Windows 10 Update 1903 renames User fiolder

It seems that both the 1809 and the 1909 updates had a problem where an incomplete transfer of the users directory left the update as apparently having worked but the user was left with a broken world where there was a jamie.000   and a jamie directory.  (where jamie was my users home directory).  In my case most of my files where in the .000 directory but there were still some left in the jamie directory.  Because there were file(s) left behind it failed to fully transfer the user which ended up with a broken world. In my case Outlook files were in the .000 version but pointed to the old jamie version. 

SO

1. I made a ghost image of my system disk for backup (I used Samsung SSDs and they provide an app for System migration) 3hrs
2. I started the update to 1909 - it took around 5hrs
3. I logged on and ignored problems with Dropbox and Email checked what was left in the original directory /users/jamie

My thought being that whatever was left would presumably be the legacy files that had somehow got stuck and caused an incomplete transfer of data to the new user directory (which then left the transfer incomplete and so cause the issues.  I would then be able to check via google on anything left behind.

In my case there was \users\Jamie\AppData\Local|NPE\NPETraceSessionBoot.etl  (around 50Mb)

4. I used Recovery to go back to the previous version of WIndows 10  - around 10minutes.  There is a time limit for how long this recovery is possible - 10 days I think, so don't hang around too long.
5. Using the info in the reply I deleted the NPE directory, after noting that the etl file had grown to 80Mb.  So although I had long ago removed the Norton Power Eraser (NPE) one if its actions was to turn on a logging action and that was still active.  Then I edited the Registry and removed the NPETraceSessionBoot key and subkeys. Which was presumably logging to and locking the file during the update/restart.
6. Then I reloaded and started the update (5hrs) and it all worked.  

What surprises me is that Microsoft do not seem to have picked up on this as a class of problem and dealt with it promptly. I imagine there might be several different legacy apps/files that could cause this type of failure but all the misdirection in the forum about  a corrupt account or reboot the machine several times has led to a whole bunch of problems for a number of users including loss of data.  At the very least the update programs should have issued a warning about the incomplete user transfer.

@suzannecanfield

After going through this painful problem, I re-read this thread and honestly all the causes and remediation steps are covered in the first page or two, so read carefully and check what applies to your situation.

Identify which applications are causing the problem for Windows by examining files in the local appdata folder. Then rollback to 1809, uninstall applications that may be generating those files, delete the temp folder with the locked files, reboot a few times to make sure that those files aren't created again.  If you can get to that state, update to 1903 will succeed.

In my case there was one set of files I could not get rid of, so ultimately I just went ahead with the upgrade and now my files are under "user.000" folder but I don't really care at this point.  I manually reconfigured the apps that were pointing to the old "user" folder.

You can increase the likelihood of Windows upgrade success by uninstalling as many applications as possibly which you don't use, especially if you've gone through several versions of Windows on the PC over the years.

Good luck, and let us know how you get on.

If you have the Zune files on your computer, uninstalling Zune and running the troubleshooter won't work, at least in my case it didn't. The Zune file in question remained in my profile and started as a service when I logged on. The only way to delete it was to either stop the service and then delete the file, or to delete the file from another account with admin rights. I don't remember the filename or service, and neither is no longer on my computer, but I believe the file was in AppData/Local/Microsoft. I did it the first way on my desktop and the latter on a SP3 and a Lenovo T430. The upgrade then worked fine on all three.

   Renaming my .000 profile was not a good option for me, since a lot of information was missing. I had to reset a lot of things such as re-entering product keys for installed software. The worst was that my 3D printer reverted to it's default settings and I lost everything I had changed to fine-tune my printer to various materials. I did the rollback and waited for MS to fix the problem, which never happened. I did the upgrade/rollback several times over the next month or so but each time I still had the .000 profile.

  I'm surprised MS isn't aware of this, since it's an MS file. When I looked at the problem it didn't take very long to find a solution, and it took all of maybe two minutes to delete all the Zune files. All three of my Win 10 computers are now running fine under 1903. I have a Zune HD (that still works just fine) and reinstalled the Zune package on all three but I no longer see the offending file or service.

Thanks, @Dirge-san, @BobEadie & @TylerYanta.

Rather than mess with the registry, the safer option was to rollback to Win10 1809. Just prior to starting the restore, there was an option to troubleshoot, so I tried it.  It was hilarious that the first solution presented was this very thread!  :)  After going through another couple of suggestions I was given an option to get in touch with a MS CSR.  Spoke with a nice rep for 45 minutes who did all the troubleshooting mentioned in this thread (checking user profile folders, etc.)  However, with no easy fix, rollback was indeed the best option.  So I've done that, and I'm back to a fully working system Win10 1809.

Now I've uninstalled Zune (required using the MS uninstall troubleshooter), and disabled Plex Update Service.  The last set of files I saw in the 1903 user profile was related to "InputPersonalization" in C:\Users<USER>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\InputPersonalization

• I have not been able to find which service writes this file.  The brute force way to disable it was to rename the folder that contained the executable (C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\ink).  Other things I tried were to disable "Allow Windows Ink Workspace" through gpedit, but Windows always recreates that folder.  Just found another related policy, "Text Input" which may be related, so I'm disabling that as well.

Now I'm making a full backup, and have downloaded Win10 1903 ISO image to attempt the upgrade again.  Not sure when I'll update, but I hope it will not run into the same problem.

Yes, the rollback to 1809 will restore everything as it was before the upgrade, including all the user profiles. You have 10 days to do this after the 1903 upgrade. After that Windows thinks the upgrade is OK and deletes the old files to save on disk space. After the rollback do what I previously posted, which is:

1. Search on your user profile for Zune files. If you find any, that's probably the problem.
2. If you have them create a local user account with administrator privileges (admin rights).
3. Restart your computer and sign with the new local account.
4. Search in your original profile for the word Zune.
5. Delete all the results. You'll probably have multiple entries in your search results. Just hit retry until all the files are gone. I think it was only one file that caused the problem buts it's easier just to delete all of them since they're not needed.
6. Perform the upgrade. It should work. You can also delete the local account you created above.