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

 

[VictorBroom]

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

Will do.

 

[Cetren]

So... Here's my issue.

I followed this method, but did not change the .bak files in a different administrator profile since I only have one. It didn't work. In fact, it made the start up time for my computer about 15min.

I then did a system restore. Nada.

So I activated the Built-In Admin profile in safe-mode and tried to log in. It wanted a password and I tried a number of default ones, as well as the one for my regular profile, and nothing.

Next I did this process again. And it brings me to the same temporary profile, but it no longer gives me a prompt that it is in fact the temporary profile. I can go through the Program Files and look at all the programs installed on my computer, but the profile specific settings like word documents or photos are all missing.

So I tried a system restore again. This time, it shows me the same temporary profile without the prompt, and it also says that the System Restore was unsuccessful because it cannot replace the file (C:\Windows\assembly\NativeImages_v2.0.50727_64\PresentationFramewo#\6316......) *it gets cut off after that.
An unspecified error occurred during System Restore. (0x80070003)

Why is this happening? The last time, it managed to fix itself after about 3 restarts... Any help or mocking would be appreciated.

*Update*
So it appears as though if I search for my old files, I can still see them and access them. The profile clearly still exists, but when I log onto it, the temporary one that I mentioned earlier shows up instead... Thoughts?

 

[Brink]

Hello Cetren, and welcome to Vista Forums.

You will only be able to do this if you are logged in to another administrator account other than the one affected. In addition, for the temp profile error, you will need to use the tutorial below instead.

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

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[Cetren]

That seems dangerous. If I'm saving all the files anyways, could I not just move them over to another profile and problem solved? Then get rid of the weird one?

 

[Brink]

Sure, you could do that as well if you like. You would just need to also set all your personal settings again in the new account though.

 

[Cetren]

Well that problem is solved, But now the computer is running slower than a hungover snail. It also crashes quite frequently, especially if I try and do a defragment or a cleanup. If I delete the corrupted profile, will this sort itself out? Or is something else to blame? One of the tech guys at work just copied the files in the bad profile into the new one via an administrator account and everything seems to be working as it should... But I'm frankly scared that the programs are just running by proxy from the sinister profile. Thoughts?

 

[Brink]

Cetren,

With those type of errors, it may be best to go ahead and backup anything that you do not want to lose and reinstall Windows.

 

[pranawa]

im having the same problem.
if i try to login with safe mode and i log into the build-in admin account, i get this message that im logges in with the default settings. So i cant modify those things in regedit.

anyone could fix this?

 

[Brink]

Hello Pranawa, and welcome to Vista Forums.

I'm not sure what you mean by "logged in with the default settings". Could you post back with the full exact message just to be sure?

 

[pranawa]

Ah dont worry, i´ve fixed it already. done a complete system restore to factory default.
Thanks anyway for your quick response.:D

 

[Brink]

That's great news. I'm happy to hear that you got it sorted.

 

[galwaykopite]

I've read through as much as I can but haven't found a solution to my problem yet. I have been getting the "The User Profile Service service failed the logon. User profile cannot be loaded" message when I tried to set up a new account for my wife on my laptop. I went through the steps to check the registry and found 2 SIDs with long numbers but neither of them had .bak at the end. One of them is the built-in Admin account and the other is my own account. The new account that I created didn't show up at all. I tried rebooting to see if that worked, but no luck. The account is showing in the User Accounts folder and I tried using different account names and deleting and creating the accounts. My laptop is about 5 years old and I've never tried to put a new account on it before, apart from my own at the start, so I don't know would a System Restore be much use. I don't really want to go down the road of a Clean Install because I've no Recovery Disk and 5 years of updates on a poor internet connection could take weeks. Any advice??

 

[Brink]

Hello Galwaykopite, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Go ahead and completely delete her account, and create a new one from scratch. While logged into your account, try using "Switch User" to see if her new account is listed in the log on screen there.

If you have not already, double check to see if the link below from the yellow TIP box at the top of the tutorial 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

Hope this helps for now,
Shawn

 

[galwaykopite]

Thanks for your help. The account was there when I used the "Switch User" function but was getting the same error message. I read through the link that you suggested and a lot of it was lost on me. But I read through the comments and one poster suggested deleting the file "C:\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Live\SqmApi\SqmData720896_00.sqm" so I tried that and it worked. Have to say though, I've no idea what that file was or if deleting it is going to cause me a lot more grief. Fingers crossed!!!
Thanks again for your help.

 

[Brink]

You're most welcome. I'm happy to hear that got it sorted so far.

 

[xanima]

Go into the Advanced Security Settings for the C:\Users\Default folder and checking the box to "Replace all child object permission with inheritable permissions from this object". Fixed it for me after everything else failed. good luck!

 

[Peng97]

Erm excuse me i was also a victim for this i think the cause was because i force shut down my laptop too much and is there a simpler way to do this i have tried system restore it dint work for me

 

[Brink]

Hello Peng, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Other than trying the tutorial to fix it (be sure to read all of it for all available options), the next easiest way would be to reinstall Vista. If you want to call that easy.

 

[Peng97]

my dad say is some profile problem so im not that sure

Hey Brink is thr another way besides messing with the Registory?

 

[Brink]

You could try creating a new administrator account for yourself, log on to it, and see if it runs properly.

If not, then it's either the tutorial or do a factory restore of your laptop.