windows 8.1 hangs on Please Wait screen (restoreoptin)

Anonymous
2013-10-19T03:11:39+00:00

When logging in, a Please Wait screen shows up along with a Cancel button. I tried letting it sit there for more than half an hour but nothing happens. I noticed the application is letterboxed and I can use Win+D to see that the desktop show up. The screen stays on top blocking all mouse activity and most of my screen.

Eventually I logged into another account and found restoreoptin running and terminated it. That removed it from my original account however it will do it again if I log out and log back in.

Any ideas?

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Performance and system failures

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Anonymous
2013-10-25T17:25:19+00:00

<Modifying post to help other find the answer quickly>

I found another workaround that allows for still using skydrive, and further confirms the relationship to skydrive setup.

(This is the method I used)

  1. login to the affected account
  2. Press Windows Key + L to lock the computer
  3. Switch to a user account with administrator priveledges
  4. open task manager & switch to the "Processes" tab (Press "More Details" if don't see a processes tab)
  5. find restoreoptin.exe & end task that process
  6. switch back to affected account (Start Page, click your account name/picture, click the account you want to switch to)
  7. Open Charm menu (windows key + C), select "Settings", then Change PC Settings
  8. Select Skydrive
  9. Modify the File Storage, Camera Roll, and Sync Settings (not sure which one does the trick)
  10. logout & log back in
  11. you should no longer be prompted with the blank 'please wait' screen

Another workaround that should achieve the same, as posted by others:

  1. login to the affected account
  2. Press Windows Key + r
  3. Type:

taskkill /f /im restoreoptin.exe 4. Open Charm menu (windows key + C), select "Settings", then Change PC Settings 5. Select Skydrive 6. Modify the File Storage, Camera Roll, and Sync Settings (not sure which one does the trick) 7. logout & log back in 8. you should no longer be prompted with the blank 'please wait' screen

and just for completeness, you could also try:

  1. login to the affected account
  2. Press: Windows Key + r

Type:

taskkill /f /im restoreoptin.exe 3. Press: Windows Key + x

Press: a

Press: <Alt + Y>

(run cmd as administrator) 4. Type:

cd c:\windows\system32

restoreOptIn.exe /Ramp
  1. Complete the Wizard

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Anonymous
2014-01-03T18:25:43+00:00

I fixed it much more simply. I had to recently rebuild my dell xps 27 and started with 8.0. Setup everyone's account since I have a home network and domain setup. Then upgraded, I ran into the same issue as everyone here in the post. What I had to do to fix is is unassociated all the windows live/Hotmail/outlook accounts from the domain accounts and then re-apply them. This then asked me to verify that the account has permissions to skydrive, and asked for verification. Texted me, I put in the verification code and it was fixed on all accounts. Someone also mentioned making it a local account and then reassigning to your windows account. Seems to fix it as well.

Steps for Domain accounts:

  1. Remove association from your windows account
  2. Re-add your windows account
  3. verify that the pc has permissions to back up your info to sky drive/turn off sync with sky drive.

Windows Account:

  1. Make it a local account
  2. Re-add your windows account
  3. Verify that the pc has permissions to backup your info to sky drive/turn off sync with sky drive.

Appears to be a bug in the 8.1 upgrade where the pc and sky drive trust is broken, it didn't happen until I received a windows update, but I could see this happening if you download the patches during the upgrade process.

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180 additional answers

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-12-19T07:48:44+00:00

    There's a pretty easy fix for this problem - like the other posters have already indicated, one drive (formerly sky drive) is the issue - though you definately don't have to disable it.

    Yesterday I had the issue when creating 2 new accounts for both my children - I setup theses accounts as "Child" from the user accounts section (control panel).

    To fix the issue, I had to temporarily create the Child account as an Administrator account (Standard user may work...). Reboot the pc and then log into the account. Wait for the account to be setup (the please wait screen should, after a few minutes, proceed to the skydrive/one drive screen - and set it up as per normal. Once its done and you're returned to the start screen, click on the OneDrive app on your start menu to start the app - this should make sure its properly setup (you don't have to actually do anything in there).

    Then, exit the account and re-log into your normal admin account to change the Child's account back to type "Child". 

    Like I said, this worked for both my children's accounts. Was a very frustrating issue though that needs to be fixed!!

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-12-14T05:26:41+00:00

    Just wanted to chime in (as a user, not official Microsoft employee), that I ran into the same issue on my Dell XPS 27 on first login of my children's accounts (all Microsoft accounts).  When I first ran into this, I just killed the process and eventually it stopped popping up on login.  I just had to remove and re-add one of the kids accounts to clean up some bad state and ran into this again.  This time I tried disabling the NVidia card in device manager, and the window came up properly, so it seems to be related to the NVidia device somehow.

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-11-30T20:07:57+00:00

    This happened to me after upgrading from windows 8 to 8.1 - but only on one user account.

    Tried all the suggestions here, without success.

    Then it dawned on me that it was a 'standard' account, so I gave it administrator status via my own admin account to see if that might help.

    Logged back in to the problem account. The 'Please wait' screen disappeared after a few seconds and loaded the Sky/Onedrive screen.

    Then switched it back to a 'standard' account.

    Problem solved.

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