Resolve session creation error codes for an unattended desktop flow run

This article provides background and potential solutions to the SessionCreationError and SessionCreationErrorWithThirdPartyCredentialProvider error codes that might occur during an unattended desktop flow run in Microsoft Power Automate.

Applies to:   Power Automate

Symptoms

Your unattended desktop flow run might fail with the SessionCreationError or SessionCreationErrorWithThirdPartyCredentialProvider error code.

Cause

When an unattended session is run, Power Automate attempts to create a remote desktop (RDP) session on the target machine. If this session creation fails, you might receive one of the following error codes:

• SessionCreationErrorWithThirdPartyCredentialProvider
• SessionCreationError

SessionCreationErrorWithThirdPartyCredentialProvider

This error code occurs because third-party software interferes with Power Automate's ability to create a session on the machine. Power Automate doesn't support some third-party credential providers.

Resolution

To resolve the issue, contact your administrator to uninstall the credential provider that Power Automate doesn't support.

You can find the full list of credential providers (many of which are built-in) on your machine in the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Authentication\Credential Providers

Each subkey represents an installed credential provider. The following table lists the credential providers that Power Automate currently doesn't support. If you have the following registry key, work with your system administrator to uninstall the corresponding software.

SessionCreationError

This error code occurs when a session creation fails for an unknown reason.

Resolution

To solve the issue:

• Ensure that you can remote desktop to the machine from another machine on your network. If you're using Windows Server, you can try to remote desktop to "localhost" from the local machine itself when logged in as another account. If these actions fail, see General Remote Desktop connection troubleshooting.
• If you have a legal notice enabled for login, work with your system administrator to try disabling it. To see if the legal notice is activated, open Registry Editor and go to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System. If legalnoticecaption or legalnoticetext isn't empty, work with your system administrator to disable the legal notice.
• Ensure that no third-party software is installed that might affect login or interfere with creating a remote desktop connection.

Third-party information disclaimer

The third-party products that this article discusses are manufactured by companies that are independent of Microsoft. Microsoft makes no warranty, implied or otherwise, about the performance or reliability of these products.