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

 

[XweAponX]

Thank's Sean (Shawn?) you saved my life AGAIN - Happened to my Main PC this time

I had forgotten about deleting that Reg Entry, I didn't lose much though.

My Boot Drive had developed errors and was reading very s l o o w, I ran a CHKDSK from a Windows 8 install DVD, it found mega errors, after that it came up Temp Profile.

This time, I just logged in as Admin/Safe, made a new User, switched to Admin, then moved all my User files from Old user to New user, then re-assigned the new user to my MS account. Took 20 minutes to boot originally, but it worked.

 

[Brink]

You're welcome Jon. I'm glad it could help.

 

[mardiv]

hello guys, i have a problem... i can't delete my the C:\Users\(user-name)folder because i need a promission from administrator!? What should i do?

 

[Brink]

Hello Mardiv, and welcome to Eight Forums.

You will need to be signed in to an administrator account before you will be able to delete the user folder.

 

[EdWms]

I've got the same problem as Mardiv even though I enabled & subsequently logged into the built-in Adminstrator account. The c:\users\(user-name)\appdata\roaming\microsoft\windows\libraries folder seems to be protected. It appears to have deleted everything except that folder (and all it's parents). Any ideas? Thanks!

 

[Brink]

Hello Ed, and welcome to Eight Forums.

See if you may be able to take ownership of the folder and it's contents, set permissions to allow you "full control", then hopefully be able to delete it.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorial...le-folder-drive-registry-key-windows-8-a.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[Poppyking]

nothing i do will delete that libraries folder.... if i do it using a linux live cd, it will be gone, but will it be a problem if i am to continue the procedure ??

 

[Brink]

Hello Poppyking,

Are you signed in to an administrator account?

If so, are you able to open the Libraries folder, approve, then delete the individual library folders?

It won't hurt anything to delete the Libraries folder since the user profile will be recreated at the end.

 

[Poppyking]

Thanks alot Brink, am now copying my files back where they belong

 

[Brink]

Great news.

 

[Eternallynx]

Hello! Thanks for posting this. I've run into a problem, though.
I've gone through all the steps here, and successfully deleted my corrupted profile, and am now in the built-in Administrator one. However, I can't get out. I've created multiple new profiles through PC Settings the way I'm supposed to, but there is no option anywhere for me to sign into them.
This is what my start screen looks like when I try to switch, and signing off gives me only the one option to sign back in.

Ever since the registry edit, none of the profiles I've created have shown up in the registry, nor have the ones I've deleted disappeared.
As instructed, I deleted the ProfileImagePath variables in both the S-1-5-21-3215496747-2900127540-3436079480-1002.bak and S-1-5-21-3215496747-2900127540-3436079480-1002 folders.

Help? Thank you!

 

[Brink]

Hello Eternallynx, and welcome to Eight Forums.

A new account's profile folder and registry key will not be created until you signed in to the new account for the first time. That's why they are not there yet.

Deleted accounts will still be in the registry.

When you sign out of the built-in Administrator account, do you have a back arrow button at the top left to click on to see all users to select one to sign in to?

 

[Eternallynx]

Thank you for responding so quickly. That makes sense about the registry, thanks. The main reason I was surprised at not being able to switch into another account directly was because I had created another account before my main one got corrupted, and I was expecting to be able to switch directly into it.
No, I do not have a back arrow when I sign out of the Administrator account.

 

[Brink]

In that case, you may need to refresh Windows.

 

[Eternallynx]

Ergh. Alright. Thanks again!

 

[Abraham]

Hello shawn im running well but the problem is i went through all the steps and backed up my user folder but now when im in the tablet like start menu there is nothing there i cant open any of my folders i can get to desktop by using the :winkey: button + d but i dont know how to fix this problem can u help me or direct me to a forum that would? I have decent knowledge of computers but i still dont exactly know what im doing

hey shawn i currently am having some problems w/ my laptop i went through all the steps for this and im not getting the error anymore and have all my files but from start menu i cant open any files and there isnt even anything in the tablet like start menu its quite annoying and makes it a pain to do stuff on my pc can u help me or direct me to a forum that will help w/ this problem please?

if u can give me some good idea of something to screenshot my desktop i can show u what im talking about via the prob w/ my computer C:

 

[Brink]

Hello Abraham, and welcome to Eight Forums.

I'm afraid that you may need to refresh Windows.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/2293-refresh-windows-8-a.html

 

[Logic]

Hey Shawn, my computer signed me into a temporary profile so I came here for a tutorial on how to fix it. Since I do not know much about computers I needed to go to many other threads on this page to figure out what they meant. I went through all the steps except the one that required you to delete the User Profile. (I didn't have permission even though I signed onto the built-in administrator.) So I went to yet another thread on this page to find the "Add_Take_Ownership" downloaded file. Needless to say it didn't work. So I come to you because I am completely stuck and have no idea what to do now. It is frustrating me that I can't access anything on my computer and if you could help me I would appreciate it ALOT. Thanks in advance

 

[Brink]

Hello Logic, and welcome to Eight Forums.

If needed, you could do step 5 before step 2. After the computer restarts, see if you are able to delete the old user profile if still needed to.

If you like, you could also do a system restore instead using a restore point dated before this user profile error happened.