Mark Broadbent solves a problem for us:
I have been experiencing a problem for quite a while now in my current environment, in that some of our old builds cannot be deleted. When you attempt to do so it results in the following error:
One or more builds associated with the requested pipeline(s) are retained by a release. The pipeline(s) and builds will not be deleted.Many of our pipelines have undergone a lot of change over time to the degree it is not even obvious anymore why (or indeed where) these builds are being prevented from being dropped. The only thing that is clear is that until they can be, the old build definitions will remain.
Regardless of the reason why, Mark has the answer for how.