The User Profile Service failed the logon. User profile cannot be loaded.

How to Fix the Error "The User Profile Service failed the logon. User profile cannot be loaded."​

   Information

When you log on to Vista or Windows 7 using a temporary profile (user account), you receive this error message:

The User Profile Service failed the logon. User profile cannot be loaded.

For more information, see:
Error message when you log on to a Windows Vista-based or Windows 7-based computer by using a temporary profile: "The User Profile Service failed the logon. User profile cannot be loaded"

   Note

CAUSE:

The jury is still out on the exact cause, but so far :

• This issue may occur if the user profile was manually deleted by using the command prompt or Windows Explorer by a user or by some program. A profile that is manually deleted does not remove the security identifier (SID) from the user profile list in the registry. Since the SID is still present, Vista will still try to load the profile by using the ProfileImagePath that points to a nonexistent path. Therefore, the profile cannot be loaded.
• This can also be a issue with the user profile entering into a backup state.
• Manually renaming the C:\Users\(User Name) user profile folder.

   Warning

If you have this error message below instead, then see: How to Fix the Error "Your user profile was not loaded correctly! You have been logged on with a temporary profile." in Vista

Your user profile was not loaded correctly! You have been logged on with a temporary profile.

Changes you make to this profile will be lost when you log off. Please see the event log for details or contact your administrator.

   Tip

If the steps in the tutorial below do not help or you wish to try this first, then:

• You could also try doing a System Restore at boot using a restore point dated before the this error to see if it may be able to fix this.
• If you do not want to repair the user profile, you can delete it and create a new user account in OPTION TWO. If this still does not work for you, then you will be left with doing a clean install for your Upgrade or Full version of Vista or Windows 7.
• Try the option at this link: Rob Brooks-Bilson's Blog: Fix for Vista's: The User Profile Service service failed the logon. User profile cannot be loaded

STEP ONE

Log on to the Computer

   Warning

You must be logged on to an administrator account using either step 1 or 2 below before you can move on to do either the OPTION ONE or OPTION TWO sections.

1. To Log on to another Administrator account.​

NOTE: If you do not have another Administrator account, then proceed to step 2.​

A) Go to OPTION ONE or OPTION TWO.​

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OR​

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2. To Boot into Safe Mode and Use the built-in Administrator account​

NOTE: You may not need to enable the built-in Administrator account. If this was the only normal administrator account you had, then Safe Mode should automatically boot into the built-in Administrator account.​

   Tip

If you cannot boot into Windows and do not have a Windows installation DVD, then you can create and use the boot disc below to boot into Safe Mode with instead.

   Tip

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Windows 7: (Option Two at link)​

How to Create a Windows 7 System Repair Disc​

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Vista: (Option One at link)​

How to Create a Vista Recovery Disc​

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A) Boot into Safe Mode (in Vista) or Safe Mode (in Windows 7).​

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B) If Safe Mode did not boot into the built-in Administrator account, then enable the built-in Administrator account. If it did, then go to step 2D.​

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C) Log off in Safe Mode, and then log on to the built-in Administrator account to logon with that account in Safe Mode.​

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D) Go to OPTION ONE or OPTION TWO.​

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OPTION ONE

To Fix the User Account Profile

1. Open the Start menu.​

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2. In the white line (Start Search) area, type regedit and press Enter.​

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3. If prompted by UAC, either click on Continue (Vista) or Yes (Windows 7).​

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4. In regedit, go to: (See screenshot below step 5)​

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HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList

5. In the left pane, look for the S-1-5..... folder (SID key) with the long number that has .bak at the end of the numbers.​

(See screenshots below steps 6A and 7B)​

NOTE:​

A) In the right pane, look at the ProfileImagePath to verify that this is the user account profile that has the error.​

B) You may have another S-1-5..... folder (SID key) above it with the exact same number without the .bak at the end of it.​

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6. If you have Two S-1-5..... folders (SID key) with the same Number​

NOTE: This is if you have two S-1-5..... folders (SID key) with the exact same numbers, but the second (below) one has the .bak at the end of the numbers.​

A) In the left pane, right click on the first (top) S-1-5..... folder (SID key) that does not have .bak at the end of the numbers and click Rename. (See screenshot below)​

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B) Add .bk to the end of the numbers. (See screenshot below)​

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C) In the left pane, right click on the second S-1-5..... folder (SID key) with .bak at the end of the numbers and click Rename. (See screenshot above)​

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D) Remove only .bak from the end of the numbers and press Enter. (See screenshot below)​

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E) Now go back and Rename the first one with .bk to .bak now at the end of the numbers and press Enter.​

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F) Go to step 8.​

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7. If you have Only One S-1-5..... Folder (SID key) with .bak​

NOTE: This is if you only have one S-1-5..... folder (SID key) for your user account with .bak at the end of the numbers.​

A) In the left pane, right click on the S-1-5..... folder (SID key) with .bak at the end of the numbers and click Rename. (See screenshot below)​

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B) Remove only .bak at the end of the numbers and press Enter. (See screenshot below and below step 10)​

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8. In the right pane of the one without .bak now, right click on RefCount and click on Modify. (See screenshot below step 10)​

NOTE: If you do not have RefCount, then right click on a empty space in the right pane and click New and DWORD (32 bit) Value, then type RefCount and press Enter. This value for this entry will reset and return back to the original value after you have restarted the computer and logged on to the account.​

A) Type 0 (number) and click on OK. (See screenshot below)​

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9. In the right pane of the one without .bak now, right click on State and click on Modify. (See screenshot below step 10)​

NOTE: This value for this entry will reset and return back to the original value after you have restarted the computer and logged on to the account.​

A) Type 0 (number) and click on OK. (See screenshot below)​

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10. The registry will now look like this for the one without .bak now. (See screenshot below)​

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11. Close regedit.​

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12. Restart the computer.​

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13. See if you can logon now.​

NOTE: If this still does not help, then either try OPTION TWO below or see the yellow TIP box at the top of the tutorial.​

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OPTION TWO

To Delete the User Account and Create Another One

   Warning

You can do this option if you do not care about losing the user account and the contents in the user folders. Your programs will still be installed, but you will need to create new shortcuts for them afterwards.

1. Delete the User account profile that this error is for.​

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2. Open the Start menu.​

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3. In the white line (Start Search) area, type regedit and press Enter.​

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4. If prompted by UAC, click on Continue (Vista) or Yes (Windows 7).​

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5. In regedit, go to: (See screenshot below step 7)​

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HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList

6. In the left pane, click on one of the S-1-5..... folders (SID key) with the long number in it.​

NOTE: It may have .bak at the end of it.​

A) In the right pane, look at the ProfileImagePath to see if this is the same user account that you deleted in step 1 above.​

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B) Repeat step 6 until you find the one that you deleted in step 1 above.​

NOTE: If the user account is not here, then it has already been removed when deleted in step 1. Go to step 9.​

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7. To Backup the Registry SID Key​

WARNING: You should backup this SID key to be safe in case you delete the wrong one in step 8 below.​

A) Right click on the SID key, and click on Export.​

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B) Type in a name and save the REG file to a safe location.​

NOTE: This is your backup. To Restore the Backup, right click on the REG backup file and click on Merge.​

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C) Continue on to step 8.​

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8. To Delete the Registry SID Key​

A) Right click on the SID key, and click on Delete. (See screenshot above)​

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B) Click on Yes to confirm deletion. (See screenshot below)​

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9. Close regedit.​

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10. Now, just create a new normal Administrator account.​

NOTE: See: How to Create a New User Account in Vista​

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11. Restart the computer, and log on to your new account.​

NOTE: If this still does not help, then either try OPTION ONE above or see the yellow TIP box at the top of the tutorial.​

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That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How To Perform a Repair Installation For Vista
• How to Do a System Restore in Vista
• How to Do a Startup Repair in Vista
• How to Do a Clean Install of Vista with a Upgrade Version
• How to Do a Clean Install with a Full Version of Vista
• How to Fix the Error "Your user profile was not loaded correctly! You have been logged on with a temporary profile."
• How to Change the User Folder Name of a User Profile in Windows 7
• How to Fix Windows 7 Logon Screen Showing Only "Other User" and Last Logged On User Icon

 

[Brink]

Hello Beach90,

Yes, the Refcount and State values will go back by default. Setting them to 0 just temporarily resets them.

Is your error gone now?

 

[beach90]

Yes I'm still having the same problem. My last post on here explained what was happening. Do the Refcount and State values need to stay at 0 because when I log off of the administrator account, and then back on they go back to their original values? And so does all of the other info (like the .bak) I would just do a system restore but I don't have any restore points, so that isn't an option. Any toher things you can think of??

 

[Brink]

It seems like it is beyond a simple repair. Without a restore point or drive image backup, the only option I see is a clean reinstall of Vista.

 

[beach90]

Is there a way to save some of my information if i decide to reinstall vista. I have thousands of songs and hundreds of pictures that I would like to keep???

i'm still going through the steps and trying different things and at first i had two S-I-5 folders, and one of them had the .bak at the end. I deleted the S-I-5 folder that had the .bak at the end. when i restarted the computer there was only one S-I-5 folder left but it now had the .bak at the end. after i logged onto my administrators account and wentinto regedit and removed the .bak off of the only S-I-5 folder (because I deleted the other one) and then I changed the state and RefCount values to 0. After finishing that I restarted my computer and signed back onto my administrators account and the RefCount and State values were back to their originial values, and the S-I-5 that I had deleted was gone, but the other one that I kept still had the .bak at the end (even though I had just removed it) The only thing that stayed the same after I restarted the computer was the first S-I-5 folder with the .bak at the end that I deleted. Why does everything else keep going back to the original way???? Is that whats keeping me from logging on to my account????

 

[Brink]

From the account that you are in now, you can manually copy and paste the files you want to keep to DVD or some other drive to back them up.

As posted above, the Refcount and State values will go back by default after restarting the computer. Setting them to 0 just temporarily resets them.

I see no other option other than clean reinstall though.

 

[beach90]

I don't have a reinstall disk or anything for Vista, so is there another way to reinstall?

my disk drive or cd drive also doesn't work. so i can't use any kind of cd to reinstall vista. any other solutions??

 

[Brink]

LOL, you do have some problems.

If your computer is a OEM computer, then you may have a Vista D: Recovery partition that you can use to reinstall Vista with. If you can post back the brand and model number of your computer I'll see if I can find the instructions on how to restore Vista back to factory defaults at your computer manufacturer's website.

If not, then you will need to purchase a new copy of Vista and a DVD drive to install it with.

 

[beach90]

good news! i finally realized how to reinstall vista without the cd. there was an eRocovery Management program on my computer that i went into and it restored everything to the way it was when i first bought it. but i lost all of my pictures and everything else i bought it from best buy and havn't had any problems with it until about a week ago. everything is working fine now, except for the cd/dvd burner. which wasn't working before either. i tried looking up information on drivers, but it got too complicated for me. do you know of any way to fix it?

 

[Brink]

I'm happy to hear that you got it back up and running, but I'm sorry to hear you lost your files.

I would say create a new post in the Drivers forum about your CD/DVD burner including the brand and model number of your computer and DVD drive. Also include any details about what it is or is not doing. This way this thread stays on topic, and you can get more replies about it. Hopefully we may be able to find something on the net that may help.

 

[send2sat]

Re: "The User Profile Service failed the logon. User profile cannot be loaded."

Hi

I am new to this forum. I got HP desktop with Vista premium 64bit. I have a built-in admin as my admin account. I have created 2 user accounts with passwords on it and rebooted the system to see that all the user accounts displayed. When i tried to login to any of the user accounts newly created, i am getting the message "The User Profile Service failed the logon. User profile cannot be loaded." and getting logged off. No problem with the built-in admin acoount at all.

I tried the below steps by following this forum:

1. I have deleted the user profiles inclouding files, and re-created them. NO LUCK!
2. In safe mode, created an admin account and rebooted the system. Tried to login to new admin account and i got the same error.
3. Went into Registry noticed that there is only one SID number and there is no SID with .bak
4. Tried the system Restore. NO LUCK!

Can anybody please help me out?

 

[Brink]

Hello Send2sat, and welcome to Vista Forums.

It appears that your system may be beyond repair. I would recommend that you backup anything that you do not want to lose from within your built-in Administrator account, and do a clean reinstall.

Sorry,
Shawn

 

[send2sat]

Shawn

Thanks for the reply. I will try to reinstall it.

 

[Brink]

I hope this installation runs better for you.

 

[send2sat]

Shawn

Last night i did clean install and it is working fine now. After the installation, i tried several ways of creating, deleting and re-creating different types of users with parental controls. It works great.

Thanks for your help and i personally like this forum because it has got many important topics. I got 2 more DVDs of Vista Premium(one is upgrade and another one is full version 32bit). I am going to install them shortly.

I wish you all good luck!

Sat

 

[Brink]

Sat, I'm happy to hear this one is running better for you.

 

[fadzly4]

Hie... Thanks for the tutorial...
I freaked out when i can't log in to my user profile...
Lucky, I kinda found your tutorial while searching how to solve the problem in google...
The tutorial did help me alot!!!
Wanna ask u, what if this problem happen again to the same user profile? Should i do the same thing as what being taught in da tutorial?

THANKS!!!!

 

[Brink]

You're welcome Fadzly, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Yes, if it should happen again, just reapply the tutorial again to fix it again. If it continues to happen again, then be sure to backup anything that you do not want to lose in case you have corruption that is beyond a simple repair that requires a reinstall.

Shawn

 

[alexavril]

"the user proflie service service failed the logon. user profile cannot be loaded."
i only have on user profile on this computer. what do i do?

 

[Brink]

Hello Alexavril, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Have you already tried the STEP ONE section in the tutorial on the first page of this thread?

If so, then you might see if a System Restore may help.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[w377ice]

hi shawn,
That "OPTION ONE" really work. thank's for that. I supposed to make another User Account Profile(Admin.) so next time I don't have to worry when this problem happens again. But when i first time logon onto that new Account, that error happened again. Please help.