You've been signed in with a temporary profile - Fix

How to Fix "You've been signed in with a temporary profile" Error in Windows 8 and 8.1


This is for when after you sign in to a user account in Windows 8, and notice that a temporary profile has been loaded instead of the profile that corresponds to the current user. Therefore, any changes that you make to the current desktop are lost after you sign out. Additionally, the notification area may display the following error message:

You've been signed in with a temporary profile.

You can't access your files, and files created in this profile will be deleted when you sign out. To fix this, sign out and try signing in later. Please see the event log for more details or contact your system administrator.

This problem usually occurs if the user profile of the account was accidentally corrupted or deleted from the system.

This tutorial will show you how to fix the "You've been signed in with a temporary profile" error a user may get after signing in to their account in Windows 8, Windows RT, Windows 8.1, and Windows RT 8.1.

This will basically delete the user profile of the user account that is getting the "You've been signed in with a temporary profile" error in order to reset and rebuild the user profile to fix this error.

A user profile is a collection of settings that make the computer look and work the way you want it to for a user account. It contains the account's settings for desktop backgrounds, screen savers, pointer preferences, sound settings, and other features. User profiles ensure that your personal preferences are used whenever you sign in to Windows.

How to read event log details for User Profile Service error:

• Open Event Viewer (eventvwr.msc), then expand open Windows Logs and Application in the left pane.
• Right click or press and hold on Application in left pane, click on Find, type 1511 (for Event ID), and click/tap on Find Next.
• Close the Find dialog, and view details. Repeat to view any other listed 1511 Event IDs if needed.

EXAMPLE: "You've been signed in with a temporary profile" Notification Message





Here's How:

1. If you have another administrator account that is not affected by this user profile error, then sign out of the affected account (ex: Brink), and sign in to the other administrator account.

   Note

If you do not have another administrator account to sign in to, then you could do one of the following options below to enable the built-in Administrator account to sign in to, and continue on to step 2 below.

A) If the affected account is an administrator, then enable the built-in Administrator account, sign out, and sign in to Administrator.

OR

B) Boot into safe mode, enable the built-in Administrator, sign out, and sign in to Administrator.

2. Press the :winkey: + R keys to open the Run dialog, type regedit, and click/tap on OK.

3. If prompted by UAC, then click/tap on Yes.

4. In Registry Editor, navigate to the location below. (see screenshot below)

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




5. In the left pane under ProfileList, click on a SID key (S-1-5-21....long number). (see screenshot above)
NOTE: Usually, it will be for the SID key that has .bak at the end of the long number.

A) In the right pane of the SID key, look at the ProfileImagePath value to see if it is for the same user account name (ex: Brink) that has the user profile error.

B) If not, then repeat step 6 until your find it, then go to step 7 below.

6. Right click or press and hold on the SID key (ex: ...-1006.bak) found in step 6, and click/tap on Delete. (see screenshot below step 5)

7. Click/tap on Yes to confirm. (see screenshot below)



8. If there is another SID key (ex: ...-1006 at end) with the exact same long number from step 6 for the same user account (ex: Brink) without .bak at the end of it, then repeat step 7 and 8 above for it as well.



9. When finished, close Registry Editor.

10. See if you are now able to sign in to the user account (ex: Brink) from step 1 without getting the "You've been signed in with a temporary profile" error.



That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Fix "User Profile Service service failed the sign-in. User Profile cannot be loaded." Error in Windows 8 and 8.1
• How to Reset User Profile of Built-in Administrator Account to Default in Windows
• How to Do a Repair Install of Windows 8 without Losing Anything
• How to Refresh Windows 8 and Windows 8.1
• How to Do a System Restore in Windows 8 and 8.1

 

[zacm]

HI, sorry I'm not too tech savvy so it took me a while to try and do this but when i went to put the computer into safe mode it just turned off when it came up with the options e.g de bug safe mode etc. i had to turn it on again and it all came back and wasn't a temporary user again! (i had tried turning it on and off multiple times before resorting to this thread) so it was kind of weird. Should I be concerned that this happened on its own after I tried to sort it or not? what causes all of this in the first place too? (sorry if it is in the thread already)

zac

 

[Brink]

Hello Zac, and welcome to Eight Forums.

Usually you would get the temp profile error when something (ex: deleted, moved, renamed, corruption) has happened to your profile folder.

If you like, you should be able to also do the steps in the tutorial while signed in to the temp profile for your account as long as it's an administrator account.

 

[spee]

Hi. I have been using windows all my life and today was the first time I encountered this situation. I turned on my laptop and went about cleaning my flat. I come back and see that it is not my normal profile. I am not sure why is that. Maybe some new update. I look for my old files and find them. I place them all on the desktop. Set my wallpaper and go about my business. I got to leave so I turn of my laptop. I am back home and turn it on. I got my old wallpaper back but no files.

I found this post and learn what has happened. I am writing here in hopes someone either tells me all is not lost or just to confirm it. Is there no way to recover the files after I log out of this magic useless profile windows decided to bring upon us?

 

[Brink]

Hello spee, and welcome to Eight Forums.

If you still have your original "C:\Users\(user-name)" profile folder for your account, then your files may still be in it.

 

[spee]

Unfortunately the files were not there. I am just incredibly frustrated that situation like this may occur and the only thing that informs you of that is this small bubble that is on the screen for a small period of time(You know they could have used a wallpaper with a permanent warning but no. Sorry I am quite frustrated by this serious development failure.). Seems very unreasonable to me. Plus I lost bunch of files.

Thank you for your response

 

[Brink]

You might also see if you may have a "C:\Windows.old" folder that may contain a previous copy of the account's original user profile folder in it to at least hopefully recover some files.

 

[spee]

Could not find it. I already accepted my fate here but thank you for your help. Not to worry all of the most important files I have backed up.

 

[MR Cochlear]

Hello, Brink.

Thank you for all the information, really help me out. Now, I need to double check something else before I go ahead.

I done all that and got rid of that ""You've been signed in with a temporary profile" message. Sign off+reboot and I still cant get into my user profile. Still stuck in that (non)temporary profile (can save file into that profile now). I saw the clip in youtube that you can go back to your own user profile once you done it but not to me.
Also, I still got my original "C:\Users\(user-name)" profile folder and the profile folder that i am using now is "C:\Users\(user-name.user-name)".

So, is that normal? Should I go ahead and start put my stuff back into that profile or is there anything else am missing?

 

[Brink]

Hello MR Cochlear, and welcome to Eight Forums.

Double check to make sure that the correct path for your user profile folder is set for the ProfileImagePath value for your account's SID key. If it's not, then correct it to see if you are able to sign in to the account afterwards.

 

[MR Cochlear]

Thank for answer back.

I have a look at the SID key again and i see "S-1-5-21-*long number*-1001", Profileimagepath are set to "MR Cochlear.Cochlear". That is not my account so I correct it to "MR Cochlear". Sign off+reboots....back to Square one. I still back into that temp profile again with that message as well!

I start all over again, follow what ya say and still the same thing. Even, I follow what I saw in youtube by delete "-1001" (which is the temp) and leave the "-1001.bak" (main account) but rename it to remove the ".bak". Still the same problem.

Now I have a closer read on what ya say in the first page...got me little confused,

8. If there is another SID key (ex: ...-1006 at end) with the exact same long number from step 6 for the same user account (ex: Brink) without .bak at the end of it, then repeat step 7 and 8 above for it as well.

Are you saying, I should delete both of them? That only leave me "S-1-5-21-*long number*-500" (same number) which is a administrator in profilimagepath.

edit: MR Cochlear is not my real account name, i make that one up, which easy for me to explain.

Edit2: Just look in my C//: users folder and i still got that MR Cochlear.Cochlear and 3 temp folder. Should i delete these as well?

 

[Brink]

Since you're back at square one, see if using the steps below instead may work better for you. They're for Windows 10, but are still the same for Windows 8.

Fix You've been signed in with a temporary profile in Windows 10 - Windows 10 User Accounts Tutorials

 

[MR Cochlear]

Ah I forgot about the Ten Forum. Anyway, I did what you say in ten forum (which is also the same as I saw in the youtube). It still don't work.

Right now, I'm back to where I was in the first post. I delete the .bak SID key and change my address to my main account in (without .bak) SID key. Got rid of the temp profile message, and I still cant get into my users profile

 

[Brink]

If you have a SID with and without .bak for your profile, be sure to use step 12.

Fix You've been signed in with a temporary profile in Windows 10 - Windows 10 User Accounts Tutorials

 

[MR Cochlear]

That what I meant, I tried step 12 but it didnt work, well, it did get rid of temp profile message but like i say i cant get into my user profile with all my stuff.

Just now i tried it again but it only got without .bak so I did step 10...same thing. Hell, I even delete my account folder (I already got the files backup) from build-up administrator and delete the SID key. It now create another folder with my same account name on it but it empty inside.

Right now my account say it is administrator but it Local account. I cant even sign in with microsoft account!

 

[Brink]

In the worse case, you can delete all SID keys (with and without .bak) for you account, to have a new profile folder created for your account.

You can then copy over any files you wanted from your original profile folder to the new one.

 

[MST]

Hello Brink ,thanks for the detailed steps of instruction, it did work. But sadly now my laptop became very very slow(booting , loading apps and all) . Would that Hiren Boot cd(☝shown above thread) will help?

 

[Brink]

Hello MST, and welcome to Eight Forums.

As a test, is it still slow while signed in to another account, or only in this one?

If it is still slow, then you might see if refreshing Windows may help.

:ar: Refresh Windows 8

 

[XweAponX]

Thank GHOD I found this. It's been a LOOOOONNGG time, now I think someone asked, can this work for Windows 10? I haven't had this problem since it happened to me here on whatever system I had. Now, suddenly it's not loading my profile.

Windows 10 Pro 22H2 Build 19045.3693

It's a basically new install, I got frickin Neshta virused. The system was new so I wiped the whole drive and reinstalled. Been working great until 2 days ago I rebooted and suddenly it's a temp profile. Grr.

The 1st error I get is: "Windows was unable to load the registry. This problem is often caused by insufficient memory or insufficient security rights."

Then, I get this: "Windows was unable to load C:\Users\Plexer\ntuser.dat."

And finally:
"Windows cannot load the locally stored profile. Possible causes of this error include insufficient security rights or a corrupt local profile.

DETAIL - The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process *"

* - I think the process was something instigated by cCleaner. Which updated itself without my permission, I had installed a very old version.

Then it loads the temp prof. But I can log OUT, and then log back in again at which time it loads, I think it is restoring the backup. Groan, I didn't wanna have to deal with this in the AM, but it's basically the same as doing it in Win 7?

Took me a long time to find this, I was searching in Sevenforums, hahah.

 

[Brink]

Thank GHOD I found this. It's been a LOOOOONNGG time, now I think someone asked, can this work for Windows 10? I haven't had this problem since it happened to me here on whatever system I had. Now, suddenly it's not loading my profile.

Windows 10 Pro 22H2 Build 19045.3693

It's a basically new install, I got frickin Neshta virused. The system was new so I wiped the whole drive and reinstalled. Been working great until 2 days ago I rebooted and suddenly it's a temp profile. Grr.

The 1st error I get is: "Windows was unable to load the registry. This problem is often caused by insufficient memory or insufficient security rights."

Then, I get this: "Windows was unable to load C:\Users\Plexer\ntuser.dat."

And finally:
"Windows cannot load the locally stored profile. Possible causes of this error include insufficient security rights or a corrupt local profile.

DETAIL - The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process *"

* - I think the process was something instigated by cCleaner. Which updated itself without my permission, I had installed a very old version.

Then it loads the temp prof. But I can log OUT, and then log back in again at which time it loads, I think it is restoring the backup. Groan, I didn't wanna have to deal with this in the AM, but it's basically the same as doing it in Win 7?

Took me a long time to find this, I was searching in Sevenforums, hahah.

I'm happy to hear it helped.

 

[XweAponX]

I'm happy to hear it helped.

Brink, you ALWAYS help. Before I try this though, I'm searching for the reason. There is always a reason... For example, my neighbor is running AOL Desktop Gold. Since the last month, it's been crashing when he tries to open emails with attachments and/or he tries to print from anywhere in the app. Turns out it is the latest version of the app doin it. It's not very w7 compatable... So I am prepping to update to 10 over there. It's gonna be fun cos he's got 3 user profiles, and it's a mess. May have to back up his files then install from scratch. I got something similar going on here, just doing due diligence before I perform the fix.

Oh yes, here is the 1st 1151 event, there are other numbered events involved with profile errors... But this started 2 days ago. I gonna search through the event logs for what was going on.

I just looked at my registry, didn't see a ".bak" entry. Guess I need to get into my admin account in safe mode and look again. Printing this up so I can refer to your instructions, if I need help I'll edit this again.

- System

  - Provider

   [ Name]  Microsoft-Windows-User Profiles Service
   [ Guid]  {89b1e9f0-5aff-44a6-9b44-0a07a7ce5845}
 
   EventID 1511
 
   Version 0
 
   Level 2
 
   Task 0
 
   Opcode 0
 
   Keywords 0x8000000000000000
 
  - TimeCreated

   [ SystemTime]  2023-11-20T04:28:44.8551857Z
 
   EventRecordID 11609
 
   Correlation
 
  - Execution

   [ ProcessID]  1324
   [ ThreadID]  1420
 
   Channel Application
 
   Computer Plexer-PC
 
  - Security

   [ UserID]  S-1-5-21-1430506414-3059349666-2400690493-1001
 

 EventData