I was able to resolve the issue by submitting a support ticket to Azure DevOps Support. The problem was a deleted service account in Azure DevOps; the account can only be added back with backend access (Azure DevOps Support).
Microsoft-hosted agent does not pick up jobs – stuck at "Acquiring an agent from the cloud"
![](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(0, 28.999999999999996%, 10%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EMB%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Marc Brändli
0
Reputation points
Our Azure Pipelines jobs have been stuck indefinitely in the queue. The job never starts processing, even though a Microsoft-hosted agent is shown as online.
What we see:
- Pool: Azure Pipelines, Image: ubuntu-latest
- Agent shows as "Online" with status "Running build" but never actually starts processing
- Log shows: "Pool provider seems slow, we notified pool provider... still agent has not started processing it"
- Job stays stuck after the "Job preparation parameters" phase completes
What we've tried:
- Cancelling and re-running multiple times
- Minimal pipeline with only
echo "Agent is alive"– same issue - Verified parallel jobs: 1 Microsoft-hosted parallel job available (Free tier, 0/1800 minutes consumed)
What we see:
- Pool: Azure Pipelines, Image: ubuntu-latest
- Agent shows as "Online" with status "Running build" but never actually starts processing
- Log shows: "Pool provider seems slow, we notified pool provider... still agent has not started processing it"
- Job stays stuck after the "Job preparation parameters" phase completes
What we've tried:
- Cancelling and re-running multiple times
- Minimal pipeline with only
echo "Agent is alive"– same issue - Verified parallel jobs: 1 Microsoft-hosted parallel job available (Free tier, 0/1800 minutes consumed)
Job-log:
##[error]The request: 6177 was abandoned due to an infrastructure failure. Notification of assignment to an agent was never received.
Pool: Azure Pipelines
Image: ubuntu-22.04
Started: Feb 10 at 2:58 PM
Duration: 22d 20h 46m
Job preparation parameters
ContinueOnError: False
TimeoutInMinutes: 60
CancelTimeoutInMinutes: 5
Expand:
MaxConcurrency: 0
########## System Pipeline Decorator(s) ##########
Begin evaluating template 'system-pre-steps.yml'
Evaluating: eq('true', variables['system.debugContext'])
Expanded: eq('true', Null)
Result: False
Evaluating: resources['repositories']['self']
Expanded: Object
Result: True
Evaluating: not(containsValue(job['steps']['*']['task']['id'], '6d15af64-176c-496d-b583-fd2ae21d4df4'))
Expanded: not(containsValue(Object, '6d15af64-176c-496d-b583-fd2ae21d4df4'))
Result: True
Evaluating: resources['repositories']['self']['checkoutOptions']
Result: Object
Evaluating: pair['key']
Result: 'fetchDepth'
Evaluating: pair['value']
Result: '1'
Finished evaluating template 'system-pre-steps.yml'
********************************************************************************
Template and static variable resolution complete. Final runtime YAML document:
steps:
- task: 6d15af64-176c-496d-b583-fd2ae21d4df4@1
inputs:
repository: self
fetchDepth: 1
########## ms.advancedsecurity-tasks.dependency-scanning-decorator ##########
Begin evaluating template 'assets/dependency-scanning-injection-decorator.yml@'
Evaluating: and(or(eq(resources['repositories']['self']['ref'], resources['repositories']['self']['defaultBranch']), and(eq(variables['build.reason'], 'PullRequest'), eq(variables['system.pullrequest.targetbranch'], resources['repositories']['self']['defaultBranch']))), or(eq(resources['repositories']['__designer_repo']['ref'], resources['repositories']['__designer_repo']['defaultBranch']), and(eq(variables['build.reason'], 'PullRequest'), eq(variables['system.pullrequest.targetbranch'], resources['repositories']['__designer_repo']['defaultBranch']))), or(eq(resources['repositories']['self']['type'], 'Git'), eq(resources['repositories']['__designer_repo']['type'], 'Git')), eq(variables['build.advancedSecurityEnabled'], 'true'), eq(variables['build.dependencyScanningInjectionEnabled'], 'true'))
Expanded: and(or(eq('refs/heads/test/marc/azure-pipeline', 'refs/heads/main'), and(eq('Manual', 'PullRequest'), eq(variables['system.pullrequest.targetbranch'], resources['repositories']['self']['defaultBranch']))), or(eq(resources['repositories']['__designer_repo']['ref'], resources['repositories']['__designer_repo']['defaultBranch']), and(eq(variables['build.reason'], 'PullRequest'), eq(variables['system.pullrequest.targetbranch'], resources['repositories']['__designer_repo']['defaultBranch']))), or(eq(resources['repositories']['self']['type'], 'Git'), eq(resources['repositories']['__designer_repo']['type'], 'Git')), eq(variables['build.advancedSecurityEnabled'], 'true'), eq(variables['build.dependencyScanningInjectionEnabled'], 'true'))
Result: False
Finished evaluating template 'assets/dependency-scanning-injection-decorator.yml@'
********************************************************************************
Template and static variable resolution complete. Final runtime YAML document:
steps: []
MaxConcurrency: 0
Azure DevOps
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![](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(182.40000000000003, 77%, 27%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EPK%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Praveen Kumar Gudipudi 2,295 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator2026-03-05T10:00:43.5066667+00:00 Hi @Marc Brändli,
Switch Image
Change:
pool:To:
pool:please run run the Windows image test and tell me the result,
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Marc Brändli 0 Reputation points
2026-03-05T10:44:57.33+00:00 I'm not sure what you mean?
My linux dummy yml looks like this:
trigger: - main pool: vmImage: ubuntu-22.04 steps: - script: echo "Agent is alive" displayName: 'Test'Output: (see above)
And my Windows dummy yml looks like this:
trigger: - main pool: vmImage: windows-latest steps: - script: echo "Agent is alive" displayName: 'Test'Output (still waiting for an agent, same as with linux):
Pool: Azure Pipelines Image: windows-latest Queued: Just now [manage parallel jobs] Acquiring an agent from the cloud: This agent cloud does not support more specific status information. Job preparation parameters ContinueOnError: False TimeoutInMinutes: 60 CancelTimeoutInMinutes: 5 Expand: MaxConcurrency: 0 ########## System Pipeline Decorator(s) ########## Begin evaluating template 'system-pre-steps.yml' Evaluating: eq('true', variables['system.debugContext']) Expanded: eq('true', Null) Result: False Evaluating: resources['repositories']['self'] Expanded: Object Result: True Evaluating: not(containsValue(job['steps']['*']['task']['id'], '6d15af64-176c-496d-b583-fd2ae21d4df4')) Expanded: not(containsValue(Object, '6d15af64-176c-496d-b583-fd2ae21d4df4')) Result: True Evaluating: resources['repositories']['self']['checkoutOptions'] Result: Object Evaluating: pair['key'] Result: 'fetchDepth' Evaluating: pair['value'] Result: '1' Finished evaluating template 'system-pre-steps.yml' ******************************************************************************** Template and static variable resolution complete. Final runtime YAML document: steps: - task: 6d15af64-176c-496d-b583-fd2ae21d4df4@1 inputs: repository: self fetchDepth: 1 ########## ms.advancedsecurity-tasks.dependency-scanning-decorator ########## Begin evaluating template 'assets/dependency-scanning-injection-decorator.yml@' Evaluating: and(or(eq(resources['repositories']['self']['ref'], resources['repositories']['self']['defaultBranch']), and(eq(variables['build.reason'], 'PullRequest'), eq(variables['system.pullrequest.targetbranch'], resources['repositories']['self']['defaultBranch']))), or(eq(resources['repositories']['__designer_repo']['ref'], resources['repositories']['__designer_repo']['defaultBranch']), and(eq(variables['build.reason'], 'PullRequest'), eq(variables['system.pullrequest.targetbranch'], resources['repositories']['__designer_repo']['defaultBranch']))), or(eq(resources['repositories']['self']['type'], 'Git'), eq(resources['repositories']['__designer_repo']['type'], 'Git')), eq(variables['build.advancedSecurityEnabled'], 'true'), eq(variables['build.dependencyScanningInjectionEnabled'], 'true')) Expanded: and(or(eq('refs/heads/test/marc/azure-pipeline-win', 'refs/heads/main'), and(eq('Manual', 'PullRequest'), eq(variables['system.pullrequest.targetbranch'], resources['repositories']['self']['defaultBranch']))), or(eq(resources['repositories']['__designer_repo']['ref'], resources['repositories']['__designer_repo']['defaultBranch']), and(eq(variables['build.reason'], 'PullRequest'), eq(variables['system.pullrequest.targetbranch'], resources['repositories']['__designer_repo']['defaultBranch']))), or(eq(resources['repositories']['self']['type'], 'Git'), eq(resources['repositories']['__designer_repo']['type'], 'Git')), eq(variables['build.advancedSecurityEnabled'], 'true'), eq(variables['build.dependencyScanningInjectionEnabled'], 'true')) Result: False Finished evaluating template 'assets/dependency-scanning-injection-decorator.yml@' ******************************************************************************** Template and static variable resolution complete. Final runtime YAML document: steps: [] MaxConcurrency: 0 -
Praveen Kumar Gudipudi 2,295 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
2026-03-05T12:48:24.2333333+00:00 Hello Marc Brändli,
Thanks for the update.
Please check,
- Project Settings → Agent pools → Azure Pipelines → Security
- Ensure:
- Project Collection Build Service = Allow (Use pool)
- <YourProjectName> Build Service = Allow (Use pool)
If that fixes it, the job will start instantly.
Also, send me:
Screenshot of Agent Pool Security
Screenshot of Organization → Pipelines → Settings
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Marc Brändli 0 Reputation points
2026-03-05T14:08:16.7866667+00:00 Screenshot of Organization → Pipelines → Setting
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Praveen Kumar Gudipudi 2,295 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
2026-03-09T09:54:01.6066667+00:00 Hello Marc Brändli,
Delete all queued/running pipeline runs
Cancel everything under:
Pipelines → Runs
Then wait ~1–2 minutes and run again.
This clears the queue lock.
Please try above suggested steps and let us know with an update.
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Marc Brändli 0 Reputation points
2026-03-10T08:40:02.5133333+00:00 Hello @Praveen Kumar Gudipudi
Unfortunately this steps did not resolve the issue:
##[error]The request: 6315 was abandoned due to an infrastructure failure. Notification of assignment to an agent was never received. Pool: Azure Pipelines Image: ubuntu-22.04 Started: Yesterday at 1:27 PM Duration: 20h 8m 25s Job preparation parameters ContinueOnError: False TimeoutInMinutes: 60 CancelTimeoutInMinutes: 5 Expand: MaxConcurrency: 0 ########## System Pipeline Decorator(s) ########## Begin evaluating template 'system-pre-steps.yml' Evaluating: eq('true', variables['system.debugContext']) Expanded: eq('true', Null) Result: False Evaluating: resources['repositories']['self'] Expanded: Object Result: True Evaluating: not(containsValue(job['steps']['*']['task']['id'], '6d15af64-176c-496d-b583-fd2ae21d4df4')) Expanded: not(containsValue(Object, '6d15af64-176c-496d-b583-fd2ae21d4df4')) Result: True Evaluating: resources['repositories']['self']['checkoutOptions'] Result: Object Evaluating: pair['key'] Result: 'fetchDepth' Evaluating: pair['value'] Result: '1' Finished evaluating template 'system-pre-steps.yml' ******************************************************************************** Template and static variable resolution complete. Final runtime YAML document: steps: - task: 6d15af64-176c-496d-b583-fd2ae21d4df4@1 inputs: repository: self fetchDepth: 1 ########## ms.advancedsecurity-tasks.dependency-scanning-decorator ########## Begin evaluating template 'assets/dependency-scanning-injection-decorator.yml@' Evaluating: and(or(eq(resources['repositories']['self']['ref'], resources['repositories']['self']['defaultBranch']), and(eq(variables['build.reason'], 'PullRequest'), eq(variables['system.pullrequest.targetbranch'], resources['repositories']['self']['defaultBranch']))), or(eq(resources['repositories']['__designer_repo']['ref'], resources['repositories']['__designer_repo']['defaultBranch']), and(eq(variables['build.reason'], 'PullRequest'), eq(variables['system.pullrequest.targetbranch'], resources['repositories']['__designer_repo']['defaultBranch']))), or(eq(resources['repositories']['self']['type'], 'Git'), eq(resources['repositories']['__designer_repo']['type'], 'Git')), eq(variables['build.advancedSecurityEnabled'], 'true'), eq(variables['build.dependencyScanningInjectionEnabled'], 'true')) Expanded: and(or(eq('refs/heads/test/marc/azure-pipeline', 'refs/heads/main'), and(eq('Manual', 'PullRequest'), eq(variables['system.pullrequest.targetbranch'], resources['repositories']['self']['defaultBranch']))), or(eq(resources['repositories']['__designer_repo']['ref'], resources['repositories']['__designer_repo']['defaultBranch']), and(eq(variables['build.reason'], 'PullRequest'), eq(variables['system.pullrequest.targetbranch'], resources['repositories']['__designer_repo']['defaultBranch']))), or(eq(resources['repositories']['self']['type'], 'Git'), eq(resources['repositories']['__designer_repo']['type'], 'Git')), eq(variables['build.advancedSecurityEnabled'], 'true'), eq(variables['build.dependencyScanningInjectionEnabled'], 'true')) Result: FalseOne Observation during the run:
Agent Pool is showing one job as running:
Jobs is showing as queued:
Agent is Online:
Maybe this helps further.
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Praveen Kumar Gudipudi 2,295 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
2026-03-10T12:00:42.28+00:00 Hello Hello Marc Brändli,,
Please check Organization Settings → Parallel jobs and provide the results.
You should see something like:
Microsoft-hosted parallel jobs: 1 -
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Praveen Kumar Gudipudi 2,295 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
2026-03-16T08:44:00.03+00:00 Hello Marc Brändli,,
Consider setting up a self-hosted agent temporarily and try to run the pipeline and provide the update on this?
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Marc Brändli 0 Reputation points
2026-03-16T08:53:16.41+00:00 Hello @Praveen Kumar Gudipudi ,
Self-hosted agents do work, but they incur additional costs for the project, and I only have temporary funding available for these expenses.
That’s why I would appreciate it if this could be resolved on Microsoft’s end.
Best regards
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Praveen Kumar Gudipudi 2,295 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
2026-04-02T15:14:47.1066667+00:00 Hello Marc Brändli,
Could you please check the private message and provide the required details for troubleshooting the issue further.
Here is the reference link on how to access & data retention policy of private messages in Microsoft Q&A.
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Marc Brändli 0 Reputation points
2026-04-02T15:29:22.7466667+00:00 Hello @Praveen Kumar Gudipudi
Thanks for the message, I have answered with all the requested information.
Thanks for looking into the issue.
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Marc Brändli 0 Reputation points
2026-08-24T12:36:22.4933333+00:00 I was able to resolve the issue by submitting a support ticket to Azure DevOps Support. The problem was a deleted service account in Azure DevOps; the account can only be added back with backend access (Azure DevOps Support).
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4 answers
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Marc Brändli 0 Reputation points
2026-07-14T11:26:11.48+00:00 All suggested configuration changes have been tested and ruled out. Requests 6177 and 6872 were abandoned with "Notification of assignment to an agent was never received" — a backend fault. The free grant shows active (1 parallel job, 0/1800 min). This has persisted since Feb 10 across multiple resolved incidents. Please escalate this to the Azure Pipelines product team via ICM to check whether hosted parallelism for org Ernst-Schweizer has been zeroed or flagged on the backend. I cannot open a support case as this org has no paid support plan.
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![](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(41.6, 65%, 14%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EPK%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Pravallika KV 18,850 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator2026-02-10T13:12:39.7033333+00:00 Hi @Marc Brändli, could you please confirm below details:
- Has this issue occurred with any previous builds, or is it isolated to certain jobs?
- Are you able to run jobs successfully using a different pipeline, or is the problem consistent across all pipelines?
Since the job is stuck at Acquiring an agent from the cloud, the service simply hasn't allocated an agent yet. Your configuration is fine, the job is valid, and the stall is a transient service-side problem.
Free-tier pools can experience temporary delays, and this can happen even when your parallel jobs are available.
As Alex mentioned, for immediate and reliable builds, you can use a self-hosted agent or a VM Scale Set pool, a single VM with an agent avoids this class of problems entirely.
- If urgency is low, you can wait and retry later, as these stalls usually resolve on the service side without any changes from your configuration.
Hope this helps!
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and click on Yes for was this answer helpful. And, if you have any further query do let us know
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Marc Brändli 0 Reputation points
2026-02-10T13:24:06.7733333+00:00 Hi @**Pravallika KV
Thanks for your response.
**This occurs with all jobs and all pipelines. The problem has existed since December 2025. Since then, I have tried at least once a week, each time with the same result. -
Marc Brändli 0 Reputation points
2026-02-10T15:00:39.32+00:00 I have now set up a virtual scaling set that works perfectly.
In addition I created a Ticket in the Dev-Community: https://developercommunity.visualstudio.com/t/Microsoft-hosted-agent-stuck-at-Acquiri/11041790Thanks again, will keep you posted.
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Pravallika KV 18,850 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
2026-02-10T15:24:46.32+00:00 Thanks for the update @Marc Brändli
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Alex Burlachenko 25,120 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator2026-02-10T11:31:12.77+00:00 Hi Marc,
The fastest working option is to change the image. Use ubuntu 20.04 or windows latest. Very often ubuntu latest gets stuck at certain times due to image rollout issues. If you need something urgent and reliable, use a self hosted agent, even a temporary one. single VM with an agent immediately avoids this entire class of problems.
If it is not urgent, wait and try again later. These stalls do happen with Microsoft hosted pools and are usually resolved without any action from your side. Cancelling and rerunning within the same time window is often pointless.
By my opinion your configuration is correct, the limits are available, and the pipeline is valid. The agent was simply not actually provisioned from the cloud. I assume this is a service side issue, not a configuration problem.
rgds,Alex
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Marc Brändli 0 Reputation points
2026-02-10T12:32:29.6966667+00:00 Hi Alex,
Thanks for your fast response, I tried ubuntu-24.04 and ubuntu-22.04. Ubuntu-20.04 is not available anymore. Unfortunately, the error is always the same:Pool: Image: ubuntu-22.04 Queued: Today at 1:26 PM [ Acquiring an agent from the cloud: This agent cloud does not support more specific status information. Pool provider seems slow, we notified pool provider at 2/10/2026 12:26:50 PM, still agent has not started processing it. Pool provider delay(in mins): 5.19342376333333 Job preparation parametersIt seems a Virtual Scale Set or Managed DevOps Pool will be the next step for me to look into.
KR,
Marc -
Marc Brändli 0 Reputation points
2026-07-14T11:26:36.4733333+00:00 All suggested configuration changes have been tested and ruled out. Requests 6177 and 6872 were abandoned with "Notification of assignment to an agent was never received" — a backend fault. The free grant shows active (1 parallel job, 0/1800 min). This has persisted since Feb 10 across multiple resolved incidents. Please escalate this to the Azure Pipelines product team via ICM to check whether hosted parallelism for org Ernst-Schweizer has been zeroed or flagged on the backend. I cannot open a support case as this org has no paid support plan.
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