Azure DevOps Backup Contents

Detailed overview of what's included in Cloudback backups for Azure DevOps repositories, including pull requests, comments, and attachments.

Cloudback creates comprehensive backups of your Azure DevOps repositories, including both the code and important metadata. This document explains what is included in an Azure DevOps backup and what is planned for future releases.

You can learn how to view the details of a backup on the Backup Details page.

What is Included in a Backup?

Here is the complete list of data included in an Azure DevOps backup archive:

Repository Content

• Bare Git Clone: A complete bare clone of the repository including:

  • All branches

  • All tags

  • Complete commit history

  • All refs

Pull Request Data

Cloudback backs up comprehensive pull request information:

• Pull Request Details:

  • Pull request ID and code review ID

  • Title and description

  • Status (active, abandoned, completed)

  • Source and target branches

  • Merge status

  • Draft status

  • Creation and completion dates

  • Created by and closed by user information

• Pull Request Commits:

  • Commit IDs

  • Commit messages

  • Author and committer information

• Pull Request Reviewers:

  • Reviewer identities

  • Vote status (approved, approved with suggestions, waiting, rejected)

  • Required reviewer flags

• Pull Request Threads and Comments:

  • All comment threads

  • Individual comments with content

  • Comment authors

  • Thread status (active, fixed, won't fix, closed, by design, pending)

  • Thread context (code location information)

  • Comment timestamps

  • Users who liked comments

• Pull Request Labels:

  • Label names

  • Label IDs

  • Active status

• Pull Request Attachments:

  • Attachment files (downloaded and stored in the archive)

  • Attachment metadata (name, description, content hash)

  • Uploader information

  • Upload timestamps

• Work Item References:

  • Links to associated work items (work item content not yet backed up)

Backup Archive Structure

When you download a backup, the archive contains the following structure:

backup-archive/
├── backup.json                          # Archive metadata (version, subject type, repository name)
├── pull-requests.json                   # All pull request data with threads, labels, reviewers
├── repo/
│   └── {repository-name}.git/           # Bare Git repository
│       ├── objects/                     # Git objects
│       ├── refs/                        # Branch and tag references
│       ├── config                       # Git configuration
│       └── ...
└── pr-{pullRequestId}-attachments/      # Attachment files for each PR
    ├── {attachmentId}_{filename}
    └── ...

Backup Metadata

Each backup records the following counts for quick reference:

Metadata	Description
Number of Pull Requests	Total count of pull requests backed up
Number of Pull Request Attachments	Total attachments across all PRs
Number of Pull Request Labels	Distinct labels used
Number of Pull Request Threads	Total comment threads

What is Coming Soon?

The following Azure DevOps features are planned for future backup support:

Feature	Status
Work Items	Coming soon
Boards	Coming soon
Pipelines	Coming soon
Artifacts	Coming soon
Wikis	Coming soon
Test Plans	Coming soon

If you need backup support for any of these features urgently, please contact us or create a feature request.

What is Not Included?

The following data is not currently included in Azure DevOps backups:

• Azure DevOps Organization Settings: Organization-level configuration is not backed up

• Project Settings: Project-level settings are not included

• User Accounts: User account information is not backed up

• Permissions and Security Settings: Access control configurations are not included

• Service Connections: Integration credentials and endpoints are not backed up

• Variable Groups: Build/release variable groups are not included

• Deleted Content: Deleted threads and comments are filtered out from backups

Note: This backup should not be regarded as comprehensive or all-inclusive. It focuses on source code and pull request collaboration data. Contact us if you need additional data types backed up.

Viewing Backup Contents

You can view the contents of a backup archive by downloading it and extracting the contents.

Note: For password-protected archives, you will need to enter the password to extract the contents.

Pull request data is stored in JSON format in pull-requests.json. The file contains an array of pull request objects with all associated metadata including threads, comments, labels, and reviewer information.

Learn More

• GitHub Backup Contents - Compare with GitHub backup contents

• Backup Details - View backup details in the dashboard

• Password-Protected Archives

• Download Backups

• Restoring a Repository