Banner: Troubleshooting Session Initialization Errors

Banner

Service Desk Technicians

Before or during troubleshooting for Banner access issues on a faculty or staff's work device, verify in Group Manager if users are a member of the "Banner Admin Users" group. This adds them to a group policy that addresses these access issues.

Summary

This article contains troubleshooting steps to use if you are seeing “Session Initialization Failed” errors using Banner through a web browser. This error can happen when trying to log in, or when trying to access certain pages within Banner. To avoid this error in the future, be sure to log out of Banner rather than just closing the browser tab or window.

Before proceeding, please confirm that if you have a Villanova-issued device, it contains the exceptions we push out to our managed devices.

Confirming Exceptions on Villanova-Issued Devices

Firefox –

To check if Enhanced Tracking Protection is turned off via policy, click Settings, then browse to Privacy & Security. Click the Manage Exceptions button near the top of the page. You will see a screen similar to the following:

To check if cookies are allowed via policy, click Settings then browse to Privacy & Security. Scroll to the Cookies and Site Data section and click the Manage Exceptions item. You will see a screen similar to the following:

Microsoft Edge –

To check if Enhanced Tracking Protection is turned off via policy, click Settings, then browse to Privacy, Search, and Services. Click the Tracking Prevention item, then click the Exceptions button. You will see a screen similar to the following:

To check if cookies are allowed via policy, click Settings, then browse to Privacy, Search, and Services. Click the Cookies item, then review the entries in the Allowed to Save Cookies item. You will see a screen similar to the following:

Google Chrome –

The exceptions are more not straightforward to see on Google Chrome, however, if you have confirmed they are appearing for Firefox or Microsoft Edge, it is very likely they exist for Chrome as well.

If you have confirmed that your device has the exceptions listed above and/or you are still seeing “Session Initialization Failed” errors with Banner, please proceed to the workaround below.

Environment

This situation can happen when the user is:

Connected to the Global Protect VPN
Accessing Banner through a web browser
Example 1 happens most commonly in the Firefox browser, after the user is logged into Banner
Example 2 can happen in any web browser and prevents Banner login

Issue

Error Accessing a page in Banner – I’m on the Global Protect

Session Initialization Failed. Couldn’t access remote session service.

1) This this issue may be caused by Enhanced Tracking Protection (Firefox) or blocked Third-party cookies (Chrome).

See Scenario 1 below for troubleshooting steps. If the problem persists, continue with Scenario 2 below.

2) This issue may also be related by a cache/cookies or logon/logoff issue, meaning this error is either:

Cache/Cookies related,
Due to multiple logins existing simultaneously, or
Not using the "log out" icon to leave a session (this is usually the cause of simultaneous logins).

See Scenario 2 below for troubleshooting steps.

Resolution

Scenario 1

Error Accessing a page in Banner

Task: To correct the Error Accessing a page in Firefox.

Instructions

Step 1 – Sign in to Banner in Firefox.

Step 2 – Click on the shield icon next to the URL in the address bar.

Step 3 – Check whether Enhanced Tracking Protection is ON or OFF.

This image shows Enhanced Tracking Protection set to ON.

Step 4 – Adjust the Enhanced Tracking Protection:

If it is ON, then turn it OFF.
If it is OFF, then turn it ON and then OFF again.

Step 5 – Refresh the Banner browser page and try the Admin Page again.

Task: To correct the Error Accessing a Banner page in Google Chrome.

Instructions

Step 1 – Sign in to Banner in Google Chrome.

Step 2 – Click on the three dots in the upper right corner of Chrome and select Settings.

Step 3 – Click on the Privacy and Security section on the left.

Step 4 – Click on Third-party Cookies.

Step 5 – Select the button to Allow third-party cookies.

Scenario 2 – Error Logging into Banner

Task: To clear cache/cookies for Banner logins.

Instructions

Step 1 – Close ALL windows of ALL web browsers.

Step 2 – Open a single browser window where you want to clear cache/cookies.

Step 3 – Follow the appropriate browser instructions in our article Browser: Clearing a Web Browser’s Cache, Cookies, and History

Step 4 – Be sure to complete the last step of the process and quit the browser completely. ALL browser windows should be closed.

Important: If you have tried logging into Banner in multiple web browsers, you must clear cache/cookies in ALL of the browsers where you tried to log in. Otherwise, those cached credentials make Banner think you have more than one session open, and that can result in query mode only and certain forms failing completely. Repeat Steps 2 through 4 above for each browser where you tried to log in to Banner.

Step 5 – After you have completed Steps 2 through 4 above in every browser where you had tried logging into Banner, then choose one browser to open and try logging into Banner.

Note: To avoid this error in the future, be sure to log out of Banner rather than just closing the browser tab or window.

This will be most convenient if you can use one browser primarily for Banner and use different web browsers for your other web-based work, especially services that use your Villanova Microsoft login, such as OneDrive, Outlook email, MyNova, TeamDynamix, etc.

0 reviews

Print Article

Updating...