How To Fix Group Policy: Error Windows could not determine if the user and computer accounts are in the same forest

If you have an issue where the User Policy doesn’t get updated and gives you an error about the user and computer accounts being in the same forest, then you’re in luck. The solution is actually rather simple, although an odd one that you usually wouldn’t run into. The full error message probably looks like this: 

 

 PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> gpupdate Updating policy… 

 Computer Policy update has completed successfully. User Policy could not be updated successfully. The following errors were encountered: 

 The processing of Group Policy failed. Windows could not determine if the user and computer accounts are in the same forest. Ensure the user domain name matches the name of a trusted domain that resides in the same forest as the computer account. 

 

 HOW TO FIX GROUP POLICY: ERROR WINDOWS COULD NOT DETERMINE IF THE USER AND COMPUTER ACCOUNTS ARE IN THE SAME FOREST 

 To fix this error, you just need to start a Windows Service and you’ll probably want to set it to automatic to prevent the issue from coming back in the future. 

 

 Click on  Start 

 Type in  Services  and select the one with the gear icon 

 Scroll down and look for  Netlogon , if the status is not Running, then that’s why you’re getting this issue 

 Double-Click on  Netlogon  and change the Startup Type to  Automatic  and click the  Start  button 

 Once the service is running, click the  OK  button 

 Now try running  gpupdate  again