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4 January 2021  Ashley S. Miller  Specialist of Customer Service Dept.
 

Summary
Many users received an error message “The user profile service failed the logon. User profile cannot be loaded”. How do we fix this problem? Read this article and you will get 3 solutions to deal with it.



Reasons of “The User Profile Service Failed the Logon” Issue

User profile represents personal files/ data and desktop environment associated with a specific user, including all specified configurations and settings, such as applications, screen color, Internet connectivity, printer connectivity, etc. Each user account has associated user profile, and you can’t use that account to log on to Windows successfully if without user profile.

Many users said that they couldn’t access to Windows 7 when encountered “The user profile service failed the logon. User profile cannot be loaded” error. The issue generally occurs when user profile gets corrupted or the file/folder is missing from “Users” directory on system disk.

Windows 7 user profile service failed the logon
Actually, it’s not that hard to resolve “The user profile service failed the logon” issue. Get the following 3 solutions to fix it and you will access to Windows 7 again!

3 Ways to Fix “The User Profile Service Failed the Logon” Issue

Solution 1: Create an Administrator Account

If you have only one user account and the user profile gets corrupted, you will not get into the system. Besides, if you have multiple user accounts but one of them, the administrator account fails, you could use a standard user account to access Windows 7. However, you probably will not be allowed to do some settings or perform commands using the account without administrative privileges in Windows 7. So it’s crucial to get a new administrator account!

It’s recommended to use a third-party system rescue tool, Renee PassNow that you could use to create an administrator account when Windows boots or can’t boot properly. It just takes a few simple steps to make it and you could access Windows 7 again!

Step 1: Download and install Renee PassNow in any workable Windows computer. 

press to the download button

Step 2: Choose creation method, USB or CD/DVD.

Select one option from [Crate a Live USB] and [Create a Live CD]. Then, select [x64] or [x86] according to your computer. Next, click on [Download Now] to download the licensed ISO. Remember to activate the software beforehand. After that, click on [Create USB] to create the boot media.
use renee passnow to create usb to reset passnword

Step 3: Boot the target PC from the created password reset USB/CD/DVD.

You will boot the target computer via a new created reset disk. Firstly, please hold a hot key to enter the BIOS menu and put CD-ROM or Removable Devices as the first choice. Please click here to know about how to change the boot order of your computer. After changing it successfully, please remember to save your setting and then restart your PC.

steps to change the boot order in BIOS

Step 4: Select “PassNow!”.

Reset password

Step 5: Create a new administrator to quickly access your PC. Please click “Create new account”.

The created administrator account named “Reneelab” with administrator rights, and its default password is “123456789”. You are able to change the password of target account with this new created administrator.

Create new account

Solution 2: Recover Missing Files

Once the file or folder is missing or removed from the “Users” directory on system disk, user profile service will fail the logon. You could also use Renee PassNow whose data recovery function can recover the missing files.
press to the download button
Here’s step-by-step guide to recover missing files.
Step 1: Repeat the above step 1/2/3. Select data recovery function, Undeleter.
data recovery function in Renee Passnow
Step 2: In the “Renee Undeleter” window, choose “Fast Partition Scan”.
start a fast partition scan
Step 3: Click the system disk that usually is C drive and then click “Next”.
select target disk to process fast partition scan in renee undeleter to try sd card recovery for android
Step 4: Select “Fast Scan” and then click “Next”.

If target file could not be found after you performed a fast scan, it’s suggested to select “Fast Partition Scan” again and then perform a deep scan”. Please note that “Deep Scan” mode will take a longer time to scan the entire hard drive.

Fast scan function of Renee Undeleter
Step 5: Preview the scan result. Choose target files and then click “Recover”.
scan for and preview files

Solution 3: Fix User Account Profile Using Registry Editor

Once there’s something wrong with user account profile, you could fix it using Registry Editor in safe mode. Please be cautious when you process the following steps that are so complicated.
Step 1: Power on the PC. When the boot screen appears, press F8. After you see the “Advanced Boot Option” window, use arrow key to choose “Safe Mode” and press Enter.
Starts safe mode in Windows 7
Step 2: Press “Win” + “R” key to open Run box, type regedit, and then press Enter.
enter regedit in Windows 7 run
Step 3: In Registry Editor, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows NT \ CurrentVersion \ ProfileList. Then locate the folder that begins with S-1-5 followed by a long number.
profilelist of Registry Editor
Step 4: Click each S-1-5 folder, double-click “ProfileImagePath” in the right pane and confirm the target user account profile that has the error.
confirm user account profile in Registry Editor
Step 5: Confirm whether the folder that begins with S-1-5 followed by a long number and ends with .bak.
  • If you have only one folder beginning with S-1-5 that is followed by long numbers and ends with .bak, right click the folder and then click “Rename”. Remove the .bak and press Enter.
  • If you have two folders beginning with S-1-5 followed by long numbers and one of them ends with .bak, please follow the steps as below.

a. Right click the folder without .bak and then click “Rename”. Type .ba and press Enter.

add .ba at the end of S-1-5 folder

b. Right click the folder with .bak and then click “Rename”. Remove .bak and press Enter.

Remove .bak at the end of S-1-5 folder

c. Right click the folder with .ba and then click “Rename”. Change .ba to .bak and press Enter.

Rename the S-1-5 folder

Step 6: Click the folder without .bak. Double-click “RefCount” in the right pane, type 0 in Value data and click “OK”. Then double-click “State”, type 0 in Value data and click “OK”.

select refcount
change value data of state
Step 7: Exit Registry Editor. Restart the PC and then confirm whether the target user account can log on to Windows 7 or not.

If this solution doesn’t work, it’s suggested to create a new administrator account to log on to Windows 7 quickly.