v1.21.0

September 2021 (Version 1.21.0, build 20210908.7)

Welcome to Storage Explorer version 1.21.0. This release includes many new features including secondary endpoint support, updates to viewing blobs, changes to how times and dates are displayed, and support for Gen2 soft delete. For a deeper dive into these features and more, continue reading below. A detailed list of all major changes can be found here.

.NET Core 3.1 required for Linux .tar.gz installs

For users on Linux who have installed from the .tar.gz bundle, you will now need .NET Core 3.1 installed in order to run Storage Explorer. The version of .NET Core previously used by Storage Explorer, version 2.1, reached end of support in August 2021.

Secondary endpoint support

There is now an Open Secondary Location action in the context menu for containers which have a secondary endpoint. Clicking on this action will add a (secondary) node to the tree and open the blob explorer for it as well. This node represents the container at its secondary endpoint. You can use this node to view and perform read-only actions on the data at your secondary endpoint.

You can also now find secondary endpoint information in the Properties panel for accounts and containers which have a secondary endpoint.

New features for the blob explorer

Several new features have been added in the blob explorer. First, the side panel button's label has been replaced by a "toggles" icon, and the panel it opens has been renamed to the View Options panel. A setting to always have the View Options panel expanded when opening a blob explorer has been added. You can find this setting under Data Explorers > Blob Explorer > Show View Options by Default.

In the View Options panel, in addition to filtering, you will now find a List Mode option. This option allows you to change between Hierarchical and Flat listing of your blobs. When listing Flat, virtual directories are no longer shown. All blobs are listed at the root level and their full name is displayed.

If you prefer to list Flat in most cases, you can change the default List Mode in settings under Data Explorers > Blob Explorer > Default List Mode.

Finally, prefix and tag filters are now included in the navigation history. For example, if you were to filter by prefix foo/bar and then open a folder in the filter results, clicking Back will now take you back to the results for filter by prefix foo/bar.

Note: All of the above currently only applies to the blob explorer for non-Gen2 blob containers.

Respecting regional settings for dates and times

Storage Explorer now respects your OS settings for how to display dates and times.

To customize your date and time display settings:

• For Windows: Open Settings > Time & Language > Region (click on Additional date, time & regional settings for more advanced control over date and time formats).
• For macOS: Open System Preferences > Language & Region > Advanced
• For Linux: Customizing date and time display settings depends on your Linux distribution (Storage Explorer reads locale settings using the locale C API).

If you find a date or time in Storage Explorer which does not respect your OS settings, please open an issue on GitHub.

ADLS Gen2 soft delete

Storage Explorer now supports soft delete in ADLS Gen2 storage accounts. This support includes being able to manage your delete retention policy and view soft-deleted blobs.

ADLS Gen2 soft delete is fundamentally different from non-ADLS Gen2 soft delete. We encourage you to read the Azure Storage Explorer soft delete guide to learn more about the differences between soft delete in non-ADLS Gen2 and ADLS Gen2 accounts.

There are two known issues with ADLS Gen2 soft delete:

• Storage Explorer cannot soft delete ADLS Gen2 snapshots. When deleting snapshots, they are always permanently deleted. #4670
• Soft-deleted directories cannot be viewed in the "Active and soft deleted blobs" view context. You can use the "Deleted only" view context to view and manage the soft deleted directories. #4808

Fixes for both of these issues rely on service changes. Once the service changes are rolled out these issues will be resolved.

Note: ADLS Gen2 soft delete is currently in public preview and you will need to enroll at the service level before you can use these features.

Bypass proxy setting

Storage Explorer's proxy settings now include a Bypass setting. You can use this setting to specify a list of hostnames or hostname patterns you do not want Storage Explorer to apply proxy settings for. This setting only applies if Proxy Source is set to Use app settings.

If your Proxy Source setting is set to Use environment variables, then you can now add a NO_PROXY environment variable for the same effect. The value of this variable should be a comma separated list of the hostnames you want to bypass proxy settings.

Confirm quit before exit

Storage Explorer will now prompt you before quitting if you try to quit while any activities are not complete.

Azure Data Factory extension update

A new version of the Azure Data Factory extension is now available. This version adds support for Google Cloud Storage as a data source. You can download the latest version of the Azure Data Factory extension here.

v1.20.1

June 2021 (Version 1.20.1, build 20210720.10)

Welcome to Storage Explorer version 1.20.1. This release hotfixes an issue some users were encountering during installation. It also addresses an issue that could result in users not being prompted about conflicts when retrying AzCopy operations.

The release notes for 1.20.0 can be found here.

v1.20.0

June 2021 (Version 1.20.0, build 20210625.5)

Welcome to Storage Explorer version 1.20.0. This release includes new abilities for tab management, a preview of using system proxy, and many other new features and fixes. For a closer look at some of the more notable new features, continue reading below. A detailed list of all major changes can also be found at the bottom.

Splitting and reordering tabs

The tab area can now be split vertically. With split tabs, you can easily view two resources, or have two views of the same resource, side by side.

• To create a split view, right click on a tab, and click Split.
• Once you have split at least one tab, you can also use drag and drop to quickly split additional tabs.
• You can also reorder tabs, regardless of whether the tab area is split or not.

There are some limitations to this initial version of tab splitting:

• You can only split the tab area into two groups.
• There is currently no support for drag and drop of items between tabs. However, you can use copy and paste.
• When splitting a tab for a resource that supports directory navigation, such as blob containers, the resource will be opened at the root directory in the new tab.

We will continue to improve on this feature in the future. If you have any suggestions for how these features or other aspects of tab management could be improved, you can open an issue on GitHub.

System proxy (preview)

Configuring proxy settings and importing SSL certificates are two of the biggest hurdles many users face when using Storage Explorer. Starting with this version of Storage Explorer, we're introducing a new feature which should make that hurdle much smaller.

You can now find an option to use system proxy in the proxy sources dropdown in settings under Application > Proxy > Proxy Configuration.

When you select this option, Storage Explorer will use your OS proxy settings. More specifically, it will result in network calls being made using the Chromium networking stack. The Chromium networking stack is much more robust than the NodeJS networking stack normally used by Storage Explorer. In addition to proxy settings, the Chromium network stack will use your OS:

• SSL/TLS settings
• Certificate revocation check settings
• Certificate and private key stores

For now, this feature is still in Preview. It is in preview because not all features of Storage Explorer support it. In general, the vast majority of blob, queue, and managed disk features support it. File share, table, ADLS Gen1, and CosmosDB features do not support it. A detailed list of features which support this setting can be found here.

If you are exclusively using features which support system proxy, we encourage you to give it a try. And if at any point you run into a problem while using it you can open an issue on GitHub.

Toolbar button resizing

To better support a wider variety of monitor sizes and zoom settings, the toolbars in data explorers now automatically resize to a smaller form factor if the size of the data explorer falls below a certain threshold.

If you prefer the toolbar to always be regular or small, a setting has been added to disable toolbar resizing and instead choose a specific size. You can find this setting under Data Explorers > Toolbar size.

Open queues by name

In version 1.19.0 the ability to open blob containers by name was added. Similar to that feature, you can now also open queues by name. This feature allows you to quickly open a specific queue for a storage account, without having to click load more or wait for search.

To open a queue by name, right click on the Queues node for your Storage Account and click "Open Queue by Name...".

System notifications for data transfers

Previously the only way to know when a transfer had finished was for you to have Storage Explorer visible and be watching the transfer in the activity log. Now, if Storage Explorer is not focused when a transfer completes, you will be notified via the taskbar on Windows/the dock on macOS.

All major changes

New

AzCopy & Transfers

• The integrated version of AzCopy is now 10.11.
• If Storage Explorer is not focused when an AzCopy transfer ends, the taskbar icon will flash (Windows) or the app icon will bounce (macOS). #3742
• You can now configure AzCopy's logging level. This feature is useful if you are concerned about the size of AzCopy log files, or if you are attempting to troubleshoot a failing operation. #4305
• Added the ability to cancel AzCopy transfers which are in a queued state. #1306

Storage Accounts

• You can now manage the properties and metadata of queues. To do so, right click on a queue and choose "Properties...". #2664
• You can now enter a custom account name when connecting to an emulator. #4163
• In the blob, file, and ADLS Gen2 blob explorers, there is now a "Copy Path" action in the context menu. You can use this action to copy file and folder path/s (not URL encoded, relative to the root of the container) to the clipboard. #3762
• Icons for containers, file shares, queues, and tables, have been updated to match the Azure Portal. #4487
• Added "Open Queue by Name..." for queues. #4499
• Create snapshot is now disabled for non-active blob versions. #4539

Networking & Proxy

• Added "Use system proxy (preview)" to the list of available proxy sources. Choosing this option will have Storage Explorer make HTTP requests via the Chromium networking stack. By using the Chromium networking stack, Storage Explorer is able to support a wider variety of proxy authentication protocols, and utilize certificates from your OS certificate store. #245 #1534

Disks

• Additional validation has been added for resource names when creating a disk or snapshot. #4262

Startup Performance

• Delayed setting up taskbar and app dock menus until later in startup. #4327
• Completed work to enable earlier loading of authentication processes. #4319
• Improve startup initialization of dialog management code. #4318

Other

• Added the ability to split tabs on the right hand side tab area. #4063
• Added a "Close to the Right" action to the context menu of tabs. #4455
• Improved the reflow behavior of data explorer toolbars. #2618
• When using Azure AD to authenticate attached resources, the default tenant on the "Select Account & Tenant" page is now your home tenant. #2658
• The file version of StorageExplorer.exe now more closely matches the product version. For example, the file version of StorageExplorer.exe for this release is 1.20.0.0. #2941

Fixes

Storage Accounts

• Several pieces of UI in the blob explorer filter panel were not easily visible in high contrast themes. This has been fixed. #4359
• After changing what tags you were filtering by, blobs which matched the previous filter but did not match the new filter would sometimes not disappear. This has been fixed. #4381
• In version 1.18.0, ADLS Gen2 move path did not work if the destination path didn't start with a / and pointed to a directory other than root. This has been fixed. #4465
• Fixed an overflow issue with the address bar in the blob explorer. #4517
• Fixed a duplicate name validation issue in the Add Entity and Edit Entity dialogs for tables. #4388
• If you attempted to write a table query that included a ", Storage Explorer would replace all " with '. This will no longer happen. #2769

Other

• Fixed an issue that would result in long running jobs to be infinitely queued. #4413
• Fixed two issues related to unchecking subscriptions while the tree was in scope or search mode. #4373 #4374
• Fixed a variety of localization issues. A full list of fixed issues can be found [here](https://github.com/microsoft/AzureStorageExplorer/issues?q=label%3A%22%F0%9F%8C%90+localization%22+mil...

v1.19.1

April 2021 (Version 1.19.1, build 20210425.1)

Welcome to Storage Explorer version 1.19.1. This release is mainly focused on a new account management experience. This version also hotfixes several issues introduced in 1.19.0. For details on those changes continue reading below. The release notes for 1.19.0 can be found here.

Hotfixes

• In 1.19.0, resources under Quick Access and Local & Attached would not refresh after signing in or out. This could cause confusion because resources which are broken due to an Azure AD account being unavailable would not automatically become fixed after signing in to that account. This issue has been fixed. #4346 #4354
• Some text elements, such as the blob explorer address bar, were running spell check on their inputs. The spell checking is now disabled. #4347

v1.19.0

April 2021 (Version 1.19.0, build 20210414.2)

Welcome to Storage Explorer version 1.19.0. This release is mainly focused on a new account management experience. For details on those changes and more, continue reading below.

New

General

• The version of Electron used by Storage Explorer has been updated to 10.3.2. This upgrade includes various performance, security, and accessibility fixes. #3676
• The Microsoft Authentication Library (MSAL) is now the default authentication library for Storage Explorer. MSAL has improved support for conditional access scenarios, including MFA and domain joined device. If you have not been using MSAL, then you will need to sign back in. If you were already using MSAL, then this change should not be noticeable. Finally, if you wish to sign in with multiple Microsoft accounts at once, please see Known Issues. #4064
• Account management has been refreshed to better let you control what tenants Storage Explorer tries to access, and help you decide when you want to reenter credentials. This refresh includes the following changes. #460
  • When you sign into Storage Explorer, you will only be signed into your home tenant.
  • In the account panel, there are now two levels of checkboxes under each of your accounts. The first level is for tenants and the second level is for subscriptions.
  • You can use the tenant level checkboxes to enable or disable tenants. However, at this time, you cannot disable your home tenant.
  • When a tenant is disabled, Storage Explorer will not load subscriptions for it and you will not be able to interact with resources in that tenant.
  • When a tenant is enabled, Storage Explorer will attempt to load subscriptions for it. If subscriptions cannot be loaded, you can view any error encountered during loading and reattempt to authenticate for that tenant.
  • One tenant failing to load does not block other tenants.
  • Changes to tenants and subscriptions will immediately take effect. You no longer need to click Apply on the account panel.
  • The tree view no longer does a full refresh after changing what subscriptions you have filtered. Subscription nodes are added or removed as needed.
• Storage Explorer is now using AzCopy v10.10.0.

Blobs

• You can now open a container by name directly from a blob service node. This feature can search for containers by prefix. To open a container by name, right-click on a "Blob Containers" node and choose "Open Container by Name...". Enter all or a prefix of the name of the container you're looking for, select it from the list of containers found, and then click "Open". #75 #1790
• Properties related to immutability policies are now viewable in the properties panel. #4055
• Support has been improved for uploading or pasting to a blob container which has been connected with a SAS with create permissions instead of write permissions. #4286
• Last modified is now viewable in the properties panel for ADLS Gen2 blob containers. #3567
• If you want to enable support for the ADLS Gen2 append blobs preview, go to Settings > Services > Storage Accounts and check Enable ADLS Gen2 append blob (Preview). #4052

File Shares

• Similar to blobs, when uploading or pasting to a file share which has been connected with a stored access policy based SAS, you will now be asked how you want to handle overwrites and data integrity checking. #4287

Disks

• When copying disks, the hyperVGeneration property is now preserved. #4288

Documentation

• Documentation has been added on direct links and Storage Explorer's startup arguments. #2630

Azure Data Factory & Extensions

• The Azure Data Factory extension is generally available now. Version 1.0.0 can be downloaded from here. The following changes are available in the new version of the extension:
  • Support for Azure US Government and Azure China.
  • Hide existing factories associated with git.
  • Bug fixes.
• We're looking for developers who are interested in previewing the ability to create your own Storage Explorer extension. If you are interested, then fill out this survey. You can find more information about the preview here.

Fixes

• Fixed not being able to add container level resources (e.g. blob containers, queues) with a SAS URL that contained an account level SAS token. #4185
• Fixed an issue that might cause a "cannot find uids of undefined error" when attaching a resource. #4245
• The connection summary for an emulator once again shows the account name, account key, and default endpoints protocol. #4254
• Fixed not being able to open the stored access policies dialog if a policy did not have permissions, start time, or expiry time. #4196

Known Issues

• If you want to sign in to multiple Microsoft Accounts (MSAs) at once, it is recommended that you use Integrated Sign-In. To do so, go to Settings > Application > Sign-in > Sign in with and choose "Integrated Sign-In". #4307
• If the refresh token for your home tenant expires, and you are using Integrated Sign-In, you may be asked to reauthenticate twice. #4281
• If you use Azurite with a custom account name, the default emulator node and attached emulator connections won't work since they are hardcoded to target the default development account name. As a workaround, you can construct a connection string and attach the emulator storage account itself. #4163
• When transferring data to a blob container which has been connected with a SAS with create permissions instead of write permissions, transfers may fail due to network instability. This happens because writes performed with a create permission must be done in a single network call. Therefore, if the network call fails part way through, the entire transfer must be restarted. And eventually, if the call keeps failing, it will be aborted. This is most likely to happen with large files. It is recommended to use SAS tokens with write permissions when transferring large files. #4311

See the issues page for a complete list of all known issues.

v1.18.1

March 2021 (Version 1.18.1, build 20210304.5)

Welcome to Storage Explorer version 1.18.1. Notable changes in this release compared to 1.17.0 include a refreshed connect experience, enhanced SAS support for ADLS Gen2, and improvements to startup performance. This version also hotfixes several issues introduced in 1.18.0. For more details on all of these changes and more, continue reading below.

Hotfixes

• In 1.18.0, if you did not have access to the keys for your Storage account, you would be unable to browse data plane resources. This issue has been fixed. #4151
• In 1.18.0, the new Connect dialog did not include the ability to attach a Storage account via a SAS URL. This functionality has been restored. #4149
• When generating shared access signatures, % characters are now properly being encoded. #4141

New

General

• The Connect dialog has been overhauled and refreshed in order to reduce complexity and confusion. This has been accomplished by optimizing the flow of the Connect dialog towards more clearly guiding you through the connect experience. The dialog now asks you what type of resource you want to connect to, how you want to authenticate the connection, and finally the specific details for that connection. If you have any feedback regarding the new experience, please open an issue on GitHub. #2965
• Several optimizations have been completed to decrease the startup time of Storage Explorer and the time it takes to load actionable resources in the tree view. If you have any feedback regarding startup performance please open an issue on GitHub. We will continue addressing startup related performance over the next few releases.
• Storage Explorer is now using AzCopy v10.8.0.
• Log files now have more descriptive file names. You can find Storage Explorer log files by going to Help → Open Logs Directory. #3735
• You can now easily clean up old log files by going to Help → Delete Old Logs. This action will delete Storage Explorer logs which are 30 or more days old. #3817

Storage Accounts

• Generating shared access signatures is now enabled for ADLS Gen2 Storage accounts. You can now attach an ADLS Gen2 Storage account via a SAS connection string. #2252

Blobs

• You can now generate shared access signatures for ADLS Gen2 containers and folders. You can attach now ADLS Gen2 containers and folders via a SAS URI. #3738
• When generating shared access signatures for blobs and blob containers you can now choose which account key to use. #1659
• Propagating ACLs for ADLS Gen2 containers (the root directory) is now supported. #3876
• Setting public access level is now supported for ADLS Gen2 containers. #3138
• When viewing properties of blobs and folders in an ADLS Gen2 container both the blob and DFS URLs are shown. #3357
• An activity is now displayed when saving properties for blobs. #2534
• An activity is now displayed when changing public access level for blob containers. #3620

File Shares

• An activity is now displayed when changing access policies for a file share. #1837
• An activity is now displayed when saving properties for files and folders in a file share. #2534

Azure Data Factory & Extensions

• Version 0.1.5 of the ADF extension is now available. If you have already installed the extension, you can update it from the Extensions panel. Otherwise, you can download it here. The new version includes:
  • A tutorial will now be shown the first time you use the ADF extension.
  • You can now use Amazon S3 temporary security credentials to authenticate connections to your S3 data.
  • When creating a new factory, the subscription dropdown will default to the last used subscription.
  • A variety of accessibility fixes.
• Are you interested in creating your own Storage Explorer extension? We're looking for developers who want to create their own Storage Explorer extension. For more information about how to have an opportunity to create one see here.

Fixes

General

• In several textboxes, you could not use keyboard shortcuts (such as Ctrl+Shift+Arrow Key to jump-highlight). This issue has been fixed. #3230
• After canceling/clearing search in the tree view, the node which was selected in the search results did not remain selected. The node should now remain selected. #33
• After clicking load more in the tree view, selection would move to the parent of the "Load more..." node. Now, the node which was before the "Load more..." node will be selected. #1846
• Operations which involved the use of AzCopy would fail to start on Windows ARM devices. This issue has been fixed. #2553
• The theme menu did not make it clear what the current theme was. There is now a checkmark next to the current theme. #1194
• Ellipses for button labels in explorer toolbars were not being themed properly. This issue has been fixed. #2555
• In the data table for explorers, ampersands would sometimes be rendered as "&amp". This issue has been fixed. #3377 #3955

Storage Accounts

• Service nodes for file shares, queues, and tables, were incorrectly being showed under classic premium Storage accounts. This issue has been fixed. #3821

Blobs

• After downloading a blob, using the "Open Folder" action would not focus the downloaded blob. A new "Show in Folder" action has now replaced "Open Folder" and will correctly show the downloaded blob. #753
• Renaming ADLS Gen2 blobs which contained special characters, such as ' or /, would fail. This was due to an issue in the storage-file-datalake SDK. The issue has been fixed both in the SDK and Storage Explorer. #3360 #3744
• The validation for new names when cloning blobs has been updated to not allow for names with trailing ".". #3361
• Changing the public access level for blob containers in Premium GPV1 and GPV2 accounts has been disabled. Containers in such Storage accounts cannot be made publicly accessible. #3598
• When cloning an emulator blob container, blobs in subdirectories were not being cloned. This issue has been fixed. #3720
• Renaming ADLS Gen2 folders to the name "?" would fail. This issue has been fixed. #3820
• When cloning or creating a folder, the use of name which was already taken by an existing folder was not always being detected. This issue has been fixed. #3903 #3985
• Creating a folder in an ADLS Gen2 container with a name that contains % would fail. This issue has been fixed. #3987
• Attempting to edit the tags of a blob whose name contains % would fail. This issue has been fixed. #3990
• The validation for metadata keys for ADLS Gen2 blobs and folders has been updated to properly detect if a key is a valid C# identifier. #4049

File Shares

• A consistent format is now being used for snapshot related timestamps in the file share explorer and activities in the Activity Log. #3890
• When viewing properties for a file or folder in a file share, URI encodable characters in the URL are no longer encoded. This is consistent with the view properties experience for blobs. [#3786](https://github.com/microsoft/A...

v1.18.0

March 2021 (Version 1.18.0, build 20210227.4)

Welcome to Storage Explorer version 1.18.0. Notable changes in this release include a refreshed connect experience, enhanced SAS support for ADLS Gen2, and improvements to startup performance. For more details on all of these changes and more, continue reading below.

New

General

• The Connect dialog has been overhauled and refreshed in order to reduce complexity and confusion. This has been accomplished by optimizing the flow of the Connect dialog towards more clearly guiding you through the connect experience. The dialog now asks you what type of resource you want to connect to, how you want to authenticate the connection, and finally the specific details for that connection. If you have any feedback regarding the new experience, please open an issue on GitHub. #2965
• Several optimizations have been completed to decrease the startup time of Storage Explorer and the time it takes to load actionable resources in the tree view. If you have any feedback regarding startup performance please open an issue on GitHub. We will continue addressing startup related performance over the next few releases.
• Storage Explorer is now using AzCopy v10.8.0.
• Log files now have more descriptive file names. You can find Storage Explorer log files by going to Help → Open Logs Directory. #3735
• You can now easily clean up old log files by going to Help → Delete Old Logs. This action will delete Storage Explorer logs which are 30 or more days old. #3817

Storage Accounts

• Generating shared access signatures is now enabled for ADLS Gen2 Storage accounts. You can now attach an ADLS Gen2 Storage account via a SAS connection string. #2252

Blobs

• You can now generate shared access signatures for ADLS Gen2 containers and folders. You can attach now ADLS Gen2 containers and folders via a SAS URI. #3738
• When generating shared access signatures for blobs and blob containers you can now choose which account key to use. #1659
• Propagating ACLs for ADLS Gen2 containers (the root directory) is now supported. #3876
• Setting public access level is now supported for ADLS Gen2 containers. #3138
• When viewing properties of blobs and folders in an ADLS Gen2 container both the blob and DFS URLs are shown. #3357
• An activity is now displayed when saving properties for blobs. #2534
• An activity is now displayed when changing public access level for blob containers. #3620

File Shares

• An activity is now displayed when changing access policies for a file share. #1837
• An activity is now displayed when saving properties for files and folders in a file share. #2534

Azure Data Factory & Extensions

• Version 0.1.5 of the ADF extension is now available. If you have already installed the extension, you can update it from the Extensions panel. Otherwise, you can download it here. The new version includes:
  • A tutorial will now be shown the first time you use the ADF extension.
  • You can now use Amazon S3 temporary security credentials to authenticate connections to your S3 data.
  • When creating a new factory, the subscription dropdown will default to the last used subscription.
  • A variety of accessibility fixes.
• Are you interested in creating your own Storage Explorer extension? We're looking for developers who want to create their own Storage Explorer extension. For more information about how to have an opportunity to create one see here.

Fixes

General

• In several textboxes, you could not use keyboard shortcuts (such as Ctrl+Shift+Arrow Key to jump-highlight). This issue has been fixed. #3230
• After canceling/clearing search in the tree view, the node which was selected in the search results did not remain selected. The node should now remain selected. #33
• After clicking load more in the tree view, selection would move to the parent of the "Load more..." node. Now, the node which was before the "Load more..." node will be selected. #1846
• Operations which involved the use of AzCopy would fail to start on Windows ARM devices. This issue has been fixed. #2553
• The theme menu did not make it clear what the current theme was. There is now a checkmark next to the current theme. #1194
• Ellipses for button labels in explorer toolbars were not being themed properly. This issue has been fixed. #2555
• In the data table for explorers, ampersands would sometimes be rendered as "&amp". This issue has been fixed. #3377 #3955

Storage Accounts

• Service nodes for file shares, queues, and tables, were incorrectly being showed under classic premium Storage accounts. This issue has been fixed. #3821

Blobs

• After downloading a blob, using the "Open Folder" action would not focus the downloaded blob. A new "Show in Folder" action has now replaced "Open Folder" and will correctly show the downloaded blob. #753
• Renaming ADLS Gen2 blobs which contained special characters, such as ' or /, would fail. This was due to an issue in the storage-file-datalake SDK. The issue has been fixed both in the SDK and Storage Explorer. #3360 #3744
• The validation for new names when cloning blobs has been updated to not allow for names with trailing ".". #3361
• Changing the public access level for blob containers in Premium GPV1 and GPV2 accounts has been disabled. Containers in such Storage accounts cannot be made publicly accessible. #3598
• When cloning an emulator blob container, blobs in subdirectories were not being cloned. This issue has been fixed. #3720
• Renaming ADLS Gen2 folders to the name "?" would fail. This issue has been fixed. #3820
• When cloning or creating a folder, the use of name which was already taken by an existing folder was not always being detected. This issue has been fixed. #3903 #3985
• Creating a folder in an ADLS Gen2 container with a name that contains % would fail. This issue has been fixed. #3987
• Attempting to edit the tags of a blob whose name contains % would fail. This issue has been fixed. #3990
• The validation for metadata keys for ADLS Gen2 blobs and folders has been updated to properly detect if a key is a valid C# identifier. #4049

File Shares

• A consistent format is now being used for snapshot related timestamps in the file share explorer and activities in the Activity Log. #3890
• When viewing properties for a file or folder in a file share, URI encodable characters in the URL are no longer encoded. This is consistent with the view properties experience for blobs. #3786
• The validation for new names when cloning files in a file shares has been updated to better look for invalid characters. #2566 #3374
• The validation for metadata values for files and folders in file shares has been updated to allow for empty strings. #3408
• The validation for metadata keys for files and folders in file shares has been updated to properly detect if a key is a valid C# identifier. #3581

...

v1.17.0

December 2020 (Version 1.17.0, build 20201211.10)

Welcome to Storage Explorer version 1.17.0. This is a smaller release which contains several long requested features, bug fixes, and small changes to improve the overall user experience. For more details on all of these changes and more, continue reading below.

New

Blobs

• There is now a setting to preserve the access tier of blobs when performing a copy & paste. To enable this setting, go to Settings → Transfers → AzCopy → Preserve blob access tier. #2125
• For storage accounts that have static websites enabled, there is now a Web Endpoint property in the properties panel. #532

ADLS Gen2

• Alongside the release of the new recursive access control list (ACL) APIs, Storage Explorer has a new feature called "Propagate Access Control Lists". You can use this feature to propagate the current ACLs of a folder to all of its existing file and folder descendants. #3695
• Several pieces of helpful info have been added to the Manage Access Control List dialog. #3694
• The selection and folder statistics features are now available in ADLS Gen2 blob explorers. #964

Logging

• Several aspects of Storage Explorer are now being logged to disk. This is being done so you can easily see what and when Storage Explorer is doing things, even from previous sessions. The new things being logged include:

  • Activities #2655
  • A limited set of API calls #3733

  Over the next few releases additional things will be added to these log files. If there is something you would like to be logged please open a feature request.

Azure Data Factory

• The Azure Data Factory extension has received several updates since first being released last month. Today, version 0.1.4 of the extension is being released. If you have already installed the extension, you can update it from the extension's panel. Otherwise, you can download it here.

General

• The activities for operations which use AzCopy now include start time and duration. #1683
• On macOS you can now use ⌘A and ⌘Z in text boxes for select all and undo. If you find a text box which does not support either of these shortcuts please open a bug report. #2756

Fixes

ADLS Gen2

• Fixed a typo in the rename dialog. #3819
• When renaming blobs and folders you can no longer use "." as a new name. #3363

Blobs

• In the blob explorer, when viewing snapshots for a blob, the address bar would not update to indicate that snapshots were being viewed. This has been fixed. #3390

Queues

• In the queue explorer's data table, consecutive whitespaces were being condensed into one whitespace. This has been fixed. #3134

Disks

• In v1.16, disks would fail to download when certain proxy settings were active. This has been fixed. #3782

General

• In v1.16 the last chosen save location was not being saved for downloads. This has been fixed. #3802
• When attaching a public blob container, the Back button in the Connect dialog would not work once you reached the Connection Summary page. This has been fixed. #3476
• When attaching via SAS URI the endpoint field for the appropriate service type would not display the parsed service endpoint. This has been fixed. #1514
• When attaching via Connection String a suggested display name was not always parsed from the given connection string. This has been fixed. #593

Known Issues

• The new "Propagate Access Control Lists" feature is not available for the root directory of ADLS Gen2 blob containers. #3876
• Several users have encountered issues when attempting to use Storage Explorer on Windows 10 for ARM devices. #2553

See the issues page for a complete list of all known issues.

v1.16.0

November 2020 (Version 1.16.0, build 20201109.5)

Welcome to Storage Explorer version 1.16.0. This release includes support for blob index tags and improvements to Storage Explorer's proxy settings. Also now available is the Azure Data Factory extension for Storage Explorer. For more details on all of these changes and more, continue reading below.

New

Blobs

• For non-ADLS Gen2 blob containers, the prefix search box has been moved to the new filter panel. So to search by prefix, you now need to click on the "Show Filter Panel" button, located next to the address bar, and then select "Prefix:".
• Storage Explorer now supports blob index tags (preview). In Storage Explorer, you can:
  • Set tags while uploading via the upload dialog.
  • Get and set tags for existing blobs. Right click on a blob and then click "Edit Tags...".
  • Query for blobs by tags. Click on the "Show Filter Panel" button, located next to the address bar, and then select "Tag Filters:".
• An activity is now added to the Activity Log when changing CORS rules for the blob service. #3245
• You can now set a rehydration priority when changing the access tier of a blob. #2870
• You can now add ADLS Gen2 blob containers to Quick Access. #2361
• Lease duration is now available in the blob properties dialog. #3515

File Shares

• A setting has been added to enable AzCopy to delete files and directories with read-only SMB property (Settings → Transfers → AzCopy → Force delete read-only files). AzCopy will require "write" permission when force deleting such files and directories. #587

Queues

• An activity is now added to the Activity Log when clearing a queue. #2507

Azure Data Factory

• The Azure Data Factory (ADF) team has created an extension for Storage Explorer. This extension allows you to leverage ADF's ability to perform high throughput, server-side transfers from Amazon S3, Azure Blob Storage, or Azure Data Lake Gen2 Storage to Azure Blob Storage or Azure Data Lake Gen2 Storage. You can learn more about this extension here, and you can download it here.

General

• Several improvements have been made to how Storage Explorer handles proxy settings.
  • You can now choose whether the source of Storage Explorer's proxy configuration comes from environment variables or in-app settings (Settings → Application → Proxy configuration). By default no proxy configuration is used.
  • If Storage Explorer detects proxy environment variables and environment variables are not selected as the current proxy configuration source, then an activity will be placed in the Activity Log. From that activity you can choose to enable environment variables as your proxy configuration source.
  • Requests sent to a local storage emulator now automatically bypass proxy settings. #3572
• Storage Explorer is now using AzCopy v10.7.0.
• In the Properties panel, any values which might be considered secret, such as account keys or SAS tokens, are now obscured by default. Obscured values can be revealed by clicking on the eye icon next to the obscured value. #3144
• The shortcut key for closing the current explorer/editor has been changed to Ctrl+W to more closely align with standard keyboard shortcuts. #2921
• When an error occurs in an explorer, the explorer will no longer close itself. #3225
• Colors and border styles have been updated in explorer data tables to make it more clear when a row is selected while the table not focused versus when a row is being hovered while the table is not focused. #2107

Fixes

Blobs

• When downloading multiple versions, Storage Explorer would always report 0 items downloaded. This has been fixed. #3433
• The value of a blob's "Access Tier Last Modified" would disappear after certain actions. This has been fixed. #3165 #3166
• Deleting blob virtual directories was broken when working against an emulator. This has been fixed. #3052
• "Get Shared Access Signature..." is now disabled when working against a public blob container. #3532
• Batch change access tier would sometimes fail in Gen2 containers. This has been fixed. #3705
• Fixed a typo when performing a batch change access tier. #3584

Queues

• When using drag and drop to reorder columns in the queue explorer, the column being dragged would become unexpectedly large. This has been fixed. #3074

File Shares

• Generating share level shared access signatures has been disabled when using "Get Shared Access Signature..." on a directory. To generate a share level SAS, choose "Get Shared Access Signature..." from the context menu of a file share in the tree view. #1375

Tables

• Sorting a column of booleans which contained a null would result in infinite loading. This has been fixed. #271

CosmosDB

• If CosmosDB features were enabled, performing a search in the tree view would sometimes result in a "forEach" error. This has been fixed. #3184 #3592

General

• Since version 1.14.0, some Linux users have reported a greatly increased usage of X11 sockets by Storage Explorer, sometimes to the point of using all available sockets. The cause of this leak has been fixed, and we will continue to monitor X11 socket usage. #3376
• If MSAL was enabled, removing accounts would sometimes cause "Unable to retrieve child resource errors" to appear even though the tree view was not visible. This has been fixed. #3247
• On Windows, Storage Explorer would not acknowledge a moved Downloads folder. This has been fixed. #313
• Storage Explorer can now distinguish an empty list of safe file extensions and the default list of safe file extensions in the settings panel. #2889
• Fixed a variety of accessibility bugs. See our full list of fixed accessibility bugs for more information.

Known Issues

• When used in an emulator blob container, "Folder Statistics" and "Selection Statistics" are not counting blobs in virtual directories; and "Clone" is not cloning blobs in virtual directories. #3720

See the issues page for a complete list of all known issues.

v1.15.1

August 2020 (Version 1.15.1, build 20200902.9)

Welcome to Storage Explorer version 1.15.1. This version of Storage Explorer contains two bug hotfixes.

Hotfixes

• Some users with Azure AD attached ADLS Gen2 Blob container paths were seeing errors after upgrading to 1.15.0. This has been fixed. #3518
• Some Azure Stack users were unable to list resources. This has been fixed. #3519

New

Blobs

• Storage Explorer now supports Blob versioning. Blob versioning is currently in preview and you need to enable the feature before using it. You can learn more about what Blob versioning is and how to enable it here. With the Blob versioning support, you can
  • View Blob versions
  • Download Blob versions
  • Delete Blob versions
  • Undelete Blob versions
  • Change access tier of your Blob versions
  • Promote a Blob version to become the current version
  • Generate shared access signatures with the "delete version" permission
• You can now update the access tier of multiple Blobs at once. #591
• Support for moving files and folders within an ADLS Gen2 Blob container has been added. #2103
• Copying non-ADLS Gen2 Blobs is now available when you only have Azure AD credentials. #1875
• You can now view and update metadata on non-ADLS Gen2 Blob containers. #756
• You can now attach public Blob containers. #603
• When uploading Blobs, you can now specify what access tier you would like to upload your Blobs to, either Hot or Cool. #2826
• Confirmations for creates and deletes of Blob containers have been added to the Activity Log #2529
• Rehydration status of Blobs is now included in the properties dialog. #176

Queues

• You can now move messages between queues in your storage accounts. #1064

Other

• For both Blobs and Files Shares, you can now manually edit the address bar for faster navigation. #45
• A setting has been added to disable the automatic downloading of new updates. The setting has no effect if you downloaded Storage Explorer from the Snap Store on Linux. The setting can be found under Settings → Application → Updates → Auto Download Updates. #2632
• You can now use HTTPS when connecting to an emulator. For help configuring Azurite and Storage Explorer, refer to this blog post #2598
• We've added documentation that goes over best security practices when using Storage Explorer. You can find that documentation here. #3304

Fixes

• The default sort order for queue messages was by ID. The default sort order is now by insertion time. #2990
• When opening many tabs in quick succession, the UI in each tab would sometimes not fully load. This has been fixed. #2398
• Sorting by lease state in ADLS Gen2 Blob containers would cause infinite loading. This has been fixed. #3194
• In 1.14, when viewing a queue message, Storage Explorer changed to always assume that messages were Base64 encoded. The previous logic which attempted to auto detect if the message is UTF-8 or Base64 has been restored. #3271
• Storage Explorer was unable to download Blob snapshots if the name of the Blob started with whitespace. This has been fixed. #2844
• Lease Status was missing in the properties grid for ADLS Gen2 Blob containers. It is now there. #3107
• In 1.14, some users were seeing missing module errors. This has been fixed. #3326
• In 1.14, Storage Explorer wouldn't start if it was opened from a symlink on Windows. This has been fixed. #3353

Known Issues

• You cannot download or copy folders in public Blob containers. #3394 AzCopy #971
• You cannot rehydrate a Blob version from "Archive" tier. #3439
• At the time of release, neither Azurite nor the .NET Emulator support versions. #3473

A full list of currently open issues can be found here.

Deprecations

• The Azure Cosmos DB integration with Storage Explorer has been deprecated. Any existing functionality will not be removed for a minimum of one year from this release. Users should use the Azure Portal, the Azure Portal desktop app, or the standalone Cosmos Explorer instead – all of which contain many new features that aren’t currently supported in Storage Explorer. Additionally, the Azure Cosmos DB team has also open sourced the data explorer project and will be investing in their own desktop tooling at a later date. Please keep an eye on their repository for more information.