missing If the notebook files are no longer present in storage:
    • Review available backups and snapshots.
    • Check whether Azure Files Soft Delete was enabled.
    • Check whether Blob Soft Delete, Blob Versioning, or Point-in-Time Restore were enabled.
    • If Git integration was configured, review the repository history and previous commits.
    These options may provide a recovery path depending on the storage and source-control configuration.
  3. Validating visibility from a Compute Instance If a Compute Instance is available:
    • Start the Compute Instance.
    • Open a Terminal session.
    • Verify whether the notebook files can be located from the workspace file system.
    If files are visible from the terminal but not from the Notebooks blade, this would suggest a Studio file-listing issue rather than notebook deletion.
  4. Reviewing recent configuration changes Please review whether any changes occurred prior to the issue, including:
    • Azure RBAC assignments
    • Managed identities
    • Datastore configuration
    • Storage credentials or key rotation
    • Storage firewall settings
    • Private endpoints or networking changes
    • Workspace configuration updates
    Storage access or identity-related changes can prevent notebook files from being listed even though they still exist.
  5. Reviewing Activity Logs Please review Activity Logs around the time the notebooks were last visible and look for:
    • Compute Instance deletion or recreation
    • Storage Account modifications
    • File Share deletion
    • Role assignment updates
    • Workspace changes

The following references might be helpful , please check them out

Please let us know if any error messages encountered

Thank you

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  1. Sina Salam 31,456 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2026-06-29T11:51:30.8933333+00:00

    Hello Rob Gouw | HBM Machines,

    Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A and thank you for posting your questions here.

    I understand that your Notebooks disappearing in Azure ML twice from two different workspaces without any error notification.

    This is not high technical backend request because, Azure ML notebooks are workspace files stored in the workspace’s default storage, not only in the Studio UI. Therefore, recovery must start from the workspace’s backing storage account and any configured Git, Azure Files snapshot, Azure Backup, Blob soft delete/versioning, or Azure ML workspace soft-delete state. - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/machine-learning/how-to-manage-files?view=azureml-api-2, https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/machine-learning/how-to-connect-data-ui?view=azureml-api-1

    Since the notebooks does not exist under Azure ML Studio > Notebooks > User files as-is. Inspect the workspace’s associated storage account directly, especially the default workspacefilestore or relevant file share/container. - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/machine-learning/how-to-manage-files?view=azureml-api-2 https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/machine-learning/how-to-connect-data-ui?view=azureml-api-1

    You can do the followings:

    To prevent recurrence, the notebooks should be stored in Git, the workspace storage should be protected with Azure Files snapshots or Azure Backup, Blob soft delete/versioning should be enabled where relevant, and diagnostic logging should be enabled so future file delete/write activity can be audited. - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/machine-learning/concept-train-model-git-integration?view=azureml-api-2, https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/files/storage-files-prevent-file-share-deletion. Use the above resource links associated for more reading and implementation steps.

    I hope this is helpful. Please! Do not hesitate to let me know if you have any other questions, steps or clarifications.

    Please do not close the thread by upvoting and accepting the answer if any part of it is helpful.

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