Windows 11 login stuck on corrupt profile

[JammyDodger]

The available space on my C (system) drive was low, so I moved the Users folder to my D drive and edited the registry accordingly.

After rebooting, I logged in to my work account and checked everything was okay. So far, so good.

Then I rebooted and tried to log in to my personal account and got the error message:

"The User Profile Service service failed to start.

User profile cannot be loaded."

I am stuck on this login screen, with no option to switch to my work account, even after a reboot.

Unfortunately, I don't have any System Restore points or any kind of backup to rely on.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

[Mockingbird]

Press the shift. Select Power then Restart.

Choose an option > Troubleshoot > Advanced Options > Startup Settings > Restart

Press 4 for Enable Safe Mode

Login to your user account as usual.

Run regedit

Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList

Two of the keys will be [something] and [something].bak

Rename [something] to [something].rename

Rename [something].bak to [something]

Rename [something].rename to [something].bak

Reboot

Done!

[JammyDodger]

Thanks for replying @Mockingbird.

I followed your instructions up to the

On 02/07/2023 at 15:39, Mockingbird said:

Login to your user account as usual.

step, where I am back at square one with the same error message. So Windows will not allow me to log in to my personal account, and there is no obvious way to log in to my work account instead.

Any further suggestions?

[xMorpheousx416]

Following the steps provided to get into Safe Mode, I'd suggest moving your profile back to the C drive.

I gotta say... I am 0 days old hearing someone move their profile to a new drive to save space. I know when I uninstall programs or whatnot, I clean out the profiles manually as the AppData folders have a tendency to get left behind from some uninstallers or portable apps that don't remove files from them like game saves etc.

Is there anything else from C you can get rid of?

Long way around, if the C drive is removable, it may be possible to put it in another computer and move those files back. 

Last ditch effort... using the same steps as above, repair your installation of Windows.. but you may lose data. Afterwards you shouldn't have any issues moving your custom user data back.

Also, this:

https://www.makeuseof.com/fix-the-user-profile-service-failed-the-logon-windows-10/

[Mockingbird]

On 02/07/2023 at 09:35, Soap-dodger said:

Thanks for replying @Mockingbird.

I followed your instructions up to the

step, where I am back at square one with the same error message. So Windows will not allow me to log in to my personal account, and there is no obvious way to log in to my work account instead.

Any further suggestions?

Are you saying that you are unable to log in even in safe mode?

[Mockingbird]

On 02/07/2023 at 10:31, xMorpheousx416 said:

Fhttps://www.makeuseof.com/fix-the-user-profile-service-failed-the-logon-windows-10/

Follow the "Change Registry Configuration" section.

[JammyDodger]

On 02/07/2023 at 18:33, Mockingbird said:

Are you saying that you are unable to log in even in safe mode?

Yes.

[JammyDodger]

On 02/07/2023 at 18:31, xMorpheousx416 said:

Following the steps provided to get into Safe Mode, I'd suggest moving your profile back to the C drive.

I gotta say... I am 0 days old hearing someone move their profile to a new drive to save space. I know when I uninstall programs or whatnot, I clean out the profiles manually as the AppData folders have a tendency to get left behind from some uninstallers or portable apps that don't remove files from them like game saves etc.

Is there anything else from C you can get rid of?

Long way around, if the C drive is removable, it may be possible to put it in another computer and move those files back. 

Last ditch effort... using the same steps as above, repair your installation of Windows.. but you may lose data. Afterwards you shouldn't have any issues moving your custom user data back.

Also, this:

https://www.makeuseof.com/fix-the-user-profile-service-failed-the-logon-windows-10/

 

On 02/07/2023 at 18:33, Mockingbird said:

Are you saying that you are unable to log in even in safe mode?

As I cannot log in to my personal account, even in Safe Mode, I was wondering if there is a text file on my C drive that could be edited to ensure the next login after a reboot would default to my work account.  Any idea?

[Mockingbird]

On 02/07/2023 at 11:25, JammyDodger said:

Yes.

Trying using the built-in administrator account, then create a new user account

1. On the Windows sign-in screen, press and hold the Shift key, then select Power > Restart
2. After your machine reboots, click on "Troubleshoot" under Choose an option
3. Click on "Advanced options" > select "command prompt"
4. On the command prompt window, type net user administrator /active:yes and press Enter
5. Reboot your machine, and see if you'll be able to log in to the built-in administrator account
6. Create a new user account and copy your files to the new account(go through the steps under "My computer is in a workgroup") . Please refer to this article as a guide: Fix a corrupted user profile in Windows - Microsoft Support

[JammyDodger]

Thanks again, @Mockingbird.

Steps 1 to 4 completed, though I have doubts about the efficacy of step 4 because the administrator account in the Recovery Environment is not the same administrator account as in the Windows Environment after a successful log in.

I note that WinRE runs on drive X and my C and D drives are accessible from the WinRE cmd line (though their drive letters have been swapped around).

Anyway, after reboot, the logon screen remains stuck on my personal account, with no other account displayed at bottom left of screen. So, no further forward. ☹️

[JammyDodger]

On 02/07/2023 at 18:31, xMorpheousx416 said:

Following the steps provided to get into Safe Mode, I'd suggest moving your profile back to the C drive.

I gotta say... I am 0 days old hearing someone move their profile to a new drive to save space. I know when I uninstall programs or whatnot, I clean out the profiles manually as the AppData folders have a tendency to get left behind from some uninstallers or portable apps that don't remove files from them like game saves etc.

Is there anything else from C you can get rid of?

Long way around, if the C drive is removable, it may be possible to put it in another computer and move those files back. 

Last ditch effort... using the same steps as above, repair your installation of Windows.. but you may lose data. Afterwards you shouldn't have any issues moving your custom user data back.

Also, this:

https://www.makeuseof.com/fix-the-user-profile-service-failed-the-logon-windows-10/

Thanks, @xMorpheousx416.

Tried all suggestions but no further forward.

[xMorpheousx416]

Getting the feeling that something the logonui.exe (if it's still named that) is trying to hook a file it cannot find/corrupt registry entry. But... alas, the only idea I have left.. is to place that drive in another computer and move your profile back to it.

If D is not a partition of C, using a flash drive should be quick and easy.

I checked my User folder on this PC.. she's taking up to near 20GB of data. I can see why you moved it, but from here on out.. I'd suggest trimming the fat in other ways other moving Windows' files/folders.

 

Edited July 2, 2023 by xMorpheousx416

[+Matthew S. Subscriber²]

Actually had this happen to a computer at work (AD Joined) and it seems to be something to do with the profile service itself being corrupt, not the profile.

[xMorpheousx416]

On 02/07/2023 at 14:46, Mockingbird said:

Trying using the built-in administrator account, then create a new user account

1. On the Windows sign-in screen, press and hold the Shift key, then select Power > Restart
2. After your machine reboots, click on "Troubleshoot" under Choose an option
3. Click on "Advanced options" > select "command prompt"
4. On the command prompt window, type net user administrator /active:yes and press Enter
5. Reboot your machine, and see if you'll be able to log in to the built-in administrator account
6. Create a new user account and copy your files to the new account(go through the steps under "My computer is in a workgroup") . Please refer to this article as a guide: Fix a corrupted user profile in Windows - Microsoft Support

Jammy... can you try these steps, (the command prompt) but instead of turning on/off the admin acct, try:   sfc/scannow

?

On 02/07/2023 at 18:04, Matthew S. said:

Actually had this happen to a computer at work (AD Joined) and it seems to be something to do with the profile service itself being corrupt, not the profile.

What was the solution if we may ask?

Not too many more ways of fixing this I'm aware of... or found searching, that won't lead to installing Windows again. Heck.. might be even quicker than going thru a list of things to avoid it. Perhaps using the "save my files" method if it's an option, "should" (and I take that with a grain of salt) maintain your other settings and apps.

[xMorpheousx416]

On 02/07/2023 at 13:56, JammyDodger said:

 

As I cannot log in to my personal account, even in Safe Mode, I was wondering if there is a text file on my C drive that could be edited to ensure the next login after a reboot would default to my work account.  Any idea?

Not that I'm aware of.

I could only imagine if a simple text file could override the boot sequence or defeat TPM if it's in place. Miss the good ole days of Windows 95? 

I remember being able to use the EDIT feature at the DOS prompt before starting Windows... if there was a driver issue or something, you could just edit the boot.ini file (I think that's what it was named)... replace said wonky driver with the name of Windows' basic driver (like vga.sys)... and boom, you're back on the desktop from a failed boot.

Bout all I can think of boss... other than trying to move your profile back, you may just have to reinstall Windows. You should be able to take management of any files locked to the profile if you just used a username/password combo, or have that saved key on disk.

[leonsk29]

I'm curious... what did you do in the Registry to move the entire "C:\Users" folder to another drive? Is that even safe or supported? Seems like your problems started after doing that.

[leonsk29]

On 02/07/2023 at 21:05, leonsk29 said:

I'm curious... what did you do in the Registry to move the entire "C:\Users" folder to another drive? Is that even safe or supported? Seems like your problems started after doing that.

EDIT: I was doing a bit of research because I wanted to make sure and no, moving the C:\Users folder isn't supported at all, even with Registry edits, so I'm sorry to say that this problem was caused by doing that. Your user profile and probably Windows itself is corrupted now, you might have to reinstall.

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

Have you tired copying (not moving) the user profile back to the C:\ drive?  If so, were  you then able to recover it?

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky
 

[JammyDodger]

 

On 03/07/2023 at 03:53, goretsky said:

Hello,

Have you tired copying (not moving) the user profile back to the C:\ drive?  If so, were  you then able to recover it?

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky
 

Unfortunately, in the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) I don't have sufficient privileges to do that.

[JammyDodger]

On 03/07/2023 at 01:52, xMorpheousx416 said:

Jammy... can you try these steps, (the command prompt) but instead of turning on/off the admin acct, try:   sfc/scannow

Did this: it found corrupt files and successfully repaired them. I checked the CBS.log file and was surprised at the amount of corruption encountered.

I didn't expect any corrupt files on the X drive in WinRE. Surely WinRE gets its OS from its dedicated partition rather than my system C (D in WinRE) volume. Or am I wrong?

After the reboot required for the repairs to take effect, I went back into WinRE and ran the same command again. The result was the same: corrupted files found and repaired. Obviously, the previous reboot had no effect on the repair.

After another reboot and back at the WinRE command prompt, I changed the path environment variable so that it referenced the D volume (my C drive) rather than WinRE's X volume. Then I cd'd to D and ran the sfc command again. Again corrupt files found and repaired.

After another restart, I'm back at the "stuck" logon screen, getting the original error message.

I deliberately entered the wrong password and got the expected error message re wrong password.

So, no progress, I'm afraid

 

[leonsk29]

Just reinstall Windows from scratch if you can, you're prolonging your pain unnecessarily...

[JammyDodger]

On 02/07/2023 at 18:51, Mockingbird said:

Follow the "Change Registry Configuration" section.

I need to be able to log in to Windows before I can edit the Registry.

On 03/07/2023 at 23:33, leonsk29 said:

Just reinstall Windows from scratch if you can, you're prolonging your pain unnecessarily...

I will.

[+Warwagon MVC]

On 03/07/2023 at 17:45, JammyDodger said:

I need to be able to log in to Windows before I can edit the Registry.

I will.

Actually

You can do a regedit from the CMD Recovery Console. Once the registry editor loads, highlight hkey_local_machine and click file load hive. Then navigate to the Windows registry hive directory (example c:\windows\system32\config), then pick the hive you wish to load.

Then once loaded give it a name. Then edit what you need to edit. Then when you are finished, highlight the loaded hive and click file / unload hive.

[JammyDodger]

On 03/07/2023 at 02:05, leonsk29 said:

I'm curious... what did you do in the Registry to move the entire "C:\Users" folder to another drive? Is that even safe or supported? Seems like your problems started after doing that.

Edited every reference of C:\Users to D:\Users.

[leonsk29]

On 03/07/2023 at 18:45, JammyDodger said:

I need to be able to log in to Windows before I can edit the Registry.

Not at all. The Registry exists as regular files inside the C drive. If you can boot the PC with live media, you can copy the Registry files you need, open and edit them in another system, and copy them back. I don't know if that will solve your problem, though...

On 03/07/2023 at 18:50, JammyDodger said:

Edited every reference of C:\Users to D:\Users.

That's not supported by Microsoft, hence the issue you're having now. Windows really doesn't like when someone moves the "C:\Users" folder to another location, even after editing the Registry. There are more pieces in play here.