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attachments in Dev environment

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Posted on by CU04051112-0

Hi everyone,

I restored the database in the dev environment using a BACPAC file, but I’m unable to view or open any previously uploaded attachments in the dev. can someone please advise whether attachments are included in a BACPAC export, and if not, what is the recommended way to make them available in the dev environment?

Thanks in advance

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Dynamics 365 Finance

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Martin Dráb 238,740 Most Valuable Professional on at

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Attachments are not normally stored in database, therefore a DB backup doesn't include them. They're stored in Azure blob storage by default, or they can go to SharePoint.

For attachments of some tables, there are data entities that you can use for export and import. I've also noticed for downloading attachments from the source environment when needed.

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CU04051112-0 35 on at

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Hi @Martin Dráb

Thank you for your answer, unfortunately the method mentioned in the article won't work as I need all the attachments to be added in the dev, is there a way I can get all the attachment directly from Azure blob storage?

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Martin Dráb 238,740 Most Valuable Professional on at

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Why it wouldn't work in DEV?

No, you can't get all the attachment directly from Azure blob storage.

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André Arnaud de Cal... 303,093 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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As Martin mentioned, there is no option out of the box to export all attachments. You are mentioning that this is a DEV environment. Are you sure you need all attachments or are you interested in specific ones to support a development cycle?

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CU04051112-0 35 on at

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Hi @Martin Dráb, @André Arnaud de Calavon

The idea to move all the attachment to dev is keep them as a reference, since we are doing some changes and these attachment won't be available on the production.

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André Arnaud de Cal... 303,093 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Hi,

I don't understand what exactly you mean by "these attachment won't be available on the production". They are currently on the production environment, right?

Anyway, in case you need all attachments, you will need to build custom export option(s). This could be data entities per attachment table, or another custom script that can be used for export and import purposes. I still doubt if this is worth the time and money.

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Navneeth Nagrajan 2,495 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Hi @CU04051112-0,

bacpac file doesn't have reference to attachments. In most of the implementation projects, you can have a test instance of an azure blob storage/sharepoint site collection pointing to the development or a tier-2 UAT D365 environment. Secondly, would recommend having a copy of the attachments hosted on a test SharePoint Site/Azure blob storage.

To add to what Martin and Andre rightly mentioned in the initial response, the attachments are hosted in an Azure blob storage and the metadata about attachments are hosted in tables across DocuRef and DocuValue. The actual file content for attachments stored in the Azure blob storage is not included in .bacpac files. On restoration of a copy of the database in the lower environments, the system tries to retrieve the file from the source environment's blob storage, hence having a test instance and having scripts written to have those configuration settings setup in a test instance would be recommended. This way we focus more on testing the functionality rather than trying to fix up the attachment links.

Hope this helps. Happy to answer questions, if any.

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CU04051112-0 35 on at

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Hi @Martin Dráb, @Navneeth Nagrajan, @André Arnaud de Calavon

The point of having all the attachments in the dev environment is because we will treat this environment as backup that include everything we had on pervious customization that won't be accessible in the production anymore.

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André Arnaud de Cal... 303,093 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Thanks for the clarification. As mentioned above, it is not supported out of the box and you will need to built customizations or a script.

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