How to fix The User Profile Service failed the logon error in Windows

When you enter your password and press Enter, sometimes you may get User Profile Service failed the logon error. This error appears as a result of corrupted user profile. In this article we will show you How to fix a corrupt user profile in Windows: The User Profile Service failed the logon.

Important Note: Before you go ahead with the fix, perform the following steps:

1. Create a backup of your hard disk, or files that you can’t afford to lose in case the stored files gets deleted in the process to fix the error.
2. Take a backup of the Registry by logging into the PC in Safe Mode.

How to fix The User Profile Service failed the logon error in Windows
Option 1. This is to create a new user profile

Before you proceed,

1. If another account is configured on your PC, then log into the system using it. Then follow the steps below to create a new user account.
2. If there are no other users profiles configured in your system, the boot the PC in Safe Mode and then follow the steps.
3. Log into Safe Mode.
   • Restart your PC
   • Press F8 before the Windows loading screen appears
   • Select Safe Mode from the menu that appears
4. If that too does not work, then enable the hidden admin account.
   • Run CMD as administrator
   • Then type the command:
     net user administrator /active:yes
   • The message The command completed successfully will be displayed
   • Reboot your PC
   • Administrator account as well as your corrupt account will be displayed
   • Log into the admin account and follow the steps mentioned below. While using the admin account, you don’t to enter a password.
5. Open Control Panel
6. Click User Accounts and Family Safety (or similar)
7. Click on User Accounts
8. Click Manage another account and type in the password (if prompted)
9. Click Create a new account
10. Type the name. (This must be different from the account which is corrupt)
11. Restart your PC
12. Copy user files to the new profile
13. Log in as Administrator or Guest to enable the account created
14. Now click Start, Go to Computer
15. Open (Double-click) the drive on which Windows is installed
16. Go to Users folder
17. Locate the folder containing your old user account
18. Open the folder and then go to My Documents
19. Now it is advisable to copy files across the contents of sub-folders separately.
    • However, if you do not wish to do so, enable hidden files and folders and then make sure the following files:
      • dat
      • dat.log
      • ini

20. After copying all the files, reboot your PC
21. Now log onto the new profile

Option 2: This will fix a corrupt user profile

1. Log into Safe Mode.
   1. Restart your PC
   2. Press F8 before the Windows loading screen appears
   3. Select Safe Mode from the menu that appears
2. Once you are logged in, click Start
3. Type regedit into the search box
4. Press Enter
5. Registry Editor windows opens
6. Locate the key:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList
7. Click each S-1-5 folder
8. Double-click the ProfileImagePath entry. This will help you to find out which user account it relates to.
9. After you have located the folder for the corrupt profile (it does not have a .bak extension), double-click RefCount
10. Change the Value data to 0
11. Click Ok
12. Double-click on State
13. Make the Value data as 0
14. Click Ok
15. Close regedit windows
16. Reboot your PC
17. Now your profile will work fine

Now the issue with the user profile will be resolved.

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