Terminal server has exceeded maximum number of allowed connection – how to kill open sessions?

Published on May 29, 2009 in windows. 41 Comments Tags: windows.

When you RDC (connecting remotely using Remote Desktop Connection) to a server and get “Terminal server has exceeded maximum number of allowed connection” message there’s still light at the end of the tunnel.

Solution (tested on Windows 2003)

RDC to another server in the same workgroup as the one you cannot access and go to Administrative Tools / Terminal Services Manager.

From the menu select Actions / Connet to Computer… and provide the name of the server you couldn’t reach. Press OK and you will see open sessions on that server – users who logged in but for some reason haven’t logged out. Right click on the desired user and choose Log Off.

That should solve the case.

41 Responses to “Terminal server has exceeded maximum number of allowed connection – how to kill open sessions?”

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ra
July 2, 2009 at 23:36

Thanks, very helpfull
Spectr3
July 14, 2009 at 8:50

Thanks, sorted it out in a minute!
David
August 21, 2009 at 15:55

Very helpful. Thanks.
murukessan
September 2, 2009 at 13:22

great information
we were trying to bring up a remote system whose connection was lost
and it was very helpful
Saurabh
September 11, 2009 at 17:25

I worked in a flash. Great resolution.

Thx.
Amit Goyal
September 29, 2009 at 8:25

Thanks, Great Information.
VenkatMOSS
October 31, 2009 at 14:43

It helped me to keep my schedule on track.

Thanks alot for solution.
RAJU
November 3, 2009 at 14:27

Hi,

1) Can we anticipating any LDAP server authenticating the clients at the Terminal server?

2) Is there any way to run a standby Terminal server?

3) Typically how many clients can be involved in a connection? if so how to do it ?

4) Do the SSH clients predetermined to run only from a specific machines? as opposed to any machine? if so how to proceed it?
Lokesh Sahu
December 1, 2009 at 7:31

Many Thanks!!!!!!!!
rishi
December 7, 2009 at 19:35

hi guys,

This solution doesn’t work if you’re an administrator, any other advice or suggestions?
Randy
January 22, 2010 at 19:02

Thanks a lot…
Ed Rabaya
February 12, 2010 at 5:27

this is of great help, thanks a lot!
Dandabass
February 25, 2010 at 17:26

yep, works!
Kashi Nath Shukla
March 7, 2010 at 4:39

i have already done this but yet tis error is coming
Pankaj
March 19, 2010 at 10:50

Really working and time saving.
Thank you, PROFFESIONALLY!
Anthony
March 22, 2010 at 22:06

Thank you! I was getting so tired of having to ask my manager to log off the server so that I could get onto it when I got disconnected without logging out. Now I don’t have to do that any more.

Thank You!
JiM
April 27, 2010 at 8:32

Thanx for the clear and precise instructions. It worked great.
Aparna Naveen
May 11, 2010 at 20:59

Thanks it was so very helpful.. it worked GREAT!
JJH
May 20, 2010 at 18:35

Thanks for this! I tried “mstsc /v:00.00.00.00 /f -console” recommended on other sites and it didn’t work, but your trick solved it!
Jay
June 2, 2010 at 8:06

thanks mate, very helpful
ajit
July 28, 2010 at 7:52

thanks that helped
Saqib
August 16, 2010 at 18:12

Thanks dude, none of the admins here knew what to do apart from maybe reboot the machine.

All worked, I had to speficy the domian i.e.

servername.domain.net

and it conncected all fine and had two phantom sessions still open, so i logged them off and all done.

Appreciate the help.
ooty
August 25, 2010 at 12:57

Grate job man. It helped me a lot. Thanks
Ann
September 7, 2010 at 2:23

Hi, thank you.
Philip
September 21, 2010 at 13:18

thank you , you re brilliant man,…
buttar
October 29, 2010 at 8:55

That is a great help but what if you are working in a domain and you have more than two connections opened at the same time and you can’t do the above steps. I found another very simple solution to work around. You just have to issue few commands on command prompt and you are ready to go. check the under given URL to save your time:
http://www.itoperationz.com/2010/10/terminal-server-has-exceeded-the-maximum-number-of-allowed-connections/
FADZIL
November 10, 2010 at 10:47

tq, it’s working
sachin bagad
November 28, 2010 at 5:06

Thanks !! IT’s work
Shivakumar Veeranna
July 28, 2011 at 9:22

Keep it simple, go to task manager select users tab and logoff the user who are disconnected
youenn
August 2, 2011 at 15:47

thanks for the tips !!!
adminitech
August 3, 2011 at 11:49

thank very much.. good content..

Thanks,

AdminiTech
Techieboy
August 18, 2011 at 9:40

this is excellent 2 minute job, thanks Jarosław
Doris
August 19, 2011 at 15:00

Thank you for the information. I qworked for me
Subbu
August 24, 2011 at 16:30

Hi,
Thanks for the information, but it doesn’t worked for me so got the below solution from others, mentioning for your use.
mstsc /v:ipaddress /f -console
Dan
September 2, 2011 at 12:19

Great!
Abhilash K
September 12, 2011 at 8:45

Thank you man! It was very helpful and solved my problem. Thank you again.
M. A. Khan
October 5, 2011 at 10:38

Thanks, Really helpful.
Swapnil gurjar
October 8, 2011 at 12:05

Thanks,
Nice information which helps me to login again remotely.
Ram
November 30, 2011 at 13:56

Thanq so much. which article is very helped to me and very simplest.
Abu Hadi
December 7, 2011 at 11:30

Thanks alot, Really helpful.
Maria
January 11, 2012 at 11:33

or just go to run and write mstsc /admin.