windows 8.1 hangs on Please Wait screen (restoreoptin)

Anonymous

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?

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Anonymous

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

(This is the method I used)

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

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

login to the affected account
Press Windows Key + r
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:

login to the affected account
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

Complete the Wizard

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Anonymous

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:

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

Windows Account:

Make it a local account
Re-add your windows account
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

Anonymous

2014-01-03T17:43:44+00:00
Hi guys

The system restore worked for me, but after some time the please wait screen started showing up again.

It seems I have found the culprit - if you are using any registry cleaner tools such as CCleaner or AVG's, it will mess up Skydrive somewhat and would cause restoreoptin to run again, eventually making the Please Wait screen show up.

So in short, after the system restore DO NOT clean up registry entries. One or more of them might actually be needed to be by the system to prevent this issue.

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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Anonymous

2014-01-03T02:35:09+00:00

I have the same problem on a brand new Asus Laptop after upgrading to 8.1. The problem did not occur on 8.0. I tried all 3 workarounds but every time I signed back I was back to the please wait screen. I did the Microsoft support chat and they were not able to help but did not charge for the time. I am in awe that the Microsoft engineer that responded to this thread did not know what restoreoptin.exe was since they are using it to push users to the Skydrive service. Did he not do a little research before he spouted the canned response? Can I delete the offending program from the system or will that cause more issues? In the mean time I have converted the affected accounts to local accounts to allow my family to use the computer.
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Anonymous

2014-01-01T18:59:34+00:00

Thank you for the detailed help. I forgot I could stop restoreoptin.exe in task manager.

Were you one of us that had the bug where 8.1 did not show up in the store unless you did a workaround?

I kept getting prompts telling me to upgrade from 8.0 to 8.1 for free by just going to the Store and downloading it, but when I got to the Store, there was no option to download 8.1.

I started to do a workaround that I found on this forum. I uninstalled KB 2871389, but the next step was to do some significant changes to my registry files and I decided not to try that. I restarted and went to Windows Update, where it reinstalled (the apparently proper version of) KB 2871389 and two other updates. I went to the store and 8.1 was there, so I downloaded it and used it flawlessly for two days before the "Please Wait" hang started every time I logged on.

I then refreshed to 8.0 and 8.1 does not show in the Store.

I am concerned that since I did not modify my registry, I might find myself doing the same thing even if I follow your procedure. If, by chance, you did what I did (or something like it), I might try again. Otherwise, I will probably wait until Microsoft fixes the issue with a patch.

Thanks again for your help on this.
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