Deactive an app in Entra ID

๐Ÿ”’ Secure Bits ๐Ÿ’ก
๐—ฆ๐˜๐—ผ๐—ฝ๐—ฝ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ฎ๐—ป ๐—ฎ๐—ฝ๐—ฝ ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐—˜๐—ป๐˜๐—ฟ๐—ฎ ๐—œ๐—— ๐—ป๐—ผ ๐—น๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ด๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐˜€ ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—น๐—ฒ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ถ๐˜. ๐—”๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฎ๐˜โ€™๐˜€ ๐—ฎ ๐—ฏ๐—ถ๐—ด ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—น.

A new feature is coming to Microsoft Entra ID that finally gives admins a safer option:
๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐˜๐—ถ๐˜ƒ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ฒ ๐—ฎ๐—ป ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฝ๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐˜€๐—ฒ ๐—ฎ๐—ฝ๐—ฝ๐—น๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐—ถ๐—ป๐˜€๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ฑ ๐—ผ๐—ณ ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—น๐—ฒ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ถ๐˜.

Until now, disabling an app usually meant deleting it entirely โ€” and with that, losing configuration, permissions, metadata, and also the sign-in and audit history you might need later.

๐Ÿค” ๐—ช๐—ต๐˜† ๐—ป๐—ผ๐˜ ๐—ท๐˜‚๐˜€๐˜ ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—น๐—ฒ๐˜๐—ฒ?
Deleting an app is often too destructive during:
– Security investigations
– Incident response
– Suspicious sign-in analysis
– Temporary service suspension
– Dev/test rollbacks

Once deleted, the context is gone โ€” and so is your ability to understand ๐˜ธ๐˜ฉ๐˜ข๐˜ต ๐˜ฉ๐˜ข๐˜ฑ๐˜ฑ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฅ.

๐Ÿ› ๏ธย ๐—ช๐—ต๐—ฎ๐˜โ€™๐˜€ ๐—ฑ๐—ผ๐—ฒ๐˜€ ๐—ถ๐˜ ๐—ฑ๐—ผ
–ย Deactivation immediately blocks sign-ins and token issuance
– App configuration, permissions, and metadata are preserved
– Audit and sign-in history remain intact
– The app can be reactivated if needed

This gives you a ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ฏ๐—น๐—ฒ โ€œ๐—ธ๐—ถ๐—น๐—น ๐˜€๐˜„๐—ถ๐˜๐—ฐ๐—ตโ€ instead of a permanent delete.

๐Ÿ›ก๏ธ From now on, Iโ€™d advise you to treat ๐—ฎ๐—ฝ๐—ฝ ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐˜๐—ถ๐˜ƒ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป as a first-response control โ€” not deletion.

If your only option is โ€œdelete and lose everything,โ€ you were forced to choose between ๐˜€๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐˜‚๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐˜๐˜† ๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐—น๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐—ธ ๐—ผ๐—ณ ๐˜ƒ๐—ถ๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ฏ๐—ถ๐—น๐—ถ๐˜๐˜† ๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ถ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฐ๐—ฒ. This feature finally removes that trade-off.

๐Ÿ’ฌ How often have you deleted an app just to stop access โ€” and then regretted losing the logs?

๐˜ˆ๐˜ถ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ ๐˜ฐ๐˜ง ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ฑ๐˜ฐ๐˜ด๐˜ต:
Martin Strnad