Goals tab restore

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Hello @Barbara Klurfan I hope you are doing well,

There are two things to check: who deleted them and whether they can be restored.

1. Check who deleted the goals

If Azure DevOps Auditing was enabled for your organization, go to:

Organization Settings → Auditing

You can filter the audit events by time and review the Actor, timestamp, area, and action. Azure DevOps audit records include the identity that performed the action and can also provide additional information such as the IP address and correlation ID. ([Microsoft Learn](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/organizations/audit/azure-devops-auditing?view=azure-devops&utm_source=chatgpt.com"Access Azure DevOps Audit Logs, Export, and Filter - Azure DevOps | Microsoft Learn"))

Auditing must have been enabled when the deletion occurred. Audit events are retained for 90 days. ([Microsoft Learn](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/organizations/audit/azure-devops-auditing?view=azure-devops&utm_source=chatgpt.com"Access Azure DevOps Audit Logs, Export, and Filter - Azure DevOps | Microsoft Learn"))

2. Can the sprint goals be restored?

Unlike a deleted Azure DevOps project, which has a documented 28-day restore window, there isn't a general recycle-bin or point-in-time restore mechanism for individual Azure DevOps configuration/data items. Microsoft also confirms that Azure DevOps Services doesn't provide a general point-in-time rollback. ([Microsoft Learn](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/organizations/projects/delete-project?view=azure-devops&utm_source=chatgpt.com"Delete, remove, restore project - Azure DevOps | Microsoft Learn"))

Therefore, if these goals were permanently deleted and you don't have an export or other backup, they may need to be recreated manually.

I recommend checking the audit log first. If you can provide the Azure DevOps service/version (Services or Server) and confirm whether Auditing was enabled before the deletion, we can determine what recovery or investigation options are available.

References:

• Access Azure DevOps Audit Logs
• Auditing events list
• Delete, remove, restore project

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