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how do we delete a individual backup snapshot of a VM in azure

Amith Kumar 0 Reputation points
2025-10-24T11:38:05.3733333+00:00

team,

I have ten snapshots for a VM in azure and i want to delete the old 5 snapshots is it possible ? if yes what are steps to be followed

Azure Backup
Azure Backup
An Azure backup service that provides built-in management at scale.
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  1. Divyesh Govaerdhanan 9,355 Reputation points
    2025-10-25T00:25:43.8633333+00:00

    Hello Amith Kumar,

    Welcome to Microsoft Q&A,

    1. If these are Azure Managed Disk snapshots (resources like Microsoft.Compute/snapshots)

    Yes, you can delete any individual snapshot.

    Portal

    Go to Resource group ➜ find each Snapshot ➜ Delete.

    CLI:

    https://free.blessedness.top/en-us/cli/azure/snapshot?view=azure-cli-latest#az-snapshot-delete

    1. If these are Azure Backup recovery points in a Recovery Services vault (VM is protected by Azure Backup)

    No, you can’t delete arbitrary individual recovery points. Azure Backup removes/merges recovery points automatically based on your retention policy; deleting backup data removes all points for that item (subject to soft-delete/immutability)

    https://free.blessedness.top/en-us/azure/backup/manage-recovery-points

    Make old ones go away by reducing retention on the policy; the service cleans up expired RPs (merge/delete) at the next cleanup cycle.

    Please upvote and accept the answer if it helps!!

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