Exchange 2013: The User Profile Service failed the sign-in.

Issue

A customer has a new IT Administrator who is unable to log onto one of their Exchange 2013 servers (Windows Server 2012 R2) via RDP.  He gets the following error:

The User Profile Service service failed the sign-in.

User profile cannot be loaded.

Troubleshooting

I’ve seen this issue many times before, my first thought was it’s a corrupt Default profile.  Copying a working profile over the top of Default profile did not resolve the issue.

He can log onto other corporate servers (including other Exchange 2013 servers in the Exchange Organisation) without encountering this issue.

The following application Event ID: 1509 is logged.

Log Name: Application
Source: Microsoft-Windows-User Profiles General
Date: 12/18/2018 11:42:46 AM
Event ID: 1509
Task Category: None
Level: Warning
Keywords:
User: X500\admin.stevebush
Computer: X500EXCH201301v.x500.co.uk
Description:
Windows cannot copy file \\?\C:\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Exchange Server\v15\Configuration43512_100.sqm to location \\?\C:\Users\admin.stevebush\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Exchange Server\v15\Configuration43512_100.sqm. This error may be caused by network problems or insufficient security rights.

DETAIL – Access is denied.

Followed immediately by additional 1509 events:

Windows cannot copy file \\?\C:\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Exchange Server\v15\Configuration5864_100.sqm to location \\?\C:\Users\admin.stevebush\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Exchange Server\v15\Configuration5864_100.sqm. This error may be caused by network problems or insufficient security rights.

Windows cannot copy file \\?\C:\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Exchange Server\v15\Configuration3364_100.sqm to location \\?\C:\Users\admin.stevebush\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Exchange Server\v15\Configuration3364_100.sqm. This error may be caused by network problems or insufficient security rights.

Windows cannot copy file \\?\C:\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Exchange Server\v15\Configuration33240_100.sqm to location \\?\C:\Users\admin.stevebush\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Exchange Server\v15\Configuration33240_100.sqm. This error may be caused by network problems or insufficient security rights.

Windows cannot copy file \\?\C:\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Exchange Server\v15\Configuration30760_100.sqm to location \\?\C:\Users\admin.stevebush\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Exchange Server\v15\Configuration30760_100.sqm. This error may be caused by network problems or insufficient security rights.

Windows cannot copy file \\?\C:\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Exchange Server\v15\Configuration23884_100.sqm to location \\?\C:\Users\admin.stevebush\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Exchange Server\v15\Configuration23884_100.sqm. This error may be caused by network problems or insufficient security rights.

Windows cannot copy file \\?\C:\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Exchange Server\v15\Configuration23884_100.sqm to location \\?\C:\Users\admin.stevebush\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Exchange Server\v15\Configuration23884_100.sqm. This error may be caused by network problems or insufficient security rights.

Windows cannot copy file \\?\C:\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Exchange Server\v15\Configuration36744_100.sqm to location \\?\C:\Users\admin.stevebush\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Exchange Server\v15\Configuration36744_100.sqm. This error may be caused by network problems or insufficient security rights.

Windows cannot copy file \\?\C:\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Exchange Server\v15\Configuration31668_100.sqm to location \\?\C:\Users\admin.stevebush\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Exchange Server\v15\Configuration31668_100.sqm. This error may be caused by network problems or insufficient security rights.

Windows cannot copy file \\?\C:\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Exchange Server\v15\Configuration7564_100.sqm to location \\?\C:\Users\TEMP\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Exchange Server\v15\Configuration7564_100.sqm. This error may be caused by network problems or insufficient security rights.

Windows cannot copy file \\?\C:\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Exchange Server\v15\Configuration7564_100.sqm to location \\?\C:\Users\TEMP\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Exchange Server\v15\Configuration7564_100.sqm. This error may be caused by network problems or insufficient security rights.

Windows cannot copy file \\?\C:\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Exchange Server\v15\Configuration40324_100.sqm to location \\?\C:\Users\TEMP\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Exchange Server\v15\Configuration40324_100.sqm. This error may be caused by network problems or insufficient security rights.

Windows cannot copy file \\?\C:\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Exchange Server\v15\Configuration43512_100.sqm to location \\?\C:\Users\TEMP\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Exchange Server\v15\Configuration43512_100.sqm. This error may be caused by network problems or insufficient security rights.

Windows cannot copy file \\?\C:\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Exchange Server\v15\Configuration39700_100.sqm to location \\?\C:\Users\TEMP\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Exchange Server\v15\Configuration39700_100.sqm. This error may be caused by network problems or insufficient security rights.

Windows cannot copy file \\?\C:\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Exchange Server\v15\Configuration36744_100.sqm to location \\?\C:\Users\TEMP\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Exchange Server\v15\Configuration36744_100.sqm. This error may be caused by network problems or insufficient security rights.

Windows cannot copy file \\?\C:\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Exchange Server\v15\Configuration3364_100.sqm to location \\?\C:\Users\TEMP\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Exchange Server\v15\Configuration3364_100.sqm. This error may be caused by network problems or insufficient security rights.

Windows cannot copy file \\?\C:\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Exchange Server\v15\Configuration33240_100.sqm to location \\?\C:\Users\TEMP\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Exchange Server\v15\Configuration33240_100.sqm. This error may be caused by network problems or insufficient security rights.

Windows cannot copy file \\?\C:\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Exchange Server\v15\Configuration31668_100.sqm to location \\?\C:\Users\TEMP\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Exchange Server\v15\Configuration31668_100.sqm. This error may be caused by network problems or insufficient security rights.

Resolution

This issue seems to be specific to Exchange 2013.

This is clearly a very simple file permissions issue on the *.sqm files in the source folder.

Browse to the following folder:

C:\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Exchange Server\v15

Right click, select Properties.

Click on the Security tab, and then click on Advanced.

Inheritance is not enabled (you can see this from Inherited from: None, and by the presence of the greyed-out ‘Enable inheritance’ button).

Click Change permissions.

Click on Enable inheritance.

This will replace explicitly defined permissions on all descendants of this object with inheritable permissions from v15.

Click Yes to continue.

The user can now log on via RDP.  Sorted!