Fix "Signed In with a Temporary Profile" in Windows 11

The Problem

You sign in and land on a stock desktop — default wallpaper, no files, none of your apps or settings — with a notification reading "You've been signed in with a temporary profile" or "We can't sign in to your account".

Windows tried to load your real profile, failed, and gave you a disposable one so you could at least reach a desktop. Your files have not been deleted. They are still in C:\Users\<yourname>, untouched. What is broken is the record that connects your account to that folder.

Read this before anything else: everything you save while in a temporary profile is deleted when you sign out. Do not work in this session. If you have already created something you need, copy it to a USB stick or another drive right now, before you restart.

Symptoms

• A notification about a temporary profile, or "We can't sign in to your account".
• Default wallpaper, empty Desktop and Documents, missing browser bookmarks and app settings.
• C:\Users contains a TEMP folder, or your name with a suffix like .000 or .bak.
• Sometimes preceded by a full disk, a forced shutdown, or a failed Windows update.

Step 1: Save Anything You Created in This Session

1. Copy any file you have made or downloaded since signing in to a USB stick, a second drive, or cloud storage.
2. Do not rely on the Recycle Bin or on File History — the whole temporary profile is discarded at sign-out.
3. Once that is done, continue. Everything below is about restoring the real profile.

Step 2: Restart Before Doing Anything Complicated

A surprising share of temporary-profile sessions are one-off failures — a service that started late, or a lock held by an antivirus scan.

1. Restart properly from Start → power icon → Restart, not shut down and power on.
2. Sign in again and see whether the real desktop returns.
3. If it does, jump to Step 3 to check disk space, then Step 8 to make sure it does not recur.
4. If you get the temporary profile a second time, continue to Step 4.

Step 3: Check Free Space on the System Drive

Windows cannot load a profile onto a drive with no room to write to.

1. Open Settings → System → Storage.
2. Under about 10 GB free on C: is enough to cause this.
3. Clear space with Storage Sense and Disk Cleanup: free up disk space when the C drive is full and clean junk files and optimise your PC.
4. Restart and try signing in again.

Step 4: Repair the Profile Record in the Registry

This is the fix in most cases. Back the registry up first.

1. Sign in as an administrator — the temporary session usually allows this, or use another admin account.
2. Windows + R → regedit → Enter. Choose File → Export and save a full backup.
3. Navigate to:

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

4. Click through the S-1-5-21-… subkeys and read ProfileImagePath until you find yours.
5. If there are two keys for you, one ending in .bak: rename the plain one to end in .temp, rename the .bak one to drop .bak, then rename the .temp one to end in .bak. The good record is now live.
6. In the live key, set State to 0, and set RefCount to 0 if it exists.
7. Check ProfileImagePath reads C:\Users\<yourname> and not C:\Users\TEMP or a .000 variant. Correct it if wrong.
8. Restart and sign in.

Step 5: Fix the Permissions on Your Profile Folder

If the record is right but the folder is unreadable, Windows still falls back to a temporary profile.

1. Open C:\Users, right-click your folder → Properties → Security.
2. Your account, SYSTEM, and Administrators should each have Full control.
3. If not: Advanced → Change beside Owner → type your username → Check Names → OK. Tick Replace owner on subcontainers and objects, apply, then grant Full control on the Security tab.
4. Detailed walkthrough of the same procedure: fix access denied and "you need permission".

Step 6: Rule Out Antivirus and File System Damage

1. Uninstall any third-party security suite and run the vendor's official removal tool — suites that quarantine or lock NTUSER.DAT cause this exact behaviour. Defender takes over on its own: fix Windows Defender not working.
2. From Terminal (Admin), check the disk:

   chkdsk C: /f /r
   

   Press Y, reboot, and let it complete.
3. Then repair system files:

   sfc /scannow
   

   DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
   

4. Detail: how to run SFC and DISM.
5. Check the drive itself is healthy: check SSD and hard drive health.

Step 7: Roll Back to a Restore Point

1. Windows + R → rstrui → Enter.
2. Choose a restore point dated before the temporary profile started appearing.
3. If none exist, and this began after an update, remove it: Settings → Windows Update → Update history → Uninstall updates, or see fix Windows 11 after a bad update.
4. Set up restore points going forward: create a system restore point.

Step 8: Migrate to a Clean Profile

When the profile will not load however you repair it, moving to a fresh one recovers everything that matters.

1. Sign in as an administrator: Settings → Accounts → Other users → Add account → I don't have this person's sign-in information → Add a user without a Microsoft account.
2. Set the new account to Administrator under Change account type.
3. Sign in to it once so Windows builds the profile, then sign out.
4. From an admin account, copy Desktop, Documents, Pictures, Downloads, Videos, and AppData\Roaming from the old folder to the new one. Do not copy NTUSER.DAT — that is usually the damaged file.
5. Link your Microsoft account in the new profile: Settings → Accounts → Your info → Sign in with a Microsoft account instead.
6. Delete the old account only once you have confirmed everything is present.

What Not to Do

• Don't work in a temporary profile. Everything you save disappears at sign-out, including files you download or email attachments you open and edit.
• Don't delete C:\Users\TEMP or your old profile folder before your files are copied out.
• Don't reinstall Windows. The data is intact and this is a repairable pointer problem.
• Don't skip the registry export in Step 4. A wrong edit in ProfileList locks out every account, not just yours.

Still Not Working?

If new accounts also come up as temporary profiles, C:\Users\Default is damaged — copy it from another PC on the same Windows 11 build, or run an in-place repair install, which keeps your files and apps: reinstall Windows without losing data. Back up first: set up automatic backups.

Related: fix "User Profile Service failed the sign-in", fix Microsoft account sign-in problems, and organise and back up important documents.