Configure a lifecycle management policy - Azure Blob Storage
By normesta
Archived: 2026-04-05 17:14:02 UTC
In this article
1. Create or manage a policy
2. Enable access time tracking
3. See also
This article shows you how to create or manage an Azure Blob Storage lifecycle management policy.
You can use lifecycle management policies to transition blobs to cost-efficient access tiers based on their use
patterns or delete them entirely at the end of their lifecycle. To learn more, see Azure Blob Storage lifecycle
management overview.
Note
A lifecycle management policy must be read or written in full. Partial updates are not supported.
Create or manage a policy
Portal
PowerShell
Azure CLI
Template
1. In the Azure portal, navigate to your storage account.
2. Under Data management, select Lifecycle Management to view or change lifecycle management
policies.
3. Select the List View tab.
4. Select Add a rule and name your rule on the Details form. You can also set the Rule scope, Blob type,
and Blob subtype values. The following example sets the scope to filter blobs. This causes the Filter set
tab to be added.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/blobs/lifecycle-management-policy-configure?tabs=azure-portal
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5. Select Base blobs to set the conditions for your rule. In the following example, blobs are moved to cool
storage if they haven't been modified for 30 days.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/blobs/lifecycle-management-policy-configure?tabs=azure-portal
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The Last accessed option is available only if you have enabled access time tracking and you've selected Block
blobs as the blob type. See Enable access time tracking.
6. If you selected Limit blobs with filters on the Details page, select Filter set to add an optional filter. The
following example filters on blobs whose name begins with log in a container called sample-container.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/blobs/lifecycle-management-policy-configure?tabs=azure-portal
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If you encounter unexpected results, see the following FAQ entry: The blob prefix match string didn't apply the
policy to the expected blobs.
7. Select Add to add the new policy.
Manage a policy by using the code view.
You can also define a policy by adding JSON code directly in the Code View tab.
The following screenshot shows JSON in the Code View tab. This JSON defines a lifecycle policy that moves a
block blob whose name begins with log to the cool tier if it has been more than 30 days since the blob was
modified.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/blobs/lifecycle-management-policy-configure?tabs=azure-portal
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Enable access time tracking
Enable access tracking if you want to include an action based on the time that the blob was last accessed with a
read or write operation. To learn about the behavior of this capability, see Access time tracking.
Portal
PowerShell
Azure CLI
Template
1. Navigate to your storage account in the Azure portal.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/blobs/lifecycle-management-policy-configure?tabs=azure-portal
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2. In the Data management section, select Lifecycle management.
3. Check the checkbox "Enable access tracking"
See also
Azure Blob Storage lifecycle management overview
Lifecycle management policies that transition blobs between tiers
Lifecycle management policies that delete blobs
Lifecycle management policy monitoring
Access tiers for blob data
Additional resources
Training
Last updated on 08/19/2025
Source: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/blobs/lifecycle-management-policy-configure?tabs=azure-portal
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/blobs/lifecycle-management-policy-configure?tabs=azure-portal
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