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]

You're most welcome Mark. That is great news.

 

[halo NY]

Oh my god I cannot believeI "fixed" my computer with these instructions :D

Thank you .I feel like a smart/geek computer person

 

[Brink]

You're welcome Halo. I'm happy to hear that you got it sorted.

 

[captaincook2]

I had this problem and used the regedit to fix it..... a computer shop told us to throw the thing away as it was stuffed.... wrong .... your blood is worth bottling as the computer belongs to my boss who is a VERY happy camper.... talk about brownie points i got em to burn....:D

 

[Brink]

Hello CaptainCook, and welcome to Vista Forums.

I'm happy to hear that you got it sorted, and got some brownie points out of it.

 

[Secretchocthief]

Hi Shawn,

I followed instructions for Option 1 and the magic words preparing desktop appeared and I thought " a resounding success".

However, the user account is still called what it was but I appear to have lost all my images, documents etc. The only not lost were items saved in the public folders.

I guess attempt a system restore from my last back up? Thoughts..

I thought this was just going to repair the error to the profile and not delete my docs etc.

 

[Brink]

Hello Secretchocthief, and welcome to Vista Forums.

It should not have. Double check to see if the user files may still be at the C:\Users\(user-name) location.

If they are there, then back them up before doing a system restore.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[Secretchocthief]

Phew! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. 4 years of digital images and documents are at C:\users\<username> as you say.

Back up underway and a very happy mrs secretchocthief as we've not lost images of our childrens early years.

Bless you! Have a great day.

SCT

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome. Please let us know how it went.

 

[Secretchocthief]

I thought I would let you know what my last actions were on the laptop before the error occurred....

I was loading several audio CD's into ITunes and when completed I connected my iphone and performed a standard sync on here. All music transferred to my phone as required and I simply closed as normal.

I have previously loaded audio cd's and connected my iphone so nothing out of the ordinary in terms of what I was doing or indeed how I closed my pc down.

Best regards

 

[Brink]

Thank you.

 

[igotu242]

I NEED HELP!!!!! PLEASE!!

I am getting an error that states User Profile failed the logon - User profile cannot be loaded. I have tried restarting, shuttin down and logging off - I cannot sign in under a guest or different user. Can you please help! Any advise would be helpful!

I have a dell and use Vista home premium x64.

Thank you!

 

[Brink]

Hello Igotu, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Try the options starting at STEP ONE in the tutorial on the first page to see if you may be able to use them. If not, then try the options in the yellow TIP box at the top of the tutorial.

Hope this helps for now,
Shawn

 

[Brock Sampson]

I have a vista failed logon I cant figure out....Compaq presario f700... My main admin acct logs on fine....my secondary limted user acct logs on fine...however i recently created a another limited user acct for my sister and from the start it has never logged on...I get the message found in this post, that the user profile has failed to log on....I have looked thru the regedit settings as suggested and of course since this new profile has never logged on succesfully it is not even listed in the reg key profile list....My other accounts that work fine...do not have the .bak listed under any of them...any ideas on how to fix this....I of course have tried to delete and create the new account several times...your help would be appreciated.

 

[Brink]

Hello Brock, and welcome to Vista Forums.

If you have not alread, you might check 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 from the TIP box at the top of the tutorial to see if this may of issue here.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[herostoryory]

I have read through as much as I could but the problem I am having is that I can't even get far enough to click the start button to try the fix.I start my Gateway Windows Vista laptop and it goes to the password sign page with the little picture,I type in the password and it says the logon failed message.Since it is new and has almost nothing on it I was going to try to reinstall but it won't allow that because I can't sign in!Help, I just got this thing 2 months ago and i can't use it.

 

[Brink]

Hello Herostoryory,

You should be able to reboot the computer and keep tapping F8 to start the Factory Recovery process. Here's a link from Gateway with full details on this.

Gateway Support - Full Factory Recovery

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[Brock Sampson]

I have a vista failed logon I cant figure out....Compaq presario f700... My main admin acct logs on fine....my secondary limted user acct logs on fine...however i recently created a another limited user acct for my sister and from the start it has never logged on...I get the message found in this post, that the user profile has failed to log on....I have looked thru the regedit settings as suggested and of course since this new profile has never logged on succesfully it is not even listed in the reg key profile list....My other accounts that work fine...do not have the .bak listed under any of them...any ideas on how to fix this....I of course have tried to delete and create the new account several times...your help would be appreciated.

I wanted to add to my post, I finally found a solution...and yes I did try Rob's blog, I tried all of his options, I even fully removed windows live since it is not used anyway...what seemed to work best may have been too simple that I overlooked...I deleted the new account, Disabled all security, firewalls and UAC, I then created a new admin account and it logged on fine...of course I did not want the new account to retain admin rights, so then I changed it back to a standard account and it works just fine...I renabled all security again and now have no problems (hope I didnt say that too soon)...anyway I wanted to share this, hopefully it will work for someone else.

Go Team Venture!

 

[Brink]

Brock,

I'm happy to hear that you got it sorted out. Thank you for posting back with your solution and results.

 

[maglib]

I would like to post the event viewer log issues as I've fixed this problem and have even recreated id's all to have it happen again. I'm hoping this could help as some times it works and other times it doesnt. Note i may have a related issue with clip art where unless my users sign in as administrators, they can't see clip art.


How can I get a clean copy of the event viewer log to post?