Domain user being signed into temporary account

When you discover that Windows keep logging you as a temporary user rather than standard/normal user, then there is something wrong with your profile. In such cases, you’ll get following notification as well:

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.

Since Windows is logging you as temporary user, the documents you create will be removed after you re-login. The simplified steps mentioned below will help you to fix this weird issue.

Manual fix

1. Right click on  and select Command Prompt (Admin). In the administrative Command Prompt window, type following command:

wmic useraccount where name='<USERNAME>' get sidCOPY

*Replace <USERNAME> with your actual user account name.

Once command is executed, note down the security identifier (SID), especially last four digits of SID.

2. In the left pane of Registry Editor, navigate to following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileListCOPY

3. When you expand ProfileList key, you’ll find SID specific registry keys. Using the SID we noticed in step 1, spot the correct SID registry key for your profile. In the corresponding right pane, you’ll be able to locate ProfileImagePath, which is expandable registry string (REG_EXPAND_SZ). Since you’re facing this issue, the string data might be pointing to C:\Users\TEMP. Double click on the same string to modify its Value data.

4. In the Edit String box, put the Value data as C:\Users\<USERNAME>. You need to substitute C: with your system root drive and <USERNAME> with your user account name. Click OK.

5. Finally, right click the SID registry key with name same as your SID and ending with .bak. Right click on this key and select Delete. You can now close Registry Editor and reboot.

After restarting your machine, you’ll be able to log in to your standard or normal user account.