How to create a ticket for Azure Locked Subscription

Convert the disabled Visual Studio Enterprise Azure subscription to pay-as-you-go first, then move the resources to the new subscription after both subscriptions are active.

1. Reactivate the locked subscription immediately

If the old Azure subscription shows the expired Visual Studio Enterprise message:

1. Sign in to the Azure portal.
2. Go to Subscriptions and select the disabled Visual Studio Enterprise subscription.
3. Select the banner stating that the Visual Studio subscription expired and must be converted.
4. On Switch Offer, select Pay-as-you-go → Next.
5. Add a payment method.
6. On Review + convert, accept the agreement and select Switch Offer.

This conversion stops the monthly Visual Studio credit and charges future usage at pay-as-you-go rates. It also restores access so that the resources can be moved. Microsoft specifically documents this recovery path for an expired Visual Studio Enterprise Azure subscription.^1^

Reactivation can take up to 24 hours. After it becomes active, resource-management operations may take another 30 minutes to become available.^2^

2. Create a free Subscription Management ticket if conversion is unavailable

Azure provides unlimited support for subscription management, including billing and account-transfer issues; a paid technical support plan is not required.^3^

In the Azure portal:

1. Select ? in the top header and describe the issue.
2. Select Create a support request.
3. Choose Subscription Management as the issue type or service.
4. Select the disabled subscription.
5. If recommended articles appear, select Return to support request → Next.
6. In the description, include:
   • The old subscription was disabled after the company changed the Visual Studio benefit from Enterprise to Professional.
   • It contains VMs and other resources at risk of deletion.
   • The self-service pay-as-you-go conversion is unavailable or failed.
   • Reactivation is required so the resources can be transferred.
   • The notification’s stated deletion deadline, if available.
7. Select the appropriate severity, provide contact details, and select Create.

Creating the request requires Owner, Contributor, Support Request Contributor, or equivalent Microsoft.Support/* permission on the affected subscription. Account-specific changes or ownership transfers can additionally require the account billing administrator.^3^

If the portal prevents ticket creation because of access or entitlement, contact the company’s tenant administrator or support-agreement owner to verify the account’s support permissions.^4^

3. Move the resources after reactivation

Both source and destination subscriptions must be active and in the same Microsoft Entra tenant. A disabled source subscription cannot perform the move.^5^

Check the tenant IDs:

az account show \
  --subscription "<source-subscription>" \
  --query tenantId -o tsv

az account show \
  --subscription "<destination-subscription>" \
  --query tenantId -o tsv

If they match:

1. Open the source Resource group.
2. Select the VM and all dependencies, including managed disks, network interfaces, virtual network, public IPs, and network security groups.
3. Select Move → Move to another subscription.
4. Select the destination subscription and resource group.
5. Wait for validation, resolve any reported dependencies, and select Move.

VM dependencies must be moved together. Existing VMs can continue operating during the move, although the source and destination resource groups are temporarily locked against updates and deletion.^6^

If the subscriptions belong to different Microsoft Entra tenants, ARM cannot move the resources directly. Open a ticket under Azure / Subscription Management / Transfer ownership of my subscription / Change subscription Microsoft Entra ID for assistance with the cross-tenant process.^7^

Do not wait for the deletion deadline: Microsoft warns that resources must normally be transferred before the Visual Studio-backed Azure subscription is disabled; once disabled, the documented recovery is to re-enable it as pay-as-you-go.[^8^](https://learn.microsoft.com/visualstudio/subscriptions/[Subscription ID] "Maintain a Visual Studio subscription for Azure credit access")

References

1. Change your Azure subscription to a different offer
2. Reactivate a disabled Azure subscription
3. Create an Azure support request
4. Microsoft Cloud Portals: Self-Help When a Support Request Cannot Be Opened
5. Move Azure resources to a new resource group or subscription
6. Azure virtual machine move and migration FAQ
7. Move Azure virtual machine resources to a different tenant
8. [Maintain a Visual Studio subscription for Azure credit access](https://learn.microsoft.com/visualstudio/subscriptions/[Subscription ID])