Hi Dean,

Thanks for using Community Hub.

I've sent you a direct message so we can look into this further for you.

Regards

Andy
Sage UKI

Hi Dean

We have had the same issue and spent many hours trying to fix it. We had it stable for a couple of days, but this morning it had stopped working again.  Did you manage to resolve with the help of Sage following this post?

Thanks
Chris 

Hi Chris

Like yourself sometimes it lets you go in this section after rebooting or nobody on the server, then randomly starts crashing again when trying to open that section. I now believe its other sections too, such as the payroll assistant, but the main issue is the Employee Record, crashes as soon as you click it, no matter which company or with demo data as administrator (ruling out any file locations or permissions)  

Awaiting Sage call this afternoon, as we have tried everything and more, which has cost us hours, now into days to try and resolve. I will keep you posted and if you could do the same with any findings, that would be great.

Thanks

Dean

Hi Dean, 

We are having the exact same issue as you are. We are also an accountancy practice using RDS and every time we try to go into an Employee Record on Sage Payroll we also get the “SBDDesktop.exe has stopped working” and it crashes out.

We did also install v29.02 in November which caused us the same issue. Our IT liaised with Sage and tried reinstalling the software and other steps none of which worked.

Annoying we were then told v29.02 was not even a compulsory update (having been told before that all payroll updates would become compulsory at some point!) so we did not even have to install it – in the end we reverted back to v29.01 (painfully – as v29.02 did not uninstall correctly either) and had to manually restore all our datasets which got everything to work again – this took hours of IT time and hours of our time.

So whatever was not working on the RDS was to do with the v29.02 update. (We did try installing it on a standalone PC which did work). 

We phoned Sage when v29.03 came out (realising it would be compulsory with the NI changes) and were told it was based on the v29.01 NOT the v29.02 so the issues should not arise as the only change would be the NI rate – hence our IT installed it over Christmas. 

Then when we came back and used it last week – we found it was throwing up the exact same error as before! 

Our IT also tried various actions including some from another post on this forum and I have posted their observations below in case there is anything in there that will help you or anyone else, but so far we do not have a fix. 

For now, we are forced to run our payrolls on a standalone computer and manually transfer datasets for backup purposes. 

Sage has also washed their hands of it with us, being told that they apparently do not support RDS servers! It is really disappointing to have these issues, we have used Sage Payroll for over 15 years. 

I’d be grateful if you would let me know the outcome if you do fix it, and we will do the same. 

Claire

Our IT have made the following observations whilst trying to fix this issue: 

Observation 1 – v29.03.485 issues not solved

Similar to others we are running Sage Payroll on an RDS (server 2016) which is fully up to date and running Sophos AV.

Sage Payroll version up to v29.01 installed and ran ok (but had the blank reCaptcha issue which we have now resolved see Observation 2)

In November we installed v29.02 – this initially worked ok when testing, but then when we tried to go into Employee Records payroll crashed out with the error “SBDDesktop.exe has stopped working”. 

We tried reinstalling the update on Sage’s advice – this did not solve the issue. 

Sage were not able to provide any solution to this – we were told v29.02 was not even compulsory (although we had not been told this previously!) so they suggested we reinstall v29.01 which worked. 

We did this – painfully – as the Sage uninstaller did not correctly uninstall v29.02. We contacted Sage again and were given some specific folders to delete which were not deleted with the uninstaller! 

Finally we had v29.01 reinstalled and then had to manually restore all of the datasets (as the originals had all be updated to v29.02). This took days to sort out. 

In December when v29.03 was released we were assured by Sage that v29.03.485 was based on v29.01 with the only change being the NI rate - hence they suggested that there would be no repeat of the v29.02 issue above. 

However, following installation of v29.03.485 this had the exact same error “SBDDesktop.exe has stopped working” when going into Employee Records and crashed the Sage Payroll. 

So v29.03.485 is unusable on the RDS. 

We also tried running a payroll as Administrator after the full reinstall – which did not work. 

As per Observation 2, we also set up an “Everyone” profile which was given full permissions for C:\Program Files (x86)\Sage Payroll\  - this also did not rectify the issue. 

Observation 2 – reCAPTCHA verification issue

Using a brand-new Windows 10 installation, all updates done, standalone desktop PC (not server, RDS - just absolutely standard isolated machine)

We installed Sage Payroll v29.03.485

The payroll software itself works and does not throw up the SBDDesktop.exe error when accessing the Employee Records that occurs on the RDS. 

However, the reCAPTCHA  screen that comes up when logging in is blank with only a “Skip” button – there is no option to do the reCAPTCHA verification. 

We followed the guidance on this link which did then bring up the reCAPTCHA verification:

https://gb-kb.sage.com/portal/app/portlets/results/viewsolution.jsp?solutionid=221220093432370&hypermediatext=null 

However to make this work the security profile “Everybody” must have “Full Permissions” for the C:\Program Files (x86)\Sage Payroll\ folder.

This then allowed the Webview2Loader.dll to run in the manually created folder C:\Program Files (x86)\Sage Payroll\SBDDesktop.exe.WebView2

On logging into a client dataset the reCAPTCHA verification then does appear and works. 

However - this clean, brand-new windows 10 installation does not have “Everybody” as an existing profile and this had to be manually added as a security profile for this specific Sage function to work. 

This was also the case on the RDS and the reCAPTCHA now works on that installation also – but the SBDDesktop.exe error has not been solved. 

Doesn’t this indicate a sage permissions issue rather than our “environment” issues?!

We tried all the fixes here

https://gb-kb.sage.com/portal/app/portlets/results/viewsolution.jsp?solutionid=231201134045467

None worked, initial testing works until a couple of users get connected then the error starts occurring again. 

Not sure if this is any help but I have two sets of clients, one has the error and the other doesn't, after all your comments I see that it might be server 2016 that's the issue.  My clients with the error use 2016 and the clients without the error use 2019 and 2022.  I upgraded one of the 2016 servers to 2022 and the error stopped.

although I have to say Sage Payroll in general even on the new servers has many random issues, but these have been going on for years.

I'm in the process of lab testing this along with updating ODBC drivers 

Hi All

We have had a remote session with Sage, and as always when you want to show someone a problem or issue, it works and doesnt replicate but since we have had the problems again and like most of you these are sporadic. Also delays on health checks for Payroll, sometimes lasting hours and then crashing too.

Ours is Server 2016 RDS also

Sage gave us a way of logging before opening sage so you can try this and send them the outputting logs to help solve this problem. The more people who join in this thread the more it will help us get to the bottom of this issue. Thanks. Dean

[Edit - Andy Sage UKI- Tech Support now have the required logs and no further logs are required, many thanks.]

1. Hold CTRL and double-click the Payroll program to be greeted with this message.
2. Click, yes to the message to open it up.
3. Click, Log.
a. If the log has information in from a previous time running when the program DIDN’T crash, click CLEAR.
4. Down the bottom right tick ALL.
5. Then LAUNCH DESKTOP.
6. Open the payroll as normal and replicate the crash.
7. Once the payroll has crashed repeat Step 1 and 2 to open this window.
8. Click Log.
9. Click Send, this should open your default mail provider with a TXT file of the log ready to send.
10. [Edit - Andy Sage UKI - Tech support now have enough logs so this email address has been removed.]

Its pretty easy for me to replicate so I've sent in my logs.

Hi, we have now also done this. It seemed to take a very long time to login to Sage Payroll after going into the logging first but eventually it did open after about 15 minutes. We always have the SBDDesktop error every single time we try to access any Employee Record in any client dataset. We have sent to Sage Escalations - let's hope a solution can be found! 

We have resorted to local installations of Sage in order to get payrolls done, far from ideal. We'll collect the logs also from the RDS environment. 

Glad I found this issue - we have the same problem - also server 2016 rds.

We are having exactly the same issue described here.
None of the fixes have worked, so please do let us know if anyone manages to find a fix.
We will continue to try and follow up with Sage support to rectify the issue.

Again, same issue for us. We're going to throw up a 2019 or 2022 server and create individual logins for those needing to use Payroll.

Definitely not ideal - Sage support tried to help (same fixes as already mentioned) and also admitted that the latest version was a rush job and they didn't test it much! 

Hi Daniel , 

please let me know directly if you are still experiencing the issues.  

We tested the release as much as any other as we have a full testing routine,  including a lot of automated testing scripts.

The biggest technical changes you will see were already in the product from 29.02 and this did include some significant changes under the skin , which we have seen behave differently especially where the installation wasn't completed as admin (which I can see you have). 

I'll look into the detail you were given as its incorrect, we don't  test differently for any full release,   but we do where necessary do patches and updates , so will ensure we have this looked at ahead of the PYE release due soon. 

Regards

Steve Watmore Product Manager

I've seen an email from escalations offering to remote on and get some logs, I'll have one of my team contact them.

Late to the party, but we're having the same issue on our Server 2016 RDS environment in Sage Payroll v29.03.485 too. Exact same circumstances and troubleshooting outcomes.

We're also going down to route of spinning up a 2019/2022 VM to see if this sorts our issue.

Please keep on keeping us posted!

Thanks,

@Sage

Do we have any progression with this at all ? Its been a few weeks since we started having this issue. We installed the update before the new year and had instant issues, its causing a lot of problems for us, all the staff and our customers. 

Please update us all.

Thanks

Dean

Hi Dean,

This is being actively investigated by the product team. As soon as there are any developments I'll be sure to post an update here.

Regards,

Andy
Sage UKI

Hi Dean,

heard anything else about this on RDS 2016 servers...having same issue....works fine on 2019 RDS

thanks

Matt

Hi Neil

Nothing im afraid, im sure they will post in here when they do. Its getting on for 6 weeks now since we reported this to them, however it wasn't taken serious enough and was blamed on our environment...

Going forwards they need to test and support RDS environments, as the mass majority of modern day larger accountants use RDS because of all the updates they have to do.

Awaiting a fix...

Cheers

Dean

Hi guys,

2016 rds environment here too.

We have had problems since the update. 

Your first paragraph summarises our scenario.

'We are an accountancy company and use Sage Payroll amongst other Sage products in a Remote Desktop Server (RDS) environment, and all has been fine with this for years. We have recently installed the 29.03.485 Payroll update and since then we are getting crashing with “SBDDesktop.exe has stopped working” when going to the Employee Details section.'

I will report to sage and keep an eye here too.

Declan

Hi Dean,   We have spent some time investigating but have not found a specific resolution although we have seen in this chat that Server 2019 is not experiencing the same issues. 

We are looking into the operating systems and support boundaries on this as where MS has end of life'd support for OS we naturally will not test or support either. 

We are looking at RDS systems and how we can do more with them and will also be looking for some external support on configuration and common settings form our users such as yourself.  

Please contact me directly for some more information

Kind Regards 

Steven Watmore Product Manager

Hi Neil, was your 2019 install a clean install, or an inplace upgrade from 2016? 

Many Thanks

Dean