How to fix “user profile service failed the logon” on Windows

Although there’s a Mac, Microsoft Windows users are everywhere! Such a popular Operating system has lots of features that we could make most out of it. One of the windows features is Multiple users can log in and set their desktop, work environment, preferences as per their liking. But sometimes user profile gets corrupted and you can’t logon to your account. The error says “user profile service failed the logon” and “The user profile cannot be loaded“. And you can’t do much from your lock screen. The purpose of this article is to This article gives you a solution to this problem.

Recently we saw an article about how to disable fast user switching on windows. This time we are going to see the solution for user profile service failed the logon error that comes when you try to login to your account on Windows 7 /10.

Why user profile service failed the logon error arises?

There are specific reasons for the cause of this problem. The main reason is due to corrupted repositories/files associated with user profiles.

According to windows, sometimes when you are trying to access your profile, windows antivirus maybe updating at the same time. This could corrupt the user profile registries.

Also, files corruption may cause due to failed windows update or maybe because of Malware injected into your system.

Pro Tip – Never ever turn off your PC during Windows Update, it may cause serious problem to your system files that may become difficult to recover sometimes.

How to fix “user profile service failed the logon” error

There are three methods to fix this problem. The first method is a workaround; the second and third method is a proper fix. Let’s see all three ways in details.

1. Restarting your computer
2. System Restore Point
3. Fixing Registry Errors
4. Creating a new user profile

Sometimes simply restarting a computer may fix this issue. Not for everyone though, as this is a casual process.

How to fix the user profile cannot be loaded error by System Restore Point method

In this method, we need to restore the previous image of the system. Windows frequently take restore points that can be restored if you want. Follow simple steps to restore the image

Step1: When you see user profile service failed the logon on your lock screen, you need to restart your computer.

Step2: During its boot, you need to press an F8 key from your keyboard rapidly to enter into boot mode.

Step3: you can now see three option for safe boot, select safe boot with networking using up-down arrow keys and click enter.

Step4: Once phone booted into safe mode, click on the start menu and search for the restore point.

Step5: Now, restore the image, restart your PC and you can log in to your computer without getting the error.

How to fix the user profile cannot be loaded error by Editing profile registry

This method is an actual fix if restarting the computer or restoring windows doesn’t fix your problem.

Step1: In this method also, you need to boot your computer using F8 key rapidly during booting. Select Safe mode with networking.

Spte2: Once, computer start in safe mode, click on the start menu and search regedit. On very first option regedit, right click on this and click run as administrator.

Step3: From the opened window, you have to go to the below option by clicking on options one by one.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > Microsoft > Windows NT > CurrentVersion > ProfileList

Step4: On ProfileList option, click on ProfileImagePath from each S-15 folder to locate which profile user has an issue. You can see username after clickingProfileImagePath.

Now, there can be two scenarios,

• If you see two S-15 folders followed by some numbers and one with .bak extension and other without.bak extension, follow this procedure –
  • Right-click the folder without .bak extension, and then click Rename. Type .ba, and then press ENTER.
  • Right-click the folder that is named .bak, and then click on Rename. Remove .bak at the end of the folder name, and then press ENTER.
  • Right-click the folder that is named .ba, and then click on Rename. Change the .ba to .bak at the end of the folder name, and then press ENTER
• If you see only one S-15 folder with a .bak extension, right click on it and click on Rename. Here, remove .bak and click enter.

Sep5: If you see no folder with any .bak extension (or you have followed step4 to make a folder without extension), click on that folder, double-click on RefCount and change value to 0, click OK.

Step6: Now, double-click on State option, change the value to 0 and click OK.

Step7: You can now close all windows of the registry and restart the system.

Also Read – How to access windows 10 advanced boot options in 1 minute

How to fix the user profile cannot be loaded error by Creating New User Profile

The third method is also the simplest. You have to create a new user profile and copy your old data to the new user.

Step1: For this also you need to boot your computer into safe mode. To do this, press F8 rapidly during booting and select Safe mode with networking.

Step2: Now, Press Windows Key and R simultaneously and type cmd. Press enter.

Step3: In the Command prompt window, type following line and hit enter –

net user administrator /active:yes

Step4: You should see the result as “The command completed successfully”.

Step5: Reboot your PC, and you can now see Administrator account(without password :D) and your corrupted account. Here, login to the admin account.

Step6: Open control Panel – User accounts and add the new user account using the regular process.

(For Windows 10 go to control panel – accounts – Family and other peoples – Add someone else to this pc)

Pro Tip – To add the local user without Microsoft account and without email id follow this – after clicking add user account – “I don’t have this person’s sign-in info”. From next screen, click on add a user without Microsoft account. That’s it 😀

Step7: Once you Create a new account, you have a copy of your old profile data and files to the new account. To do this login to your admin account, go to c drive – users – locate corrupted profile – my files and copy data to new profile’s folder. Remember to turn on hidden files and don’t copy these files – Ntuser.dat, Ntuser.dat.log, Ntuser.ini.

Pro Tip – How to show hidden files?  – Go to windows explorer and click on view option. From Options tab click on Change folder and search option. Now the from the new popup window, select view tab, and check show hidden files, folders and drives., Also uncheck hide protected operating system files and click YES.

Must Read – How to apply update from ADB sideload – for windows and Mac

Summary –

The user profile service failed the logon issue is common and arises due to windows update or anti-malware update. There are some ways to solve this problem – by restoring windows, editing registry setting or by creating the new user profile. Read More about this error on Microsoft site.

I am sure that you get help from this guide to solve the error “user profile service failed the logon”. Surf more for such helpful content.