If I switch a backup policy inside Recovery Services vaults

Question

If I switch a backup policy inside Recovery Services vaults

MichaelB-2136 110

From Snapshots to Vault-Standard, will it delete my existing snapshots or will they remain until they expire in 30 days?

Wanting to switch without losing my existing snapshots in case of an issue with the vault backup.

Thanks

Bharath Y P 5,800 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-02-27T15:57:40.9666667+00:00
Hello MichaelBroadhead-2136, Switching your Azure Files (or VM enhanced) backup from the Snapshot tier to the Vault-Standard tier in the same Recovery Services vault won’t immediately delete your existing snapshots. Here’s what happens:

Existing snapshots stay in place until their configured retention period lapses (for example, up to 30 days in an Enhanced VM policy).

After you pick the Vault-Standard tier (via portal or PowerShell’s Enable-AzRecoveryServicesBackupProtection with the new policy), new backups start landing in the vault tier.

Your old snapshots simply age out according to the retention rules you originally set—they aren’t purged just because you flipped tiers.

So you can safely switch without losing today’s snapshots; they’ll hang around until they expire. Just double-check your new policy’s retention settings to make sure older recovery points won’t fall outside the window you need.

Reference li

Retaining VM Backup Data When Changing Backup Policy

Manage Azure Files backups with PowerShell

Securing your Microsoft Azure Backups (Enhanced policy details)

Back up an Azure VM by using the Enhanced policy

Back up Azure VMs in a Recovery Services vault (policy application)

Hope that helps! Thanks
MichaelB-2136 110 Reputation points

2026-02-27T16:03:34.1433333+00:00

Hi Bhrath, thanks for your reply, one question, you said to check that my 'new policy' retention settings however this option would be me switching my existing backup policy to vault standard rather than snapshot, therefore there is no 'new' policy i'm simply amending my current one. Does that change anything?
Bharath Y P 5,800 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-02-27T16:09:09.7866667+00:00

Hello MichaelBroadhead-2136, The existing policy instead of creating a new one doesn’t change the fact that old snapshots remain until their retention expires, while new backups follow the vault rules.

Answer accepted by question author

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Your answer

Bharath Y P 5,800 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-02-27T15:57:40.9666667+00:00

Hello MichaelBroadhead-2136, Switching your Azure Files (or VM enhanced) backup from the Snapshot tier to the Vault-Standard tier in the same Recovery Services vault won’t immediately delete your existing snapshots. Here’s what happens:

Existing snapshots stay in place until their configured retention period lapses (for example, up to 30 days in an Enhanced VM policy).

After you pick the Vault-Standard tier (via portal or PowerShell’s Enable-AzRecoveryServicesBackupProtection with the new policy), new backups start landing in the vault tier.

Your old snapshots simply age out according to the retention rules you originally set—they aren’t purged just because you flipped tiers.

So you can safely switch without losing today’s snapshots; they’ll hang around until they expire. Just double-check your new policy’s retention settings to make sure older recovery points won’t fall outside the window you need.

Reference li

Retaining VM Backup Data When Changing Backup Policy

Manage Azure Files backups with PowerShell

Securing your Microsoft Azure Backups (Enhanced policy details)

Back up an Azure VM by using the Enhanced policy

Back up Azure VMs in a Recovery Services vault (policy application)

Hope that helps! Thanks
MichaelB-2136 110 Reputation points

2026-02-27T16:03:34.1433333+00:00

Hi Bhrath, thanks for your reply, one question, you said to check that my 'new policy' retention settings however this option would be me switching my existing backup policy to vault standard rather than snapshot, therefore there is no 'new' policy i'm simply amending my current one. Does that change anything?
Bharath Y P 5,800 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-02-27T16:09:09.7866667+00:00

Hello MichaelBroadhead-2136, The existing policy instead of creating a new one doesn’t change the fact that old snapshots remain until their retention expires, while new backups follow the vault rules.

Answer 1

Switching the backup policy from Snapshot tier to Vault-Standard tier does not delete existing snapshots.

When the backup tier is changed from Snapshot to Vault-Standard:

Existing snapshots are retained as-is and continue to follow the retention configured in the current (snapshot) policy.
Future backups are stored in the vault (Vault-Standard tier) and retained according to the new vault-based retention settings.
The operation is irreversible: switching back from Vault-Standard to Snapshot tier requires reconfiguring the backup.

So existing snapshots remain until they naturally expire per their original 30‑day (or configured) retention; they are not deleted by the tier switch itself.

References:

Manage Azure Files backups using Azure portal

Answer 2

MichaelB-2136 110

One further question

When switching to vault from snapshot it says:

Retain snapshots for 5 days
Retention of daily backup 30 days

If understand correctly that means there are 5 snapshots stored directly in the file share but will this delete my current snapshots beyond 5 days to keep it in line with my new '5 day' snapshot policy?

TLDR: If I switch to vault with the above setings will it delete 25 days of my 30 current snapshot

backups?

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If I switch a backup policy inside Recovery Services vaults

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