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

 

[debij]

I tried the system restore, I tried regedit, but couldn't rename any of the files. This is getting old. It happened a few months ago and I was able to get my admin account back with system restore. At that time I added another admin account, a guest account and an account for another user. So everything crashed this a.m. except the guest account and I can't accomplish squat from that.

Any ideas? I really don't want to take this to the pc shop, but I'm actually stumped.

 

[Brink]

Hello Debij, and welcome to Vista Forums.

You might see if you are able to do the STEP ONE section in the tutorial to boot into "Safe Mode" to enable and log in to the "built-in Administrator" account. Afterwards you may be able to do the rest of the tutorial to hopefully fix this error.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[Ibra]

Thank you so much shawn.

it helped alot and my system is working properly again. continue the good job you're dong.

best wishes.

Ibra.

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome Ibra, and welcome to Vista Forums. Thank you.

 

[Valuater]

Once again, thank you for the clear and precise ( and understandable ) documentation for another vista problem... :D


Valuater
Autoit MVP
8)

 

[Brink]

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

 

[AztecDemon]

I don't have vista, use windows 7 but I had this same problem. Had to make account on here just to thank you, used your guide and it fixed everything thank you so much!

 

[Brink]

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

 

[shadyx]

I could logon to all previously created user accounts.

It seemed that I could create a new account however; when I tried to logon to the new account I got the "the user profile service failed the logon. user profile cannot be loaded" message.

I noticed that the new account was not in the C:\Users directory.

It would seem the Vista does not "create" the new user account until the logon attempt.

Vista appears to use the "Default" user account to do so. In my case I suspect that I corrupted the "Default" user account due to overzealous syncing but the reason for the corruption is not really relevant.

The solution for me was to repair the "Default" user account. I used a known working user account/profile and overwrote the "Default" user account. I could then create a new account in the normal manner and logon attempts were successful. You may wish to do some housekeeping by creating a clean new account (no documents) and overwriting the "Default" user account again.

I found this link How to create Vista default profile to be helpful with respect to repairing/overwriting/creating a new "Default" user account.

 

[bijoybiju]

Hi

Thanks for u r details

Option one will work, You should tell to rename the file before doing it to .bak (Option 1 Step 6) First you should rename the first file with .bk then delete .bak from next file again rename the first one from .bk to .bak. It works for me. thanks buddy.

Bijoy

 

[Brink]

Hello Bijoy, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Thank you, but it already instructs to do that though.

 

[Kirsty]

Hi there,

You've written so much on here that I'm worried you will have covered my problem, but I've read it all and I can't seem to find a solution that works for me. When I get to my logon screen, I enter my password and get the message 'The user profile service...etc'. I don't have any other accounts, just this one, and as I can't log on I can't do my system restore the usual way. So I tried to get to the Advanced Boot Options, but pressing F8 does absolutely nothing - for a moment I get a blank screen with a blinking cursor, but then it boots up as normal. As I can't get onto any account to edit the registry or into boot options, I don't see any way I can follow the fixes? And I don't have any special disks or anything, and I can't tell if I have inbuilt system recovery options because I can't get to the boot options to access them! Please help, I'm really stuck. I apologise if you've already covered this but I haven't been able to find anything.

Thanks, Kirsty

 

[Brink]

Hello Kirsty, and welcome to Vista Forums.

If the account that boots up for you is an administrator account, then you should be able to do the steps in the tutorial.

If not, then see if you may be able to do the STEP ONE section to enable the built-in Administrator account. Afterwards log on to that account to try the tutorial.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[Luis Cesar]

Tks a lot for the great tutorial. I've followed everything and got to Logon Vista, create a "new Administrator account", and even logon my previous & original account, however I can't open the directory where I have all my personal files. It's always been in the desktop. I can see it (over the windows explorer only) but when I click on it, nothing happens. Just does not open. Plus I noticed that after renaming the line with the ".bak", etc..., every time I restart the computer it does logon my account (or this 2nd new one I created), but after all, shows a message that my profile failed to load and that I am on a "default" profile or something like that... so the ".bak" on the registry returns again, and I have to go over the process again. It seems to me that the system is not finding my original profile. Is there any way to open my data? If possible I'd copy everything then wouldn't mind reinstalling the full Vista or even W7, formatting, etc...
I used to have only my single "admin. account".
To provide more info when I go over the regedit, I only find one "S-1-5..... folder (SID key) with the long number and it is the one that has .bak at the end of the numbers"... no other line with the same number without ".bak". But still I find other 3 "S-1-5... folders". "S-1-5-18, S-1-5-19, S-1-20". But the only long numbers is the one with ".bak" that insits to return everytime I reboot. Thanks in advance and sorry if I complicated too much!

 

[Brink]

Hello Luis, and welcome to Vista Forums.

It sounds like you may be getting the "Your user profile was not loaded correctly! You have been logged on with a temporary profile." error instead. If so, try this tutorial instead to see how it works for you.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/135858-user-profile-error-logged-temporary-profile.html

You might also see if doing a system restore at boot using a restore point dated before this error may be able to fix this.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[frustrated10]

What happens when your account that you can't access is your only admin account!!! Restore has not worked after repeated attempts, and I am not going to delete my Admin account. Who knows what will happen then. I have/had valuable info. on my desktop (among other places) that I cannot access. Fortunately, I backed-up some critical files, before this BS happened. What is Microsoft doing to compensate for all these problems? Very frustrated!!!

 

[Brink]

Hello Frustrated, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Are you able to do the STEP ONE section to boot into Safe Mode, enable the built-in Administrator account, log in to it, then do the tutorial?

 

[blackdot123]

I am experiencing the same problem, and i followed the link provided.:D

however, under the SID link, i only found one SID number with .bak behind it,
i right clicked on that and deleted the .bak from the long number and changed the state number to 0. (so far everything is great)

when i restart the computer, it keeps giving me the same problem, saying "logon failed etc."

then i try the safe mode again, that .bak number i renamed showed up with .bak behind it as if i didn't change it...

ok so after trying the above methods three more times:sa:, i deleted that sid number, restarted my computer and guess what? the log on failed msg showed up again.

i tried restore my computer to a previous date and it says that there is an error in my C drive. =(:huh:

i am so confused... please help!!!

thank you

 

[Brink]

Hello Blackdot, and welcome to Vista Forums.

You might see if you may be able to do the system restore at boot instead.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[blackdot123]

hey shawn, thank you for your quick reply...

i have tried system restore many times since my laptop started acting up :sa:
and so far no success

when i click on system restore to an earlier date, it says
" THE DISK SQ004828V03 (C) HAS ERRORS.

WINDOWS has deteched file system corruption on SQ004828V03 (s) you must check the dish for errors before it can be restored.

check the disk for errors>"

then i click on the link "check the disk for errors"

it shows
"windows can't check the disk while it's in use.
do you want to check for hard disk errors the next tim you start your computer"

i click on schedule disk check...

then i restart my computer, NOTHING happens... nothing at all...

please help...