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

 

[MrFixit]

Thank you! Option 1 worked for me. I should add that I previously did a restore which worked as well, however, everytime Windows installed updates the problem came back. I think it will be different this time because this fix did not uninstall any updates. I will keep you posted if the problem reoccurs.

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome MrFixit, and welcome to Vista Forums. Please do.

 

[ClassicallyMe]

Shawn, thank you for this post. I tried Option 1 today and that seemed to work. Your directions were easy and concise. Much appreciated.

 

[Brink]

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

 

[ClassicallyMe]

Thank you...I doubt that you will see me around much, or perhaps rather hope that you won't. My only reason for making the profile was so that I could thank you. I am hoping I will have no further issues.

28,865 posts?! Wow...you must be on here a lot. Ah wait...since 2007...

That still is almost 20 posts a day...

 

[Brink]

That's ok. Please feel free to ask questions in the forum area for anything that you would like to know about Vista as well if you like.

 

[hilmarusd]

I know this is old, but for those that still have to support older systems, I'm posting a solution that worked for me to this "The User Profile Service failed the logon..." problem.

First, all my Vista machines are connected to a domain. No domain users could login, they would all receive this error. Even myself, a domain admin, would get the same prompt and get logged off. The local admin user that we build into every system still worked so I was able to check the event logs. What I found was an error pointing to a file that couldn't be copied out of the Default user profile. In my case, the file happened to be in the "Portable Devices" folder deep inside AppData. All I did was go into that folder, delete all the files I found there, and logged out as the local admin. After that, users could once again login to the system.

Moral of the story: check your event logs and read those errors thoroughly!

 

[ausmar]

First of all, you rock Brink. I can't believe you've been responding to this thread since 2008. That's incredible, way to go.

Now to my problem. I got a brand new desktop yesterday with windows 7 on it. I installed all my favorite programs, unloaded all my music files, documents, etc. from my external and it worked great. I went to bed last night, got up this morning and hopped on the new PC for a few minutes and everything worked just fine. Then, I get home at the end of the day and I get this error when I try to log in. I can't imagine why this is happening .



I only have one profile, and this is the profile I am unable to access. I followed your instructions to the Registry Editor in safe mode. Under HKEY_USERS I have no .bak folder. I have DEFAULT, S-1-5-18, S-1-5-19, and S-1-5-20.

...what can I do?

 

[Brink]

Hello Ausmar, and welcome to Vista Forums. Thank you for your kind words.

If you have any available restore points, you could do a system restore using a restore point dated before this happened to hopefully undo and fix this error.

 

[ausmar]

Looks like I jumped the gun posting here. Just figured it out! In windows 7 the .bak folder and it's corresponding folder are moved around a little bit and it takes some navigating to find them. Once in regedit, the folders can be found by navigating to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows NT/CurrentVersion/ProfileList

Once at that location the tutorial works just as it would for Vista . What a nutty little problem.

 

[Brink]

No problem. I'm happy to hear that you got it sorted.

 

[VictorBroom]

Even though I have read every post in this thread, I have not managed to fix my profile.

The corrupt profile is my original administrator profile. I am showing just one SID for this profile, which is S-1-5-21-2170216688-2071831257-1094624962-1002.bak.

I have tried renaming this to remove .bak and had no joy.
I have tried changing the 'RefCount' and 'State' values to 0 and had no joy.
I have tried using System Restore but cannot restore to a point before this profile became corrupt.

Can anyone advise the best course of action from here please?

 

[Brink]

Hello Victor, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Are you able to enable the built-in Administrator account in the STEP ONE section to create a new administrator account to use instead?

If so, then you could just copy what you want from your old account into the new one.

 

[VictorBroom]

Hello Victor, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Are you able to enable the built-in Administrator account in the STEP ONE section to create a new administrator account to use instead?

If so, then you could just copy what you want from your old account into the new one.

Hi Brink, thanks for the quick reply.

I had tried copying the original user profile files across to a new user profile using a third administrator profile that I had created. I didn't appear to get on too well.

I had followed the steps in this article Fix a corrupted user profile. There were files that were already present in the new profile, so I chose 'copy and replace' (desktop.ini etc. etc.). There were also folders that I couldn't copy ('local settings', 'nethood', 'printhood' etc.).

Thinking about it now, should I copy the individual files from these folders? I kind of gave up with this route as I had to create a new network connection, re-configure my e-mail client and so on. The webmail accounts were ok but my client (WLM) wasn't displaying the message content of my POP3 e-mails. It appears that they have downloaded from the server but I can only see the header. I digress...

I did logon to the built in administrator earlier hoping that I would see an earlier system restore point... alas no. I kind of gave up then.

Do you recommend I try copying from the built in administrator account?

 

[Brink]

Yep, it's better to just copy the individual files and shortcut from the old account into the new account. I find that copying the entire profile usually doesn't work out to well.

Unfortunately, you will have to setup all your settings and email accounts again by using a new account and just copying over files.

 

[VictorBroom]

Yep, it's better to just copy the individual files and shortcut from the old account into the new account. I find that copying the entire profile usually doesn't work out to well.

Unfortunately, you will have to setup all your settings and email accounts again by using a new account and just copying over files.

Ok, I'll have a bash that tomorrow and let you know how I got on.

Thanks.

 

[VictorBroom]

There are files that I cannot access, such as C:\username\application data... and C:\username\cookies...

These look to be shortcut folders. How do I address this please?

I am logged in as an administrator.

 

[Brink]

You don't want to copy those over. You would only want to copy over any files in your C:\Users\(username) folders (ex: Music, Documents, etc...) that you want to keep, and any Start Menu shortcuts not already in the new use account.

 

[VictorBroom]

Okey dokey - looks like I am set then. I guess I can just delete the old user profile from within 'User Accounts' and save the files just in case...

I'm off to the e-mail threads to get that figured out...

Thanks again for your help :D

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome.

You might wait on deleting the old account for a few days until you make sure that you have everything you wanted from it.