Is there any way to turn off the mail notifications to users while migrating the work items

[Chandu001729]

While migrating the ADO work items, we are observing continuous emails saying this work item has been assigned to you, it is spamming our mail box, is there an way to avoid those email notifications while migrating.

@MrHinsh need your assistance.

[MrHinsh]

To turn off notifications in Azure DevOps during a migration, you can either disable all notifications at the project level or suspend specific subscriptions. Here's how:

Option 1: Disable All Notifications for a Project

1. Go to Azure DevOps Portal

   • Open your Azure DevOps organisation: https://dev.azure.com/
   • Navigate to the relevant Project.

2. Open Project Settings

   • Click on Project Settings (bottom left corner).

3. Disable Notifications

   • Go to Notifications > Delivery settings.
   • Toggle Disable all notifications for this project.

Option 2: Temporarily Disable Notification Subscriptions

If you only want to disable specific notifications:

1. Go to Organisation Settings

   • Click on the ⚙️ Organisation Settings (bottom left).

2. Navigate to Global Notifications

   • Select Notifications from the left-hand menu.

3. Find Active Subscriptions

   • Look for Project Subscriptions or Team Subscriptions.
   • Click on the ones you want to disable.

4. Disable Subscription

   • Click Disable to temporarily turn off the notification.
   • You can re-enable it later after migration.

Option 3: Use PowerShell to Bulk Disable Notifications

If you are doing multiple migrations and want to automate disabling notifications, use Azure DevOps REST API:

PowerShell Script to Disable Notifications

$OrgName = "your-org-name"
$ProjectName = "your-project-name"
$PAT = "your-personal-access-token"

$Headers = @{
    "Authorization" = "Basic " + [Convert]::ToBase64String([Text.Encoding]::ASCII.GetBytes(":$PAT"))
    "Content-Type"  = "application/json"
}

# Get all subscriptions
$subscriptionsUrl = "https://dev.azure.com/$OrgName/_apis/notification/subscriptions?api-version=7.1-preview.1"
$subscriptions = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri $subscriptionsUrl -Headers $Headers -Method Get

# Disable all subscriptions for the project
foreach ($sub in $subscriptions.value) {
    if ($sub.scope.type -eq "Project" -and $sub.scope.name -eq $ProjectName) {
        $disableUrl = "https://dev.azure.com/$OrgName/_apis/notification/subscriptions/$($sub.id)?api-version=7.1-preview.1"
        $body = @{ "status" = "Disabled" } | ConvertTo-Json -Depth 2
        Invoke-RestMethod -Uri $disableUrl -Headers $Headers -Method Patch -Body $body
        Write-Output "Disabled subscription: $($sub.id) - $($sub.description)"
    }
}

🔹 Notes:

• Replace your-org-name, your-project-name, and your-personal-access-token (PAT).
• Generate a PAT from Azure DevOps with Notification Read & Manage permissions.
• This script disables only project-level notifications.

Re-enabling Notifications After Migration

• If you disabled notifications manually, go back to Project Settings > Notifications and enable them.
• If you used PowerShell, change "status": "Disabled" to "status": "Enabled" in the script.

Would you like help refining this for a specific migration scenario? 🚀

[MrHinsh]

Thats the GTP answer... its pretty close... i checked Option 1 and 2... on 2 you can just hit Settings on the notifications page and set "Do not deliver".

[Chandu001729]

@MrHinsh using the Azure DevOps Migration tool it self can we do anything in the configuration file to stop those email notifications, because the Org which i am using have multiple projects and i might not have necessary permission to disable or enable those options it requires some leadership approval to get access and update those permissions

[MrHinsh]

Since our tool requires Collection Admin on both the source and the target you should have all the permissions that you need.

There is no feature in the tool to do this for you. It can easily be disabled across the whole organisation by using "option 2" above.

[Chandu001729]

I have tried the option 2 and still i am seeing the mails while migrating the work items from One Project to another Project

I have disabled this under Org Settings

@MrHinsh Any other possible way.? because those email are spamming the mail boxes when we run the test migrations.

And in my Project settings there is nothing related to Work Items under notifications