Unable to delete Azure Storage account (classic)

Question

I have a Azure Storage account (classic) in my subscription setup in 2017. I have deleted all its containers, file shares, queues and tables.

Now, it has no containers, file shares, queues and tables.

But when I try to delete it, it shows on the right side pane there are 296 tables (895 GB data stored), but no containers, file shares and queues.

If I click on tables to view them, it shows as empty as I already deleted them.

When I try to delete this storage account, I get an error: "Failed to delete storage account". And that it encountered an internal error.

How can I delete it as its costing me 40 USD per month?

Answer 1

Hi @Nikhil R

Greetings! Welcome to Microsoft Q&A Forum. Thanks for posting your query here.

In addition to above recommended solution from akinbade, we suggest you follow the below and give a try.

Please do check there might be some disks in that particular storage account. Can you kindly check the containers, blobs for any VHDs in that particular storage account & delete those VHDs/Disks first?

Previously if you have created a classic VMs, those classic VMs used to store the corresponding VHDs (disks) in a storage account. That might be the scenario which you might be facing now...i.e., you might have deleted all the classic VMs without deleting the underlying VHDs and those VHDs are stale but still stored in the storage account.

Additionally, please try to delete the Classic Storage Account from the Storage Explorer or migrate Classic Storage to ARM and delete it there.

If the issue persists, even after trying the above solution. Please try deleting Classic Storage account using PowerShell command to remove the data and the classic storage. Ensure you have Azure PowerShell installed and configured. Then, you can run the following command:

Remove-AzStorageAccount -Name <storage-account-name> -ResourceGroupName <resource-group-name>

Refer the guide here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/azure/virtual-machines/storage-classic-cannot-delete-storage-account-container-vhd

If the above steps do not resolve the issue, consider creating a support request with Azure. They can provide assistance in troubleshooting the internal error you are encountering.

Also, if the storage account is in a retention period, you may need to reclaim the space using the Azure portal or PowerShell as said above.

I hope following the above steps should help you delete the storage account and stop incurring charges.

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I hope this helps! Let me know in the comments if you have further questions. Comment is the fastest way to reach the experts for any questions or help you need.

Please don’t forget to Accept Answer and hit Yes for "was this answer helpful" wherever the information provided helps you, this can be beneficial to other community members for remediation for similar issues.

Answer 2

For this, I will recommend creating a support request.

To do this, see:

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/support/create-ticket

Classic storage accounts use ASM. In the mean time try this:

1. Navigate to the Azure portal.
2. In the Search bar at the top, search for Disks (classic), OS Images (classic), or VM Images (classic) to display classic disk artifacts.
3. Locate the classic disk artifact to delete, and select it to view its properties.
4. Select the Delete button to delete the disk artifact.

Then try deleting again

You can mark it 'Accept Answer' and 'Upvote' if this helped you

Regards,

Abiola