Error "An error occurred writing to Azure storage" when uploading files on a development instance

If you receive the following error message on a Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations development VPC when uploading files - for example under Product information management > Products > Change image - you should check the Azure storage emulator.

An error occurred writing to Azure storage.

The Azure storage emulator is probably installed, but may not be running.

Starting the Azure storage emulator

The following steps are required to start the Azure storage emulator:

• Start command line as administrator
• Change to path C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Azure\Storage Emulator
• AzureStorageEmulator.exe start

Get status of the Azure storage emulator

If you are not sure whether the emulator is already started, you can query its status as follows:

• Start command line as administrator
• Change to path C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Azure\Storage Emulator
• AzureStorageEmulator.exe status

By the way: If the default ports (three of the number) are already occupied by another program, you can adjust them in the CONFIG file.

Port conflict with existing application.

Initializing the Azure storage emulator

The following steps are necessary to initialize the emulator:

• Start command line as administrator
• Change to path C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Azure\Storage Emulator
• AzureStorageEmulator.exe init

Parameterize Azure storage emulator

The CONFIG file of the Azure stroage emulator can be found at C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Azure\Storage Emulator\AzureStorageEmulator.exe.config. For example, the three required ports can be adjusted there.

Further experience

On my machine I also had the situation that the following message appeared at startup:

The storage emulator needs to be initialized. Please run the 'init' command.

The initialization itself, however, resulted in the following error:

The login already has an account under a different user name.

In my case it was enough to start the emulator again as described above.