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Urgent Help Needed: Accidentally Deleted Extension – Request to Release Name for Re-publishing

Chengxin Song 0 Reputation points
2026-04-01T11:25:34.1566667+00:00

Hello,

My publisher ID is CANN-PUB, and the extension name is cannbot. Between 5:30 PM and 6:00 PM (China Time) on April 1, 2026, I intended to temporarily unpublish my extension but mistakenly clicked the “Remove” button, resulting in the permanent deletion of the “cannbot” extension. When I tried to re-publish it, the system indicated that the extension name is already taken and cannot be used again.

This name is critical to my work, and the situation is urgent. I would greatly appreciate it if you could help release the name so I can re-publish the extension. I am happy to provide any additional information if needed.

Thank you very much for your assistance. I am available to provide any further information at your convenience.

Developer technologies | Visual Studio | Extensions
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  1. Surya Amrutha Vaishnavi Lanka (INFOSYS LIMITED) 1,960 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff
    2026-04-02T09:51:05.3133333+00:00

    Thanks for reaching out!
    Go to Visual Studio Marketplace Support https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/VisualStudio/suggest

    1. Click Report a problem.
    2. Select:
      • Product: Visual Studio Marketplace
      • Category: Extension publishing / Management
    3. In the description, clearly include:
      • Publisher ID: CANN-PUB
      • Extension name: cannbot
      • Exact date & time of deletion (China Time): April 1, 2026, 5:30–6:00 PM
      • Mention that “Remove” was clicked by mistake instead of “Unpublish”
      • Clearly request manual release of the extension name
    4. Submit the ticket and wait for the Marketplace team’s response.

    Only Microsoft Marketplace Support can release a deleted extension name; self‑recovery is not possible.

  2. Q&A Assist
    2026-04-01T11:25:46.6366667+00:00
    AI generated content. This question contains an answer created with AI from Q&A Assist. Learn more

    The Marketplace platform does not support reusing an extension name after the extension has been removed. The documentation distinguishes between:

    • Unpublish – hides the extension from the Marketplace but keeps it available to existing users and allows republishing later.
    • Remove – permanently deletes the extension entry from the Marketplace, and this action cannot be reversed.

    For Azure DevOps extensions, removal is only allowed when the extension has zero installs, and the documentation explicitly states that the action cannot be undone:

    If your extension has zero installs, you can choose to remove it completely from the Marketplace. To do so, select Remove from the menu. You can't reverse this action.

    Because of this, the name cannbot cannot be released or reused once the extension has been removed. The only supported option is to publish a new extension under a different name.

    If there is a legal or security issue, the guidance is to contact Customer Support via Developer Community, but that path is for requesting deletion, not for restoring or freeing a removed name.

    References:

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