16-04-2021

Windows 10 Corrupt Tile Database



Windows 10 Corrupt Tile Database

2 Save the.bat file to your desktop. 3 Unblock the.bat file. 4 Run the.bat file. 5 You will now notice your screen flicker as a command prompt quickly opens and closes to run the command to reset the live tile cache, then restarts the explorer process to apply. How To Fix The Tile Database Is Corrupt Error On Windows 10 New Tile Database File. If the Start menu troubleshooter fails to fix the database, you’re going to have to go about. Windows 10 Startup Repair. Windows 10 Startup repair might be able to fix the Start menu and the corrupted tile. In some instances, the file size can be larger than 50 GB. That’s because, in Windows 8 and Windows 10, both properties and persistent indexes are stored in Windows.edb. Also, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 index the entire contents of files, regardless of their size. To reduce the Windows search index database size, index less content. Almost every Windows user would customize their Start menu layout as per their requirement, to ease their workflow. It’s also helpful if you backup the Start menu tiles layout in Windows 10 after customizing it, just in case your profile becomes corrupt at some point of time due to one reason or the other.

Learning has never been so easy!
Database

Yesterday my start menu suddenly stopped working on my Windows 10 machine. After rebooting, running sfc /SCANNOW, multiple PowerShell commands, and recreating my user profile, I could not get the start menu to come back up. In addition, the search didn't work, Microsoft Edge, and Settings. This wasn't related to a bad Windows Update. It was due to a corrupted live tile database. I found a guide online which walked you through how to create a new database and overwrite the existing but it needed some help. This is my attempt to rewrite the how-to to include more information and be easier to follow for those experiencing similar issues.

6 Steps total

Step 1: Create two new profiles

If there's only one user present on the machine, you will need to log into two additional users to create new profiles. You have to do this because you will log into one to copy the database of another to fix the database of the troubled user. You can't copy the database of an account you're logged in since it will be 'in use'.

I logged into the domain administrator and local administrator account. You can log into either new account, just be sure that one of them is an administrator and can access other user profile folders.

Step 2: Reboot

This is important. The corrupted database will say it's still in use if you try to replace it without rebooting. This will make sure that the process that's accessing that database is terminated. This also assures that all users have been signed out.

Windows 10 Corrupt Tile Database Tool

Step 3: Login as an administrator

I logged in as the domain administrator to copy the local administrator's database to replace mine.

Step 4: Replace the corrupted database

Browse to C:UsersOtherNewAccountYouAreNotUsingAppDataLocalTileDataLayer

Windows 10 Corrupt Tile Database Download

Right click on the folder Database and click copy.

Now browse to C:UsersUserAccountExperiencingProblemsAppDataLocalTileDataLayer

Windows Update Database Corrupt

Rename the Database folder in that account to Database.old

Now paste the Database folder you copied from the other user account. This will remove all modifications and shortcuts you've added to the start menu but hey...at least it'll work now!

Step 5: Reboot for the last time

Hopefully you have a SSD to make this less painful :)

Step 6: Sign into the user account that originally had the problem

Windows 10 Update Database Corrupt

The start menu will now work, as well as everything else that wouldn't respond. As described above, you'll lose all modifications and shortcuts to the start menu since you copied the style from another user account. You'll also notice that the locally installed apps will NOT show under All Apps. This is a quick fix, simply pin anything as a shortcut to the start menu (browse to Program Files to pin a program). Suddenly all of your apps will appear under Recently added and show up again under All Apps.

It's an easy fix but a strange problem. I can understand how this will affect Cortana but I don't understand why it would make Microsoft Edge disappear and make Settings unresponsive. I'm not aware of the cause either. At least if you're challenged with this in the future...the fix is here!

Published: Dec 11, 2015 · Last Updated: Dec 14, 2015

References

  • Original how-to

15 Comments

Windows 10 Start Menu Corrupt

  • Jalapeno
    T-RAV89 Dec 14, 2015 at 02:15pm

    Nice write up.
    I have two windows 10 machines and my start menu, search and task bar always stop working if the computer isn't restarted for about a week. After a restart everything is fine. I wonder if your steps will help this less extreme situation. If I try it I'll let you know.

  • Jalapeno
    Emerson1 Dec 14, 2015 at 03:05pm

    There is also a file that Microsoft put out that helps to fix this issue, I don't recall if it kept my settings and such or not
    CSSEmerg67758.diagcab

  • Poblano
    dlw111111111 Dec 14, 2015 at 03:18pm

    My solution is not use the Windows Start Bar with all those busy tiles. I removed all the tiles and placed the programs I use on the task bar. Easy. My Start Bar is bare as can be.
    I don't use the 'apps' or download any new items from the apps store.
    I did notice since the PDF extension defaults to a MS Edge extension and I figured out how to change it. (I don't use Edge either) and when I looked at my Adobe program it was for MS 8. Guess MS assumed everyone would use Edge to open pdf's. Meh.
    I downloaded the new version from the Adobe website. Added program to task bar and works great.
    Thank you for the nice write up though. Leave it to MS to fu a start bar.

  • Thai Pepper
    BDunbar5012 Dec 14, 2015 at 06:30pm

    I had no idea this was happening. I'm glad I know ahead of time, now. Thanks!

  • Jalapeno
    JoeB13 Dec 26, 2015 at 05:43pm

    I've been fighting this problem on my home PC for 2 days and was about to format/reload. Mother of God, thank you.

    I'd run the SCF/DCIM/SCF gauntlet, and the CSSEmerg67758.diagcab troubleshooter had all done nothing to help resolve. I'd assumed that it had to be user-specific because only one of the two user accounts on the machine was being affected; but was running into a dead end there.

    You are a saint, starg33ker, and my the new year bring you all of the finest things!

  • Pimiento
    BigEinNM Dec 28, 2015 at 06:35pm

    I was able to solve the problem simply by adding another user account (admin), restarting, logging into the new account, launching a couple of the programs that weren't opening (Outlook 2010 and Chrome), restarting and logging into the original account experiencing the problem. Somehow that jarred something loose and fixed the problem without copying the database folders.

  • Chipotle
    Canadian Tech Guy Mar 16, 2016 at 08:21pm

    Thanks for this. We are later adopters and are about to deploy. This had never come up in my testing, so thanks for making me aware of both the issue and the fix.

    CTG

  • Jalapeno
    BringerOfLaw Apr 7, 2016 at 02:54pm

    Banging my head against the wall on this one.... I've followed the steps above to no avail. Tried renaming the DB folder to 'old', no luck. Tried naming the entire TileDataLayer folder to 'old', no luck. Created a new User acct, verified that I could launch programs from its Start Menu, followed the 6 steps above, still no luck. At this point, I start rolling it back with System Restore, since the Start Menu was working fine last week. May have stumbled across the answer during that process. I rolled it back one point at a time, scanning for affected programs each time before pulling the trigger. The Start Menu started working again after I rolled it back past a Chrome update. Chrome was the only program affected by that particular restore point, and once it was out of the way, Start began working again. Here's my guess (and it's just that): There was a shortcut to Chrome on the Start Menu after the System Restore was performed. Chrome updates in the background without notification. The shortcut in the Start Menu is somehow version specific, and craps out when the connection between it and the actual Chrome application is broken. Now, that doesn't explain why a new copy of a clean TileDataLayer DB won't fix it (since the Chrome shortcut wasn't on the other accounts), but there may be something else in the profile that ties in somewhere. That might also explain why the Admin and Domain Admin acct Start Menus continue to work, since they're basically at default. Your mileage may vary...

  • Anaheim
    Christian9499 Apr 25, 2016 at 01:44pm

    I followed all the steps but also without any luck.I am evaluating Win10 for our Company and this is the only problem I couldn't find a fitting workaround for. ...
    What I found out is, that this error somehow announces itself.
    Before I am no more able to click onto the start menu button without getting this odd error, I cannot access specific mapped DFS-drives/folders any more. This DFS-Folders (m:admindata ; m:kaspersky ) are mapped to hidden shares on my admin-Server and i should have RW-rights.
    I am still able to access DFS-folders within m:/ that are mapped to shares on other servers. AND I am able to access the M: shares to the admin-server from other computers I am still logged in.
    All shares are on servers with server 2012R2
    After a reboot the start menu is still dead but the shares are working again.
    Maybe this behavior will help someone findig a solution.

    Right now I am doing a bare metal restore from my network based Veeam Endpoint Storage every time this happens (about 8 times the last 3 months). This costs me 'only' 80 minutes at this workstation. Deleting and recreating/restoring the userprofile would take up to 3 hours. so you can see - not a very good workaround businesswise

  • Chipotle
    Steven61 May 4, 2016 at 03:04pm

    I have had this happen to two different systems (an End User and Mine), it happened to my system about a month ago and I had not seen this post (not sure how I missed it) I simply reinstalled Windows 10 right over the top of the running version like an upgrade and that fixed the problem, my only issues with this is that of course it reinstalled all the Crap that Microsoft feels we need on a work system (xbox, solitaire...) but fortunately I have a couple PowerShell scripts (including the DeCrappifier in the SW script repository) that remove that stuff quickly. It also removed my Pinned Documents from the Applications pinned to my taskbar but that is a fairly small price to pay.

    I found this post while looking for an alternative to reinstalling Windows for my End Users system, Hadn't considered the Google Chrome aspect, but based on the steps above I may stick with simply reinstalling Windows 10 Again. :)

  • Thai Pepper
    BenSetliff Jun 2, 2016 at 07:01pm

    Thank you! Just used this for my home computer that upgraded from 8.1 to 10.

  • Pimiento
    recrujo Jan 17, 2017 at 08:25pm

    After trying everything else, found that this 'simple' solution worked !!! Thank you

  • Pimiento
    CmdrSpiner Mar 24, 2017 at 11:58pm

    The PowerShell script restored the base Windows apps and shortcuts. Adding %appdata%MicrosoftWindowsStart Menu to the indexing options restored all my installed programs. This solution restored complete Start menu functionality including the system icon and the tile screen. Brilliant! Thank you!

  • Jalapeno
    Rich Stop May 9, 2017 at 06:18pm

    I had been having this issue for a couple of months and stumbled upon this solution. So far so good!

  • Mace
    BiscuitKing May 14, 2019 at 01:33pm

    I haven't seen this happen yet but have saved this as a favorite just in case.