TFVC: cannot undo/delete workspace with orphaned owner identity — TF14061 on all operations

Question

TFVC: cannot undo/delete workspace with orphaned owner identity — TF14061 on all operations

Tareq Marji 0

Organization: xxxxxxx (Azure DevOps Services). TFVC server workspace xxxxx holds a lot pending changes including an exclusive lock on files under $/Axxxxa/.../xxxxxx, blocking checkout for the team. The workspace's local mapping was deleted on the owner's machine.

The workspace is enumerable but not bindable:

tf workspaces /owner:* and VersionControlServer.QueryWorkspaces() return it (owneruniq xxxxxxxx, ownerdisp "xxxxx")
tf vc status /user:* lists all pending changes
But tf workspace /delete, tf vc undo /workspace:, VersionControlServer.DeleteWorkspace(), and even Workspace.Delete() / Workspace.GetPendingChanges() on the object returned by QueryWorkspaces all fail with TF14061 / WorkspaceNotFoundException
Tried every owner form: display name, email, tenant-qualified UPN, and the owner GUID

Requesting user is a collection admin with Allow on Undo/Unlock/Check in other users' changes.

Request: guidance or backend cleanup to release this workspace's pending changes and lock.

Sridevi Machavarapu 33,820 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-08-06T08:51:15.89+00:00

Hi Tareq Marji,

Thank you for the detailed information and for outlining the troubleshooting you've already performed.

Since the workspace can be enumerated but all workspace management operations consistently fail with TF14061 (WorkspaceNotFoundException) through both TF.exe and the .NET Client Object Model, this requires further investigation.

Please check your Private messages tab and share the requested details to proceed further.

Thank you for your patience.
Sridevi Machavarapu 33,820 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-08-11T09:50:54.16+00:00

Hi Tareq Marji,

Please check Private messages tab and share requested details to proceed further.

Your answer

Sridevi Machavarapu 33,820 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-08-06T08:51:15.89+00:00

Hi Tareq Marji,

Thank you for the detailed information and for outlining the troubleshooting you've already performed.

Since the workspace can be enumerated but all workspace management operations consistently fail with TF14061 (WorkspaceNotFoundException) through both TF.exe and the .NET Client Object Model, this requires further investigation.

Please check your Private messages tab and share the requested details to proceed further.

Thank you for your patience.
Sridevi Machavarapu 33,820 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-08-11T09:50:54.16+00:00

Hi Tareq Marji,

Please check Private messages tab and share requested details to proceed further.