How to move Cosmos DB, SQL, storage data from an expired subscription

Hi @Claudiu ,

Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A.

Based on the information provided, the behavior is expected when the Azure subscription is in a Disabled state. When a subscription is disabled, Azure restricts both management-plane and data-plane operations for resources within that subscription. As a result, services such as Azure Cosmos DB, Azure SQL Database, and Azure Storage may remain visible in the Azure portal, but access to the underlying data is typically blocked.

This explains why:

Cosmos DB Data Explorer does not load.

Storage account data cannot be accessed.

SQL database connections fail.

Resource move operations to another subscription are unavailable.

At this point, the critical step is to restore the subscription to an active state. Once the subscription is reactivated, you should be able to access the resources again and either:

Move supported resources to a new Pay-As-You-Go subscription, or

Export/migrate the data to resources in another active subscription.

Since the subscription owner is encountering issues converting the subscription to Pay-As-You-Go and creating a new subscription, this appears to be a subscription administration or billing-related problem. I recommend continuing to work with Microsoft Subscription/Billing Support, as they are the appropriate team to investigate account administrator ownership, subscription conversion eligibility, and subscription reactivation.

Unfortunately, if the subscription remains disabled, there is no supported method to directly access Cosmos DB, SQL Database, or Storage account data, nor to move resources to another subscription. Restoring the subscription is the required first step before any data migration or resource transfer can be performed.

For additional information, please refer to:

Azure subscription states

Reactivate a disabled Azure subscription

Please let us know the subscription state shown in the Azure portal (Disabled, Expired, Past Due, or Deactivated), as this can help determine the available recovery options.

The subscription is in a Disabled state. I the Reactivate menu, I see message stating the reason: "Your subscription is disabled as your Visual Studio subscription has ended and your monthly Azure dev/test individual credit is no longer available. [...]".

I talked to the account owner, he opened a case, the problem is that severity C was assigned and after about 6-7 hours still nobody addressed that case. How to prioritise this, because the priority is wrong? It is true this is a subscription conversion issue which should not have top priority by itself but the context is very important: the subscription got disabled and some production services no longer work because it seems they had a dependency on some of the resources hosted there.

I am completely blocked now, can't do anything, even if I already prepared a new PAYG subscription. It's a really bad decision to lock access to my own data and not be able to at least transfer the resources/data to a new subscription. I want to pay and resolve this myself, Azure doesn't want that! And the severity system is a joke, it doesn't understand the context. Some of my production services are not working and I am at the mercy of someone looking at some point at a severity C ticket. Seriously, big disappointment in how Azure handles this.

Hi @Claudiu

I understand your frustration, especially because the disabled subscription is now affecting production services.

Based on the message shown in the Azure portal, the Azure Dev/Test subscription was disabled because the associated Visual Studio Subscription expired and the monthly Azure Dev/Test credit is no longer available. According to Microsoft documentation, when a Visual Studio Subscription expires, the associated Azure Dev/Test subscription can be disabled, resulting in restricted access until the subscription is renewed or reactivated. Troubleshoot expired Visual Studio Subscription

Microsoft also recommends transferring Azure resources to another subscription before the Dev/Test subscription becomes disabled. Once the subscription is disabled, access restrictions may prevent resource transfers until the subscription is reactivated. Troubleshoot expired Visual Studio Subscription | Microsoft Learn citeturn5search102

If the option is available in the Azure portal, the subscription owner should review the Reactivate page and attempt to convert the subscription to Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG). Microsoft documentation states that certain disabled subscriptions can be reactivated, and most resources resume automatically after reactivation. Reactivate a disabled Azure subscription - Microsoft Cost Management

Regarding the support request, Microsoft Q&A moderators cannot change the assigned severity or expedite case handling. However, given the production impact, I recommend that the subscription owner update the existing support case with:

• The affected production services and resources
• The number of impacted users or business processes
• Whether any workaround is currently available
• The exact business and operational impact
• A request for the support team to reassess the case based on the production outage and business impact

Also, avoid opening duplicate support requests, as maintaining all information within a single case helps the support team assess the situation more effectively.

For reference:

Troubleshoot expired Visual Studio Subscription

• Reactivate a disabled Azure subscription - Microsoft Cost Management

I hope this helps clarify the available recovery options and escalation path. If you have any further questions, please let us know in the comments.

After more than 24h, there's nobody even assigned to the case. I added 24h ago to the case the information that production services are affected by this and severity must be raised.

I guess this says it all regarding Azure support.

I'm devops and at my main job we pay heavy money for Azure. Luckily we had no serious incidents so far but we already saw how working with support is not straightforward at all. Now with this experience on another project I guess I know how to better plan for disaster recovery at main job. Mainly, don't rely on Azure at all. We will look at the competition.

Hi @Claudiu ,

I understand your frustration, and I apologize for the delay in case assignment, especially given that you indicated the issue is impacting production workloads and requested a severity review.

If production services are currently affected, I recommend updating the support case with the latest business impact details and ensuring the severity accurately reflects the current situation. Additionally, if you have not already done so, please contact your support administrator or Azure support contact to request an escalation and assignment review.

Could you also share the support request number so we can better understand the current status and provide further guidance?

We appreciate your patience and understand the urgency of resolving this issue.

Thanks.