How to fix unexpected Pipeline Triggering in ADO

Question

Hi Team,

I am facing an issue in Azure DevOps (ADO). I have not scheduled any service hooks, webhooks, or pipeline runs at specific times. The pipeline is configured to use only Continuous Integration (CI), which should trigger only when a commit or merge occurs.

However, I noticed that the pipeline is being triggered unexpectedly at unplanned times, such as 4:03 AM, even when there are no commits or merges.

Could you please help me understand why this is happening?

Then give me a proper steps to fix this issue in ADO.

Thanks & Regards;
Gowsalya S

Answer 1

Hi Gowsalya S

Could you please follow the below steps to resolve this issue:

Go to Azure DevOps -> Select your Project -> Pipelines -> Edit -> Ensure that there are no scheduled triggers in YAML File. Ensure you are only triggering on specific branches.

trigger:
branches:
include:
- main

If you see something like this, it's causing the pipeline to trigger at 4 AM daily. If you don't want scheduled triggers, simply remove this section or adjust it accordingly.

schedules:
- cron: "3 4 * * *"
displayName: "Run at 4:03 AM daily"
branches:
include:
- main

If your pipeline is configured to trigger on pull requests, consider disabling this option if it is not required. Remove the pr trigger section from the yaml file.

Navigate to Azure Pipelines and look at trigger type for each run. If its Manual, then someone manually triggered it. If it says Scheduled, a scheduled trigger is causing it. If it says CI Trigger, a code commits, or merge triggered it.

Navigate to Azure Pipeline and click on view change to see the latest commits.

Go to Repos -> Branches -> Click on 3 dots right side of your branch -> Branch Policies -> ensure there are no build validation policies that might be triggering runs at fixed intervals.

If you want to disable automatic CI triggers, then disable them by adding trigger: none to your YAML.

If you are still facing the issue, then disable all triggers in the YAML file and If needed, disable or pause pipelines in Pipelines -> Settings.

Additional References:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/process/scheduled-triggers?view=azure-devops&tabs=yaml

Hope this helps!

Please Let me know if you have any queries.

If you found the information helpful, please click "Upvote" on the post to let us know and consider accepting the answer as the token of appreciation. Thank You.

Answer 2

If you go to the pipeline run history it will tell you what triggered it. If it says Manual then somebody triggered it manually. If it says something about Batched CI, PR or similar then it was triggered by a CI trigger.

If you click on the "reason" then it will take you to the run details. If it is related to a CI call then the Changes link takes you to the PR (or CI trigger) that triggered it. If it was manual then it tells you who triggered it.

Answer 3

Hi Gowsalya S

Could you please follow the below steps to resolve this issue:

1. If you want to disable automatic CI triggers, then disable them by adding trigger: none to your YAML.
2. Go to Azure DevOps -> Pipelines -> Your Pipeline. Click on Edit -> Triggers -> Ensure that Override the YAML trigger from here is disabled.
3. Go to Project Settings -> Service Hooks. Remove any unnecessary hooks that might be triggering the pipeline.
4. If your pipeline is linked to an external repository (e.g., GitHub), changes in that repo might be triggering the pipeline unexpectedly.
5. Explicitly Disable Scheduled Triggers in YAML, this ensures that no scheduled triggers exist.

      schedules: []
      trigger: none
   

6. And if you're not using PR triggers then mention pr: none in yaml file.
7. And check if you have mentioned always: true then the pipeline will run regardless of code changes. If you want the pipeline to run only when there are changes, set always: false.

Additional Refernces:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/troubleshooting/troubleshoot-triggers?view=azure-devops

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/process/scheduled-triggers?view=azure-devops&tabs=yaml

Hope this helps!

Please Let me know if you have any queries.

If you found the information helpful, please click "Upvote" on the post to let us know and consider accepting the answer as the token of appreciation. Thank You.