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.​

​

OR​

​

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

​

Windows 7: (Option Two at link)​

How to Create a Windows 7 System Repair Disc​

​

Vista: (Option One at link)​

How to Create a Vista Recovery Disc​

​

​

​

​

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

​

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.​

​

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

​

D) Go to OPTION ONE or OPTION TWO.​

​

OPTION ONE

To Fix the User Account Profile

1. Open the Start menu.​

​

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

​

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

​

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

​

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.​

​

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)​

​

​

​

​

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

​

​

​

​

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)​

​

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

​

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

​

​

​

​

F) Go to step 8.​

​

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)​

​

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

​

​

​

​

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)​

​

​

​

​

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)​

​

​

​

​

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

​

​

11. Close regedit.​

​

12. Restart the computer.​

​

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.​

​

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.​

​

2. Open the Start menu.​

​

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

​

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

​

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

​

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.​

​

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.​

​

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.​

​

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.​

​

C) Continue on to step 8.​

​

​

​

​

8. To Delete the Registry SID Key​

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

​

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

​

​

​

​

9. Close regedit.​

​

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

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

​

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.​

​

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

 

[azdarkblue]

Yes. I tried the system restore in 3 different ways, if i recall correctly.

I first tried it within Win 7 (which may have been one of my original mistakes). When I ran it within Win7, the process appeared to start, but the screen quickly blanked and nothing further happened, and that was true regardless of which sistem restore point I attempted.

I then tried it within safe mode, and the process ran fine for the two recent system restore points (which didn't solve the underlying login problem), but if I tried it with the two older restore points, I got a BSOD.

Lastly, I tried it by hitting "esc" during boot, which gave me several system repair options, including system restore. When I ran system restore from there, that's when I received the error message "instruction at ----------referenced memory could not be read."

-Scott

 

[Brink]

Scott,

You might check to see if this may be able to help.

Rob Brooks-Bilson's Blog: Fix for Vista's: The User Profile Service service failed the logon. User profile cannot be loaded

 

[azdarkblue]

Brink: Thanks very much for taking the time to look at my posts and respond.

I had in fact already looked at that article, but it doesn't seem helpful to my situation. First, I don't think I am having a problem with a newly created user account failing to create a matching user directory, which seemed to be the problem he was dealing with. I think my problem is more that I have a user account logon ("Scott') which is tied to a different user directory than it should be (it is tied to the newly created "user\Scott.DESKTOP" directory instead of the original "user\Scott" directory), and I don't know how to attach that user account back to the directory it should go with.

Second, his solution was to delete extraneous files within c:\users\default\AppData\Local\Application Data and C:\users\default\Local Settings\Application Data. Those file paths do not appear to exist within c:\users for me. Perhaps that is a distinction between Win 7 and Vista, but I don't see those folders within the c:\users\default path.

-Scott

 

[Brink]

You should have a C:\Users\(username)\AppData folder, but it is a hidden system folder.

You might also check back using OPTION ONE in the tutorial to make sure that everything still looks ok.

You could also create a new administrator account, and copy all of the contents of your old account's C:\Users\(username) folder into the corresponding new account's C:\Users\(username) folders. After everything checks out ok, you can delete the old account from within the new one.

 

[azdarkblue]

Brink: Thanks very much for your help. I went back and opened up regedit to retrace the steps outlined in solution option 1 and I discovered something interesting.

Instead of having two S-1-5 folders with identical numbers, I now have 3.

The first number ends in "6980-1000" and the profileimagepath is Scott.Desktop. This is the new user that apparently was created when I tried the solution the first time.

The second number ends in "6980-1000." (note the period) and the profileimagepath is Scott. This is the one that presumably relates to my original user account that I would like to recover.

The third number ends in "6890-1000.bak" and the profileimagepath is Temp.

I assume having the three folders means that I may have done something wrong the first time I tried the solution (perhaps in step 6(d), I removed "bak" instead of ".bak").

Given the fact that the situation I now have no longer fits within the solution instructions (since I have 3 relevant S-1-5 folders), and given my hesitation to fiddle around with the registry without knowing exactly what I'm doing), I am hoping that you can perhaps walk me through what I should do here.

If having the three S-1-5 folders presents a problem in trying to figure out what to do next, I guess one possibility would be to do a system restore back to before I tried the solution the first time last night. As I think I mentioned in my first post, I was unable to get the older restore points to work, but I was able to run system restore with restore points from earlier in the day yesterday. When I ran those restores, it did not cure my logon problem, but I assume that if I ran system restore again with one of those recent restore points, as long as the restore point was prior to my first stab at the solution to the login problem, it would get rid of the new "scott.Desktop" user account and would take me back to my original problem of being unable to log on as "Scott." I could then retry the solution (being extra careful not to leave a stray period) and see if it works the second time.

Thanks again.

 

[Brink]

Before you do anything, go ahead and create a restore point to be safe. This way if you make a mistake, you can always do a system restore to select and go back to that restore point.


It seems like you had just made a mistake when you renamed it to "6980-1000.", and Vista create a new one that is the Scott.Desktop now.

Try renaming the "6980-1000" to "6980-1000.bak2", and renaming "6980-1000." to "6980-1000". Afterwards restart the computer to see if that restores the original account.

 

[azdarkblue]

Thanks much. I think I edited my prior post as you were preparing your reply, so you may want to check what I added real quick.

 

[Brink]

I would go ahead and try what I posted above.

 

[azdarkblue]

I was very optimistic, but alas, now I'm just back to getting the "user profile service failed the logon" message when I try to logon as "Scott."

I opened regedit and I think everything looks the way I think it's supposed to look.

The profileimagepath for the folder without any suffix is "Scott" and refcount and state are both at 0.

The folder with .bak is "temp" and the folder with bak2 is "scott.desktop."

 

[azdarkblue]

I noticed in regedit that the other logins don't have any .bak files. What would happen if we just deleted the .bak and .bak2 folders associated with the same number as the "scott" profileimagepath?

 

[Brink]

The .bak and .bak2 are backups of that profile. If your profile was working perfectly, then there would be no harm in deleting them. Since it's not, you might delete one that is a good backup.

It seems that this profile may be to corrupted to fix. You may need to create a new administrator account to replace it instead.

 

[azdarkblue]

Do you think that there is any way that either of the two backup files could somehow be creating the problem?

 

[Brink]

No. The backups are just backups and are not used at all.

 

[azdarkblue]

Good news! I did a system restore to a point before my first attempt at the solution described here (to get rid of the scott.DESKTOP profile) and then I refollowed the steps outlined in the solution (making sure not to leave that stray period). I restarted and, voila, I was able to log back in as "Scott" with my old desktop, docs, etc.

The system restore appears to have done something to my antivirus program (the auto-protect disables a few minutes after logging on and there is no way within the program to reenable it), but I am hopeful that a simple uninstall/reinstall will solve that problem. In any event, the antivirus issue is a much less problematic concern than the loss of my user account and all the headaches that would have been associated with trying to migrate everything to a new user account.

Thanks very much for your help and for publishing the solution. I think I would have saved us both a bit of effort had I performed the steps correctly, but all's well that ends well, I guess.

I do have one last question. If this is something that has happened to you once, do you have any idea if it is more likely to recur?

Thanks again,
Scott (aka "scott.DESKTOP")

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome Scott. I'm happy to hear that you got the profile error sorted.

It really depends on what may have caused the user profile error, so it may or may not happen again since the cause is unknown. If it happens again or to often, then you might consider a clean reinstall.

 

[bdummar]

I had this issue on Windows 2008 server. What worked for me was deleting both S-1-5..... folders the one with the .bak and the one without it in the same Regedit location.

 

[jportras]

I tried the solution provided, changing all of the registry entries, and it still didn't fix the problem. I was VERY reluctant to delete the User Account or go back to a previous Restore Point, which always seems to be a pain in the you-know-what. Instead, I found a much easier fix. :D

(I should also mention that, for my situation, I only have one User account set up and it is an Administrator account. This was not a "new" account, but one I have been using since I got the computer three years ago.)

1. Restart the computer and enter "Safe Mode". If hitting the 'F' buttons doesn't work, the easiest way to do it is to shut off your computer unexpectedly (ie. hold the power button down until the computer shuts off).

2. Go to Control Panel and double-click on User Accounts. For me, when I tried to open the Control Panel, it kept shutting down on me. To get around this, open Help & Support. In the search section, type in "User Account Control". Click the link "Turn User Account Control on or off" and then click the link: "Click to open User Accounts".

3. First thing: I changed the current password. I'm not sure if this was necessary, but I did it anyway Remember, I'm only using one account. If you have more, you'll likely have to select the offending profile.

4. Click the link: "Turn User Account Control on of off". Uncheck the box and click OK. When prompted to restart the computer, do so.

5. Use your new password and logon to your account. It should work no problem. After this, I reset my password to the old one and re-enabled the User Account Control. I figure this provided top protection for the computer.

My computer has worked the same as it did before this problem. So, I figure problem solved. Just the typical bull**** of dealing with Vista glitches I suppose.

Hope this helps someone :D

 

[FangsOfDeath]

Thank you Brink! It worked. I was really scared this would happen to other accounts but now i know how to fix it! You're Da Best! Thanks Again!party:

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome FangsOfDeath, and welcome to Vista Forums.

 

[barometerbabe]

Hi. I am trying to fix this problem on a friend's computer. The fix detailed here did not work for me (I do not get the same text that is indicated here). I can get into Safe Mode - but cannot get the same info. to come up as what this tutorial shows. Also, cannot even get into the "Manage Another Account" in the User Accounts in Control Panel. Restore an earlier session does not work either because there is no prior date.

Event log indicates there were warnings about the problem before the computer finally took down the function. It appears from the Event log that other applications or programs are accessing the user profile...which may have caused the problem. Even though the messages indicate the profile (and/or some files) is/are corrupted.

My questions:

1) Is there another way (hopefully not too complicated) to fix this problem?

2) Is there a way to fix it from the command prompt when I access command prompt through "Safe Mode with Command Prompt."

3) We do not have a Vista operating disk. Is there something on the Vista operating disk that would fix this problem? Can we download the disk from Microsoft?

4) Is there some other download that we can get that will fix the problem?

5) Does Microsoft have a download that will fix the problem?

6) If we can determine what other applications or programs are accessing the user profile - and delete them - will that fix the problem?

Thank you.

K.