The ADO Parent Test Plan Suite is deleted by mistake

Question

The ADO Parent Test Plan Suite is deleted by mistake

B Siva Krishna 0

The ADO Parent Test Plan Suite is deleted by mistake. Is there a way to restore it?

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Answer 1

Divyesh Govaerdhanan 11,725 MVP Volunteer Moderator

Hi B Siva Krishna,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A,

Test plan and test suite are recoverable if you're on Azure DevOps Services (cloud) and it's been less than 14 days since the deletion.

There's no "Undo" button in the UI for test suites, but Azure DevOps soft deletes them for 14 days before permanent removal. You can pull it back using the Test Plan REST API.

Step 1: Find the deleted suite

GET https://dev.azure.com/{organization}/{project}/_apis/testplan/recycleBin/TestPlan/{planId}/testsuite?api-version=7.2-preview.1

This lists everything sitting in the recycle bin for that plan. Note the suiteId of the parent suite you lost.

Step 2: Restore it

PATCH https://dev.azure.com/{organization}/{project}/_apis/testplan/recycleBin/testsuite/{suiteId}?api-version=7.2-preview.1
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "isDeleted": false
}

This brings back the suite along with its child suites and test cases.

A few things to keep in mind:

This only works on Azure DevOps Services. On Azure DevOps Server, deletion is permanent, there's no recycle bin.
The 14-day window is hard. Once it passes, it's gone for good.
Test run results tied to the suite won't come back, only the plan/suite/test case structure.
You'll need a PAT with the vso.test_write scope, run it through curl, Postman, or a quick script.

If the GET call comes back empty, the suite is either past the 14 days or was deleted through a route that skipped soft delete, and in that case it can't be recovered.

Reference: Delete test artifacts in Azure Boards

Please Upvote and accept the answer if it helps!!

B Siva Krishna 0 Reputation points

2026-09-01T14:18:15.94+00:00

How to run these API's?
Divyesh Govaerdhanan 11,725 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2026-09-01T14:50:01.3866667+00:00
Hi B Siva Krishna,

You can use tools like Postman or if you don't need to install anything fancy, works from any terminal (Windows, Mac or Linux).

Step 1: Create a PAT

Azure DevOps → click your profile icon (top right) → Personal access tokens → New Token

Under Scopes, pick Custom defined → Test Management → Read & write

Copy the token now, it won't be shown again

Step 2:

PowerShell:

$pat = "{PAT}" $base64Pat = [Convert]::ToBase64String([Text.Encoding]::ASCII.GetBytes(":$pat")) $headers = @{ Authorization = "Basic $base64Pat" } Invoke-RestMethod -Uri "https://dev.azure.com/{organization}/{project}/_apis/testplan/recycleBin/testplan?api-version=7.2-preview.1" -Headers $headers -Method Get

Step 3: Run the PATCH call (restore it)

PowerShell (reuse $headers from above):

$body = @{ isDeleted = $false } | ConvertTo-Json Invoke-RestMethod -Uri "https://dev.azure.com/{organization}/{project}/_apis/testplan/recycleBin/testsuite/{suiteId}?api-version=7.2-preview.1" -Headers $headers -Method Patch -Body $body -ContentType "application/json"

Just swap in your {organization}, {project}, {planId}, and {suiteId} everywhere. A 200/204 response means it worked, go check the test plan in the portal.
B Siva Krishna 0 Reputation points

2026-09-01T16:22:01.4366667+00:00

Thank you.!!!
Divyesh Govaerdhanan 11,725 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2026-09-01T17:18:22.89+00:00

B Siva Krishna If this helped, please accept it as the answer and upvote, it'll make it easier for others hitting the same issue to find this.