In this post I'm going to show you how to disable a repository in Azure DevOps and prevent users from accessing its contents.

Video

As usual, if you are a visual learner, or simply prefer to watch and listen instead of reading, here you have the video with the whole explanation and demo, which to be fair is much more complete than this post.

Link to the video: https://youtu.be/G_um1mm7LiM

If you rather prefer reading, well... let's just continue :)

Why Disabling Repos?

Before we talk about how to disable a repo, why would you want to do it?

Well, for example you may want to disable a repository because you found a secret in it. Or a third-party scanning tool found the repository to be out of compliance.

In such cases, you may want to temporarily disable the repository while you work to resolve the issue.

How to Disable a Repo in Azure DevOps

Let's see now how to disable a repo. It is very easy.

Just go to the Project Settings, scroll down to the Repositories section and enter it, then click on the specific repo you want to Disable. In the settings, you have the Disable Repo switch

When a repo is disabled, it still shows up in the list of repos, however no one can access or update its content.

And you would also see a message saying that the repo has been disabled when they try to access it in the Azure Repos UI.

And of course after the necessary mitigation steps have been taken, disabled repositories can be re-enabled using the same setting.

Final note: you can disable a repository only if you are either admin or owner, or you have the Delete repository permissions.

Conclusions

Let me know in the comment section below if you think this is useful and if you've ever been in a situation in which you could have disabled a repo.

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