RDP connection only works after kicking myself out of a session

Question

I have a client with a very strange problem.
They use a VPN to connect to their work and RDP to access their work PC.
That used to work (and still does for days at a time), but every few days it stops working in a particular way:
Starting the RDP connection works as usual. It shows the log-in screen for about one frame to half a second, then the screen freezes. You cannot interact with it anymore. According to the RDP client the connection quality is good.
Deactivating UDP which seems to have helped some people with a similar problem did not work.
What DID however work, was to start a RDP session - it freezes as per usual - then minimize it, and start another RDP session, kicking the first one out. After doing that, the connection works completely fine. At least until you close the connection and try to reconnect.

Answer 1

We're having an identical issue starting with random users, currently we too find if the stuck users are stuck waiting on other user and spinning wheel, if they connect again while leaving the first session open it kicks it into action. From monitoring it, it looks like the original session doesn't seem to go to a disconnected state when a user drops off, and it's only with the second attempt it clears that issue and reconnects the user to their session.

Answer 2

I posted on a few forums as there are other people having similar issues and sharing the output most recently posted that has worked for many:

Setting this on the computer the user is connecting to:

Local Computer Policy> Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Remote Desktop Services > Remote Desktop Session Host > Connections > Select network detection on the server - set to Enabled, Turn off Connect Time Detect and Continuous Network Detect

Answer 3

Hello,

Thank you for posting in the Microsoft community forum.

I understand that when you log in to the remote desktop on the local client, the screen freezes and the login fails. May I know the system prompt and error code when the login fails?

You can refer to the following steps to troubleshoot the problem:

1. Check the remote desktop application update on the local client and server.
2. If the network environment changes recently, ensure that the network connection between the local client and the remote server is stable.
3. Check whether the usage of server resources reaches the bottleneck.
4. Check whether the RDP license is valid. You can use the RD Licensing Manager to check the RD licensing configuration on the remote server.

If the problem persists, use the Event Viewer to find any error messages related to Remote Desktop Services. Before viewing Logs, enable View > Show Analytic and Debug Logs.

Reference:

Cannot connect to RDS because no RD Licensing servers are available - Windows Server | Microsoft Learn

I hope this helps. If you have any follow-up questions, please contact us.

Best regards

Jacen

Answer 4

Its only the remote screen that freezes, the login does NOT fail.
It shows the "Different user"-login screen, the loading-ring moves for about half a second, then the remote connection practically turns into a screenshot of that screen. You cannot interact with it, it does not move.
This is consistent and not dependent on the internet connection, which is stable and strong.

The really strange part is, that the only way to use the RDP connection is to kick someone out of a session (which can be yourself), upon which it immediately works flawlessly. This (in my mind) also invalidates most common issues.

Answer 5

Hi, our organization is beginning to have the same problem with some users.

Our Data Science department has remote desktop PCs, and they rdp into them from Windows 11 laptops. 4-6 weeks ago we had one user report that their RDP session began to freeze when they tried to resume an old session.

We now have several other users reporting the same issue. Not all users have the same OS on their remote desktop - a mix of W10 22H2 and W11 23H2/3/4 - all users have W11 24H2 laptops however.

Our workaround is similar, although the OP's one sounds better. Theyv'e been submitting IT support tickets and then an IT staff member has been RDPing into their machine, which allows them to connect. After reading this post we will try the OPs workaround instead, but I'd also like to try and resolve this problem.

Edit: our users are still frozen when they try and open a new session to their computer from the same computer (two rdp exes open). Someone else (eg admin) has to log in under a different account and the session has to be active (not disconnected) and only then can the users resume their session.