How To Fix “You’ve been signed in with a temporary profile” in Windows 10

In this article, learn how to fix the “You’ve been signed in with a temporary profile” error in Windows 10.

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 is stored in the user’s C:\Users\<user name> profile folder, and 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.

If a user signs in to their account and gets “You’ve been signed in with a temporary profile” notification message below, then that user has been signed in to a temporary profile (ex: C:\Users\TEMP ) instead of the profile from their C:\Users\<user name> profile folder. Any changes that the user makes to the temporary profile are lost after signing.

It appears this annoying bug is here to stay, forcing users to look for workarounds in order to regain full access on their computers.

FIX: You’ve been signed in with a temporary profile in Windows 10

To begin, you will need to sign in to an administrator account to be able to continue on with the steps below.

Step 1. Restart the computer 4 times, each time letting your PC get to the Desktop before the next restart. That has worked for some users. If not, then continue on to step 2.

Step 2. While signed in to the account with the temporary profile, start a command prompt as Administrator.

Step 3. Type the command below into the command prompt, and hit Enter.

whoami /user

Step 4. Memorize the SID (Security Identifier) for this current account because you’ll need it for future steps.

Step 5. Click Start, type “Run” and select Run. In the Run box, type “regedit” and click OK.

Step 6. In the left pane of Registry Editor, go to the following path:

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

Step 7. In the left pane under the expanded ProfileList key, check to see if the SID key from step 4 above is listed with (ex: S-1-5-21-….-1001.bak) and/or without (ex: S-1-5-21-….-1001) .bak at the end.

Step 8. If the SID key is only listed without .bak at the end:

a. In the right pane of the SID key (ex: S-1-5-21-….-1001), double click on the ProfileImagePath value name to modify it.

b. Type the correct path (ex: C:\Users\Brink) of the user’s profile folder, and click on OK.

c. In the right pane of the SID key (ex: S-1-5-21-….-1001), verify that the State DWORD is set with a value data of 0 (number zero), and go to step 11 below.

Step 9. If the SID key is only listed with .bak at the end:

a. Right click on the SID key (ex: S-1-5-21-….-1001.bak), click on Rename, and rename the SID key to only remove “.bak” (ex: S-1-5-21-….-1001) at the end of the key’s name.

b. In the right pane of the SID key (ex: S-1-5-21-….-1001) now without .bak at the end, double click on the ProfileImagePath value name to modify it.

c. Type the correct path (ex: C:\Users\Brink) of the user’s profile folder, and click on OK.

d. In the right pane of the SID key (ex: S-1-5-21-….-1001), verify that the State DWORD is set with a value data of 0 (number zero), and go to step 11 below.

Step 10. If the SID key is listed twice without and with .bak at the end:

a. Right click on the SID key without .bak (ex: S-1-5-21-….-1001), and click on Delete.

b. Right click on the SID key with .bak (ex: S-1-5-21-….-1001.bak), click on Rename, and rename the SID key to only remove “.bak” (ex: S-1-5-21-….-1001) at the end of the key’s name.

c. In the right pane of the SID key (ex: S-1-5-21-….-1001) now without .bak at the end, double click on the ProfileImagePath value name to modify it.

d. Type the correct path (ex: C:\Users\Brink) of the user’s profile folder, and click on OK.

e. In the right pane of the SID key (ex: S-1-5-21-….-1001), verify that the State DWORD is set with a value data of 0 (number zero), and go to step 11 below.

Step 11. Close Registry Editor and restart your computer.

If the account’s profile is still not fixed, then repeat the tutorial again making sure that the ProfileImagePath value has the correct path for the account’s user profile folder (ex: C:\Users\Brink).

If the profile just cannot be fixed, then you can use method 2 here to create a new profile for the account, and copy over any files you want from the old profile folder to the new one afterwards.

That’s about it.

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