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Failed To Load Preferences

schwimms1
Level 1
Level 1

Hello,

I have been locked out of using my VPN over the past week because of the error "Failed to Load Preferences". Whenever I open the cisco anyconnect and select the current selection or enter in a new connection I get that error. I have tried reinstalling, deleting out the cisco folder from my user account, and running cisco through the web that gives me the error "Web-based installation was unsuccessful. If you wish to install the CIsco Anyconnect VPN Client, you may download an installer package."

Please help me if you have any ideas of what I can do.

Thanks!            

14 Replies 14

mzarazua2040
Level 1
Level 1

I'm having this same issue. It started Oct. 3. I've tried all the same steps you mention with no resolution.

I'm having the same issue. Laptop is Windows 7 Professional 32 bit. The AnyConnect client v3.1.0.2040 and v3.1.03103 installs successfully. The VPN termination point is an ASA5510.

When trying a connection I get the error 'Unable to proceed. Error getting preferences.' I click ok and the get the error 'Failed to load preferences'.

I try to connect again and the AnyConnect program fails to run saying 'Cisco AnyConnect User Interface has stopped working', and I have to close the program.

Any help would be appreciated.

I have found that if you delete the Cisco folder under the hidden ProgramData folder, along with the preferences.xml file under the AppData>Local>Cisco>Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client folder, uninstall the application, then reinstall it, it will work again for a little while. You'll need to manually enter the server you're connecting to initially. Until you get the error again. Repeat the steps and it works again. It's, by far, not an optimal solution, but it does work. Not satisfied with this at all.

Thanks for posting you workaround Matthew, this has worked for me.

Just one slight difference. For some reason I don't have a preferences.xl file but just removing the Cisco folder under the hidden ProgramData folder and uninstalling and reinstalling the client worked for me.

I'll wait to see if/when the error re-appears.

Thanks.

Great, I'm glad my suffering hasn't gone completely for nothing. Like I said, I still get the errors. Usually after I exceed the max time interval for connections, or if I disconnect and reconnect without rebooting. But this way, at least I am able to connect again.

Hi,

Great that I found this discussion I have the same problem that you described. However, I was not able to solve it the way you suggested it. One of the directory I was not able to remove and removing the other subdirectory and the preferences.xml did not help. Any other suggestion, that you could come up with in the meantime, would be valuable to me.

Nat

I just started getting this problem with no success using any of the above - trust me I've used them all. hope someone can find a solution. I look forward to following up

Keith

stsargen
Cisco Employee
Cisco Employee

I was also hitting this issue.  It turned out to be one of the profiles on the ASA that was being pushed was somehow corrupted, or incomplete.  I received the error message "Failed to Load Preferences", If I delete the profile that was pushed to the profile directory, C:\ProgramData\Cisco\Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client\Profile I can connect again.  I ended up deleting the profile on the ASA and recreated it.

ovidiudetesan
Level 1
Level 1

I managed to fix this by changing the security settings of the below folder (Profile)

%ProgramData%\Cisco\Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client\Profile\

 

More specifically by adding the user that was experiencing the issue with full access over that folder

I am having desktop support checking the permissions on a few users. This only seems to be happening to a handful of users. The other users who are using the same profile are not experiencing this issue so I can't really believe that the profile would be corrupted.

In our environment we already give users modify access to the %ProgramData%\Cisco\Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client\Profile\ folder, but I recently had a user with this issue and it was fixed doing the following: 

 

Deleting all files in the %ProgramData%\Cisco\Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client\Profile\ folder.

Copying the appropriate VPN XML files back to the folder.

Restarting the Cisco AnyConnect services.

Thanks for the response. It appears that the workstations that have this problem are having other problems as well and we kind of think the OS is corrupted. Waiting to see if they can re-image the workstation to resolve this problem.

Also the xml file should have permissions: 

-rw-r--r--

 

Hello guys, for me the instructions below work well:

 

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