How to make my used but deleted storage account name available for use by another tenant?

Question

Hi,

Recently, I created a Powershell script which creates a storage account [storageaccountname]. For testing purposes, I ran this script in my own tenant. After it being successful, I deleted the resource group the storage account was part of, thereby also deleting the storage account. I did this on the 14th of January.

Next, I tried to run the script again on a different tenant, the tenant of my company. Here however, I got the error that the storage account could not be created. Further testing by running the command az storage account check-name --name [storageaccountname] gave the result "message": "The storage account named appeldpsadev is already taken.", "nameAvailable": false.

However, when I go back to the tenant where I originally created and I run the same command az storage account check-name --name [storageaccountname] within that tenant, it returns "message": null, "nameAvailable": true,

This difference confirms that the name is definitely not taken by someone else, and that my initial creation on my personal tenant is blocking my company tenant from using this name.

What can I do to solve this? Discussions such as https://stackoverflow.com/questions/72867938/storage-account-name-already-taken-after-being-deleted-from-another-tenant imply that the name should've been available the latest after 14 days, after which all recovery options would have disappeared. I can indeed confirm that before the 28th of January, I was able to see recovery options, which could be the reason for the name being blocked. However, we are now at the 31st of January, and the name remains unavailable, even though no recovery options exist anymore from the Azure Portal UI.

Answer 1

Hello Stijn Verhoeven

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A, thanks for posting your query.

I understand that the issue you're experiencing with the Azure Storage account name being unavailable across different tenants is a known behavior in Azure. Please be informed that when a storage account is deleted, the name is typically held for a period of time (usually 14 days) to allow for recovery. After this period, the name should become available for reuse.

Azure storage account names are unique across all Azure tenants. If a name is deleted in one tenant, it may not be immediately available in another tenant, even after the retention period. Sometimes, there can be a delay in the propagation of the name availability status across Azure's global infrastructure.

Although you mentioned that it has been over 14 days, sometimes it can take a bit longer for Azure to fully release the name. If possible, wait a few more days and check again. If you need to proceed urgently, consider using a different storage account name that is similar but slightly modified. This can help you continue your work without waiting for the original name to become available. Even though you mentioned that you could not see recovery options, double-check the Azure Portal for any remnants of the deleted storage account. Sometimes, there may be options that are not immediately visible.

Additional information:

1. As a temporary workaround, consider using a slightly different name for the storage account in your company tenant. You can always rename it later if the original name becomes available.
2. If you frequently create and delete storage accounts for testing purposes, consider using a naming convention that incorporates a unique identifier for your test environment. This will help avoid conflicts with production storage accounts.

References:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/common/storage-account-recover#recover-a-deleted-storage-account

Hope the above answer helps! Please let us know do you have any further queries.

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Answer 2

Hi Stijn Verhoeven

In addition to the above information, I also suggest you to add the following cmdlet in your PS script to handle the non-availability of storage account names

Get-AzStorageAccountNameAvailability -Name

This cmdlet will help you to check the availability of the queried storage account name and proceed further based on the result

Hope this helps.

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