If a user is removed from the Team Foundation Server or TFVC online, and then another user needs to access a shelveset created by the removed user, finding this shelveset can be difficult.

Using the Find Shelvesets tool in Team Explorer requires you to enter the complete and full name of the shelveset or the complete and full name of the shelveset owner.

If the owner is no longer a member of the Team, or have been deleted from the Azure DevOps organization, curiously, the Find Shelvesets does not show the shelvesets associated with the deleted user..even though they certainly still exist within source control.

This is where the command line comes to the rescue..executing the following command will list the shelveset name for all owners for the project.. note the use of the asteriks(*) to specify all owners..

tf vc shelvesets /owner:*

This will return a list of ALL shelvesets, including shelvesets for the removed user. Once you have the shelveset name, you should be able to type the full name into the “Find Shelvesets” window in the Team Explorer, and find the shelveset that does not have a valid owner.

This whole thing seems like a bug which may get fixed at some point. I am using Visual Studio 2017 (15.9.4)

UPDATE: I discovered that you can use the ‘*’ in the shelveset search to find a list of all shelvesets…