Remote Desktop
A Microsoft app that connects remotely to computers and to virtual apps and desktops.
4,240 questions
RDP Session Disconnected - Reason Code 18
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(166.4, 10%, 26%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EJK%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Jeremy King
126
Reputation points
Hi. I have a user RDP'ing to a desktop (Windows 10 21H1, up to date with all patches) via remote VPN, which generally works ok - but today he reported he was kicked out and could not reconnect. The message he got on the MSTSC client was:
"Your Remote Desktop Service session has ended, possibly for one of the following reasons:
The administrator has ended the session.
An error occurred while the connection was being established.
A network problem occurred."
Some initial testing (disconnecting and restarting VPN, connecting to other services etc) eliminated any obvious network issues, and I was able to RDP to the PC myself so it was evidently happy on the network too.
When I connected I looked in the event log (TerminalServices-LocalSessionManager log) and could see a number of Event ID 40 (session disconnected) events, which tied into the timing of the user's attempts to reconnect.
The test in the events reads "Session 2 has been disconnected, reason code 18". I've searched and searched but cannot find any information on what "reason code 18" means. can't find any definitions above 12. Can anyone help?
- incidentally, in the end I rebooted the PC and that resolved the immediate issue so the user could reconnect, but still would like to find out the root cause if possible.
Thanks!