User Profile Service Application – Stuck on starting [How to troubleshoot]

1. You must run the UPA Service Instance as the Farm Account.

2. Farm Account must be a local administrator of the machine running the UPA Service Instance during provisioning only.

3. Farm Account must have Log on Locally rights.

4. The Synchronization Connection Account must have Replicating Directory Changes.

5. Stop User profile service and User profile sync service on ALL sharepoint servers in the farm

6. Clear timer config cache by following the “resolution” documented at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/939308

7. Delete the Pending timer job related to the UPA sync service provisioning using Central administration->Monitoring->check job status

8. Confirm that the security token service has only windows and anonymous enabled ( from IIS manager->Sharepoint werb services->Security tocken service->Authentication (under IIS))

9. On the SharePoint server access the registry editor and confirm that the information related to FIM ( database servername , sync DB name etc ) are properly populated, if found wrong , back up the registry key and edit the values to reflect the right information. HKLM\system\currentcontrolset001\services\FIMservice HKLM\system\currentcontrolset002\services\FIMservice HKLM\system\currentcontrolset\services\FIMservice

10. Delete all FIM related certificates from certificate store ( for account and system) . Make sure that no FIM related certificate are listed in any folders when looking at certificate manager.

11. From Central administration->Application managment->Manage service application, Make sure the User profile service application and its proxy are started. If found stopped, its always recommended to recreate them taking necessary backups (mysites)

12. Start User profile service on the machine where yoiu would like to start the User profile sync service (use central administration console)

13. Once the service is started, try starting the User profile sync service from the central administration site