[BUG]: ManualValidation@1 approvers attribute does not behave as documented

[ckalyanpur]

New issue checklist

• I searched for existing GitHub issues
• I read pipeline troubleshooting guide
• I checked how to collect logs

Task name

ManualValidation

Task version

1

Issue Description

Input provided to the approvers attribute of the task does not appear to behave as expected (as per https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/tasks/reference/manual-validation-v1?view=azure-pipelines). The email ids below have been provided for illustration only.

Issue: Not all members are able to approve

- task: ManualValidation@1
  timeoutInMinutes: 180
  inputs:
     notifyUsers: |
       email1@test.com,
       email2@test.com,
       email3@test.com
     approvers: |
       email1@test.com,
       email2@test.com,
       email3@test.com
     allowApproversToApproveTheirOwnRuns: true
     instructions: Testing the approval task in my pipeline
     onTimeout: reject

Observations:

1. Only email1@test.com is able to approve the task.
2. Users other than email1@test.com see only a progress bar as shown in the screenshot below
3. Users other than email1@test.com have QueueBuild permissions and are project administrators as well
4. The same input provided to the notifyUsers attribute works fine with all members receiving emails
5. Azure devops group under the same project with a flat hierarchy of email id's also does not work i.e. if all the above email ids are placed in a group within the project. Specifying this as approvers: '[MyDevopsProject]\MyGroup' does not work too.

Environment type (Please select at least one enviroment where you face this issue)

• Self-Hosted
• Microsoft Hosted
• VMSS Pool
• Container

Azure DevOps Server type

dev.azure.com (formerly visualstudio.com)

Azure DevOps Server Version (if applicable)

No response

Operation system

pool: server - agentless (No OS)

Relevant log output

<img width="1009" height="332" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/4cf06c14-085a-402a-b6c2-25e6f1353ea7" />

Full task logs with system.debug enabled

 [REPLACE THIS WITH YOUR INFORMATION] 

Repro steps

[juanchodpg2]

Facing the same issue here! Thanks for posting @ckalyanpur .

[felipecampos-btg]

Same here. All approvers receive the '[Manual Validation pending]' email from azuredevops@microsoft.com, but only the first approver is able to approve the task.

[ckalyanpur]

The PR linked by co-pilot recommending a change in documentation doesn't help either. The suggestion to specify email addresses on a new line doesn't work. None of the members specified in the list are able to approve when this is followed.

Suggested PR change:

- task: ManualValidation@1
  inputs:
    approvers: |
      email1@test.com
      email2@test.com
      email3@test.com

Effect:

[larsjohan]

Issue is also apliccable when notifyUsers are set to a group, but then none of the group members can verify/reject or receive email-notifications. I'm using V0 of this task as a workaround for now