Azure File Sync is a service for centralizing an organization’s file shares in Azure Files while keeping the flexibility, performance, and compatibility of a Windows file server. In this article, we shall discuss “Azure File Sync : How to enable Self-Service restore”. Please, see Unicode Manipulation: CVE-2026-25177 Privilege Escalation in AD, how to replace Veeam Recovery Orchestrator License, and how to Fix failed to connect to the backup server: Make sure it is online.
Although you can opt to keep a full copy of your data locally, Azure File Sync can transform Windows Server into a quick cache of an Azure file share.
You can use any protocol that’s available on Windows Server to access your data locally, including Server Message Block (SMB), Network File System (NFS), and File Transfer Protocol over SSL/TLS (FTPS). You can have as many caches as you need across the world.
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Things to know before enabling this feature
VSS Schedule Overwrite: If you use the -Force parameter while enabling self-service and the Volume Shadow Copy (VSS) service is currently active, the program will overwrite your existing VSS snapshot schedule with the default one. Ensure you back up your custom VSS configuration before enabling self-service recovery as described above.
Cluster Environments: If you enable self-service recovery on a cluster node, you must perform the same process on all other nodes in the cluster.
Storage Consumption and Azure Billing: Enabling self-service recovery can increase storage usage and Azure costs. This impact applies only to files currently tiered on the server. The feature keeps a cloud-side version of each file available so the local file server can reference it through Previous Versions (VSS snapshots).
- Disabling the feature: If you disable this function while files are tiered, Azure will gradually reduce storage consumption until the “compatible days” window expires. You cannot accelerate this process.
Non-Tiered Environments: If you are not using the Cloud Tiering feature, no additional Azure storage will be consumed; however, you must still enable this function to allow users to perform self-service recovery.
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What is Cloud Tiering? (The “Stub” File)
Cloud Tiering is a feature designed to optimize local server capacity.
- How it works: Frequently accessed files stay on your local server, while infrequently used files are moved to the cloud (Azure). A small “pointer” or stub file remains on the local server, looking and acting like the original.
- The Benefit: If you have 10TB of data but only a 2TB local server, you can still present the full 10TB to your users. The server seamlessly downloads files from the cloud only when a user opens them.
2. What is VSS (Volume Shadow Copy Service)?
VSS is a Windows technology that captures “point-in-time” snapshots of files.
- Functionality: It allows users to right-click a folder and select “Previous Versions” to recover deleted or accidentally modified files on their own, without needing to contact a system administrator.
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Enable Self-Service Restore
Import Storage Sync Module
Import-Module "C:\Program Files\Azure\StorageSyncAgent\StorageSync.Management.ServerCmdlets.dll"
# Check Storage self service Resore
Get-StorageSyncSelfServiceRestore -Driveletter D:
# Enable self-service restore on the D:\ volume
Enable-StorageSyncSelfServiceRestore -Driveletter D: -force
#Disable self-service restore policy
Disable-StorageSyncSelfServiceRestore -Driveletter D:
How to schedule VSS snapshot
Follow the steps below to schedule a VSS snapshot. Right click on the drive and select properties
Click on Settings
Click on Schedule
Select a schedule and click on OK
Formula
days = max_shadow_copies / snapshots_per_day
In your case:
64 / 3 ≈ 21.3 days
So:
- MaxShadowCopies = 64
- Snapshots/day = 3
- Retention ≈ 21 days
The limit of 64 snapshots per volume is the default setting of Windows VSS, and it also applies to the self-service restore scenario with Azure File Sync.
In the article you linked, with the default schedule (2 snapshots/day), the retention reaches about 45 days because:
64 / 2 ≈ 32 days
But the actual schedule (Mon–Fri) extends the restore window to approximately 45 days of available recovery points.
#If you want to keep data for several days with 3 snapshots per day
| MaxShadowCopies | Snapshot/giorno | Retention |
| 64 | 3 | ~21 Days |
| 128 | 3 | ~42 Days |
| 192 | 3 | ~64 Days |
| 256 | 3 | ~85 Days |
Windows permette fino a 512 snapshot per volume modificando la chiave registry MaxShadowCopies.
# The default data for this value is 64. The minimum value is 1. The maximum value is 512.
New-ItemProperty -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\VSS\Settings\' `
-Name MaxShadowCopies -PropertyType DWord -Value 128 | Out-Null
#Check
Get-Item -Path 'HKLM:\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\VSS\Settings\'
Please note that for the new VSS limit to take effect, you need to re-run the cmdlet to enable Previous Versions compatibility on every volume where it was previously enabled, using the -Force parameter to take the new maximum number of VSS snapshots per volume into account.
Re-enable self-service restore
To re-enable self-service restore on the same volume that was previously enabled, run the command below.
Enable-StorageSyncSelfServiceRestore -Driveletter D: -force
Check Previous Version as shown below.
I hope you found this article on “Azure File Sync : How to enable Self-Service restore” very useful. Please, feel free to leave a comment below.
