Error message: "The User Profile Service failed the logon. User profile cannot be loaded”, when logging on to Windows 7 or Windows Vista

When you log on to a Windows Vista-based or a Windows 7-based computer by using a temporary profile, you receive the following error message: This error may occur if the "Do not logon users with temporary profiles" Group Policy setting is configured.

This issue may occur if the user profile folder was deleted manually. A profile folder that is manually deleted does not remove the Security Identifier (SID) from the profile list in the registry.

WARNING: Microsoft recommends AGAINST making this the standard way of removing user profiles from machines. The documented and supported approach is using the Advanced System Settings in the system properties, "User Profiles" settings. For applications, this facility is available using the "DeleteProfile" API.

If the SID is present, Windows will try to load the profile by using the ProfileImagePath that points to a nonexistent path. Therefore, the profile cannot be loaded.

Important:

Occasionally, Windows might not read your user profile correctly, for example, if your antivirus software is scanning your computer while you try to log on. Before following the methods below, try restarting your computer and logging on with your user account again to resolve the issue.


If restarting your computer does not resolve this issue, follow the steps listed in the methods below.

Note You must be able to log on to an administrator account to fix your user profile or copy your data to a new account. Before starting fix the issue, log on to Windows by using another account that has administrative permissions or boot into Safe Mode to log on with the built-in Administrator account. For more information about how to boot into Safe Mode, visit the following Microsoft webiste:

Method 1: Fix the User Account Profile

To do this, follow the steps below:

Important This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

1. Click Start
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2. In Start Search (Windows Vista) or Search programs and files (Windows 7) area, type in regedit, and press Enter.
3. If prompted by UAC, click Continue (Windows Vista) or Yes (Windows 7).
4. In Registry Editor, go to:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList
5. In the left pane, look for the folder name starting with S-1-5 (SID key) followed by a long number. then click each folder and locate ProfileImagePath from the right pane, double click to verify that this is the user account profile that has the error.
   
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   • If you have two folders starting with S-1-5 followed by same long nubmers and one of them ended with .bak. Change the .bak folder to normal one. To do this, follow the steps below:
     1. Right click the folder without .bak and choose Rename. Then add .ba at the end of the folder name.
        
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     2. Right click the folder with .bak and choose Rename. Then remove .bak at the end of the folder name.
        
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     3. Right click the folder with .ba and choose Rename. Then change the .ba to .bak at the end of the folder name.
        
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   • If you have only one folder starting with S-1-5 followed by a long numbers and ended with .bak. Right click the folder and choose Rename. Then remove .bak at the end of the folder name.
6. Choose the folder without .bak, in the right pane, double click RefCount and type 0 and then click OK.
   
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7. Choose the folder without .bak, in the right pane, double click State and type 0 and then click OK.
   
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8. Close Registry Editor.
9. Restart the computer.
10. Log on again with your account.

Method 2: Log on to Windows and copy your data to a new account

reate a new account and copy the data from the old account to the new account. For information about how to do this, visit one of the following Microsoft websites:

Windows 7 Windows Vista

Method 3: Delete the error SID and create a new profile

To delete the error SID and create a new profile, follow the steps below:

1. Delete the error SID.
   To have us fix this problem for you, go to the "Fix it for me" section. If you would rather fix it yourself, go to the "Let me fix it myself" section.
   
   

   Fix it for me

   To fix this problem automatically , click the Fix this problem link. Then click Run in the File Download dialog box, and follow the steps in this wizard.
   
   Fix this problem
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   Note This wizard may be in English only; however, the automatic fix also works for other language versions of Windows.
   
   Note If you are not on the computer that has the problem, you can save the automatic fix to a flash drive or to a CD, and then you can run it on the computer that has the problem.
   

   Let me fix it myself
   
   

   Important This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
   How to back up and restore the registry in Windows
   
   To resolve this problem yourself, follow these steps:
   1. Delete the profile by using the Computer Properties dialog box. To do this, follow these steps:
      1. Click Start, right-click Computer, and then click Properties.
      2. Click Change settings.
      3. In the System Properties dialog box, click the Advanced tab.
      4. Under User Profiles, click Settings.
      5. In the User Profiles dialog box, select the profile that you want to delete, click Delete, and then click OK.
   2. Click Start
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      , type regedit in the Start search box, and then press ENTER.
   3. Locate and then expand the following registry subkey:
      HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList
   4. Right-click the SID that you want to remove, and then click Delete.
2. Log on to the computer and create a new profile.

The following events are logged in the Application log:

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