Unable to sign in to AVD with "The Group Policy Client Service failed the sign in"

Question

AVD is not allowing signin for any of the 8 users with the error:
"The Group Policy Client Service failed the sign in" Access denied

I can see that the server restarted without warning early this morning which I'm guessing may have caused this issue.

Help!

Answer 1

Hello @Andy Dawson,

The error message “The Group Policy Client Service failed the sign-in. Access is denied” is a known issue that can occur in certain scenarios, particularly with FSLogix. This issue may arise if the virtual machine loses communication with an Active Directory domain controller, which is necessary for processing Group Policy settings.

To resolve this, ensure that the virtual machine has proper connectivity to the domain controller and consider upgrading to the latest version of FSLogix, as previous versions may have bugs related to this error.

Troubleshooting issues with Group Policy processing

---

If this answers your query, do click Accept Answer and Up-Vote for the same. And, if you have any further query do let us know.

Answer 2

This turned out to be corrupt user profiles.

We deleted all user profiles and they were all able to sign back in.

Thanks

Answer 3

This error in Azure Virtual Desktop usually happens when the session host has a corrupted profile service or Group Policy issue — especially after an unexpected restart.

Since all 8 users are affected, this is likely a machine-level problem, not individual accounts.

Quick Checks

1️⃣ Try signing in with a local or domain admin account.

• If it works → profile/FSLogix issue.

If it fails → system corruption.

2️⃣ Check if the Group Policy service is running:

Run in CMD as admin:

sc query gpsvc

It should show RUNNING.

3️⃣ If using FSLogix, confirm the profile storage is accessible and containers aren’t locked.

---

Fastest Production Fix

In most AVD environments, the cleanest solution is:

Remove the session host from the host pool

Deploy a fresh VM from your image

Rejoin it to the pool

AVD hosts are meant to be replaceable. Rebuilding is often safer and faster than repairing.This error in Azure Virtual Desktop usually happens when the session host has a corrupted profile service or Group Policy issue — especially after an unexpected restart.

Since all 8 users are affected, this is likely a machine-level problem, not individual accounts.

Quick Checks

1️⃣ Try signing in with a local or domain admin account.

If it works → profile/FSLogix issue.

If it fails → system corruption.

2️⃣ Check if the Group Policy service is running:

Run in CMD as admin:

sc 

It should show RUNNING.

3️⃣ If using FSLogix, confirm the profile storage is accessible and containers aren’t locked.

---

Fastest Production Fix

In most AVD environments, the cleanest solution is:

Remove the session host from the host pool

Deploy a fresh VM from your image

Rejoin it to the pool

AVD hosts are meant to be replaceable. Rebuilding is often safer and faster than repairing.