Solutions: The User Profile Service failed the logon error message

You receive a "The User Profile Service failed the logon” error message

Article ID: 947215 - View products that this article applies to.

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Symptoms

When you log on to a Windows 7-based or a Windows Vista-based computer by using a temporary profile, you receive the following error message:

The User Profile Service failed the logon. User profile cannot be loaded.

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Resolution

Occasionally, Windows might not read your user profile correctly, such as if your antivirus software is scanning your computer while you try to log on. Before you follow the methods here, try restarting your computer and logging on with your user account again to resolve the issue. If you restart your computer and it does not resolve this issue, use the following methods to resolve this issue.

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 you resolve the issue, log on to Windows by using another account that has administrative permissions, or restart in safe mode to log on with the built-in administrator account. For more information about how to start in safe mode, visit the following Microsoft website:

Start your computer in safe mode

Method 1: Fix the user account profile

To fix the user account profile, follow these steps:

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:

322756 How to back up and restore the registry in Windows How to back up and restore the registry in Windows

1. Click Start, type regedit in the Search box, and then press ENTER.
2. In Registry Editor, locate and then click the following registry subkey:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList
3. In the navigation pane, locate the folder that begins with S-1-5 (SID key) followed by a long number.
4. Click each S-1-5 folder, locate the ProfileImagePath entry in the details pane, and then double-click to make sure that this is the user account profile that has the error.
   
   
   
   • If you have two folders starting with S-1-5 followed by some long numbers and one of them ended with .bak, you have to rename the .bak folder. To do this, follow these steps:
     1. Right-click the folder without .bak, and then click Rename. Type .ba, and then press ENTER.
        
     2. Right-click the folder that is named .bak, and then click Rename. Remove .bak at the end of the folder name, and then press ENTER.
        
     3. Right-click the folder that is named .ba, and then click Rename. Change the .ba to .bak at the end of the folder name, and then press ENTER.
        
   • If you have only one folder starting with S-1-5 that is followed by long numbers and ends with .bak. Right-click the folder, and then click Rename. Remove .bak at the end of the folder name, and then press ENTER.
   • If you have two folders starting with S-1-5 followed by some long numbers and one of them ended with .bak, you have to rename the .bak folder. To do this, follow these steps:
     1. Right-click the folder without .bak, and then click Rename. Type .ba, and then press ENTER.
        
     2. Right-click the folder that is named .bak, and then click Rename. Remove .bak at the end of the folder name, and then press ENTER.
        
     3. Right-click the folder that is named .ba, and then click Rename. Change the .ba to .bak at the end of the folder name, and then press ENTER.
        
   • If you have only one folder starting with S-1-5 that is followed by long numbers and ends with .bak. Right-click the folder, and then click Rename. Remove .bak at the end of the folder name, and then press ENTER.
5. Double-click the folder without .bak in the details pane, double-click RefCount, type 0, and then click OK.
   
6. Click the folder without .bak, in the details pane, double-click State, type 0, and then click OK.
   
7. Close Registry Editor.
8. Restart the computer.
9. Log on again with your account.

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

Create 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

Fix a corrupted user profile (Windows 7)

Windows Vista

Fix a corrupted user profile (Windows Vista)

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

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

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
   Microsoft Fix it 50446
   
   Notes
   • This wizard may be in English only, but the automatic fix also works for other language versions of Windows.
   • 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:
   322756 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. In the User Profiles area, 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, type regedit in the Search box, and then press ENTER.
   3. Locate and then click 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.