Please provide the cause and fix for an error 500 issue with Visual studio

Question

Please provide the cause and fix for an error 500 issue with Visual studio

eric perez 15

Several of my customers that I've issued Visual Studio enterprise licenses cant use their licenses they receive an error 500 pop up. What could be the cause?

Priya Balaji 0 Reputation points

2026-09-26T12:12:28.9+00:00

Check whether the failing users have anything in common, such as the same email domain, the same assignment batch, or guest vs. member accounts.

Then pull one of them from the Entra sign-in logs. If the logs are clean and you can't find a pattern, open a support ticket from the Visual Studio Subscriptions admin portal.

It's free for admins, and Microsoft can see what's failing on their end.

2 answers

Your answer

Priya Balaji 0 Reputation points

2026-09-26T12:12:28.9+00:00

Check whether the failing users have anything in common, such as the same email domain, the same assignment batch, or guest vs. member accounts.

Then pull one of them from the Entra sign-in logs. If the logs are clean and you can't find a pattern, open a support ticket from the Visual Studio Subscriptions admin portal.

It's free for admins, and Microsoft can see what's failing on their end.

Answer 1

Hi @eric perez

A http 500 error during activation almost always means a backend server error when verifying the account or the token.

Some common fixes i would suggest are :

1.Have the users open incognito window and try signing into my.visualstudio.com from scratch. If its happening inside the Visual Studio IDE, close VS, clear the local cache folder at %LocalAppData%.IdentifyService and sign back in.

2.Make sure the user isn't logged into VS or their browser with a personal Microsoft account instead of the excat work/school email address the license was assigned to.

3.If you just assigned these licenses, the backend sync can sometimes hang. Check the Admin portal at admin.visualstudio.com to confirm their status shows Active rather than Pending. If it looks stuck, removing and re-adding the user usually kicks it loose.

If none of these clear it up, maybe just open a ticket with Visual Studio Subscription Support.

I hope these help.

Answer 2

Brian Pham (WICLOUD CORPORATION) 250 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Hi @eric perez ,

Thank you for reporting this issue. I understand that users who were assigned Visual Studio Enterprise subscriptions are receiving an Error 500 when attempting to use their licenses.

As an initial troubleshooting step, please verify that the affected users are signing in with the same account that was assigned the Visual Studio Enterprise subscription.

Additionally, please ask the affected users to:

Sign out of all accounts in Visual Studio.
Close Visual Studio completely.
Reopen Visual Studio.
Sign in using the same account that was assigned the Visual Studio Enterprise subscription.
Verify that the subscription is visible and active in the My Visual Studio portal:https://my.visualstudio.com
If the subscription was assigned recently, confirm that it shows as Active in the Visual Studio Administrator Portal.

If the issue persists after completing these steps, please provide:

A screenshot of the Error 500 message.
The exact text of the error, if available.
The Visual Studio version and edition.
Whether the error occurs in Visual Studio itself, on My.VisualStudio.com, or during subscription activation/sign-in.

This information will help determine whether the issue is related to subscription provisioning, account configuration, or a service-side problem.

If you found my response helpful or informative, I would greatly appreciate it if you could follow this guide for your confirmation.

Thank you.

Brian Pham (WICLOUD CORPORATION) 250 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-09-30T02:21:03.1966667+00:00

Hi @eric perez ,

I hope you are doing well. Have you seen my answer in this post? If you have any question, feel free to reach out. I'm happy to support you.
eric perez 15 Reputation points

2026-10-01T09:43:57.6833333+00:00

I saw, your answer, I will pass the information on to my tech team to see if they can take care of the issue with it TY.
Brian Pham (WICLOUD CORPORATION) 250 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-10-01T10:52:42.73+00:00

I saw, your answer, I will pass the information on to my tech team to see if they can take care of the issue with it TY.

Hi @eric perez ,

Thank you for your feedback. I hope you can provide an update as soon as possible so that I can continue troubleshooting the issue.
Brian Pham (WICLOUD CORPORATION) 250 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-10-05T03:33:50.22+00:00

Hi @eric perez ,

I just wanted to check if there are any updates on your side regarding this issue. Please let me know if you need further assistance. Thank you.
Brian Pham (WICLOUD CORPORATION) 250 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-10-07T02:15:17.9233333+00:00

Hi @eric perez ,

As I haven't heard back from you for a while, I hope the information I provided was helpful. If you're still interested or have any questions, feel free to reach out whenever it works best for you. I'm always happy to help. Thank you for your time.