How to Extend Business Central Trial Environment and Take Backup (Including Setups) Before Expiry?

(3) Share

Report

Posted on by CU05020926-0

Hi everyone,

I am currently working on a Business Central online trial environment that was created in February last year. As we are approaching the second week of February, the environment is going to expire.

Before it expires, I want to understand:

Is there any option to extend a trial environment beyond its default duration?

How can I take a complete backup of the environment—including setup configurations, customizations, and data—so that I can restore or re‑use it later in a fresh environment?

Ideally, I would like to port all setups and configurations to another environment if possible.

Any guidance on what is supported, and the best approach to preserve the work done in the trial environment, would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Categories:

Dynamics 365 Business Central

Dynamics 365 Business Central migration

I have the same question (0)

All responses (1)

Answers (1)

Verified answer

OussamaSabbouh 9,202 on at

Like (1)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

Hello,

Trial environments cannot be extended in Business Central Online — once they expire, Microsoft deletes them and there is no recovery. There is also no full “backup/restore” option for SaaS trials. What is supported is porting configuration and data selectively before expiry: use Configuration Packages to export/import setup tables (posting groups, dimensions, number series, setups, etc.), RapidStart for master data, Extensions (per-tenant) to redeploy customizations, and AL/VS Code to redeploy any apps. For transactional data, only manual export (Excel / APIs) is possible; it’s not best practice to migrate historical transactions from a trial. The recommended approach is to spin up a paid sandbox, install the same extensions, import configuration packages, and re-seed minimal data. Do this before the trial expires — after that, everything is gone.

Regards,
Oussama Sabbouh

Was this reply helpful? Yes No