Tableau Bridge Crashes in a Restart Loop with "Unexpected Problem: There was an unexpected problem so the Tableau Bridge client will restart now"

Tableau Bridge stopped working across one or more Bridge nodes. The Bridge client repeatedly crashes and restarts automatically, displaying the error:

The issue persists even after a full uninstall and reinstall of Tableau Bridge. Bridge continues to attempt connection using old credentials and fails. The problem is specific to the service account environment Bridge works normally when launched under a different admin account on the same machine. 

Possible Causes: 

• The TABLEAU_LOGIN_online.tableau.com entry stored by a previous Bridge installation or authentication session is no longer valid, and Bridge cannot recover from it automatically.
• Tableau Bridge uses DPAPI to encrypt/decrypt stored OAuth tokens. If the DPAPI master key becomes corrupted, Bridge is unable to decrypt the stored credential and crashes on every startup. Refer to: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-server/certificates-and-public-key-infrastructure-pki/dpapi-masterkey-backup-failures
• Modifications to local or domain Group Policy (e.g., User Rights Assignment, credential caching restrictions, UAC policies) can silently revoke the service account's ability to access secure credential storage. Common triggers include:
  • Group Policy Objects (GPOs) being applied or updated
  • Domain SID mapping failures (Windows error 0x80070534)
  • Removal or restriction of SeDebugPrivilege on the service account
  • Changes to the service account password or token without updating the Bridge service configuration