CPF1120: User does not exist

What it means

The message text reads "User name does not exist." For many years the meaning was exactly that. The sign-on display looked for a user profile with the name typed in the User field, found none, and refused the sign-on. A wrong password for a real profile got a different message, CPF1107.

Telling people which half of the sign-on was wrong helps an intruder, who can use it to find out which user IDs are real. IBM changed this. On IBM i 7.5 the sign-on display sends CPF1120 for an unknown user ID and for a wrong password alike, and CPF1107 is no longer sent. The security APIs made the same kind of change. When given both a user ID and a password, they now return CPF22E2 in both cases.

So read CPF1120 according to the release. On an older system it really does mean there is no such profile. On a current one it means the user ID and password didn't work as a pair. Either way, the failed attempt counts toward the QMAXSIGN limit.

Common causes

• The user ID was mistyped. User profile names are up to 10 characters, and an extra letter or a missing one is enough.
• On IBM i 7.5, the user ID is right but the password is wrong.
• The profile was never created on this system. This is common after moving to a new partition or a disaster recovery system where profiles haven't been restored yet.
• The profile was deleted, for example by a cleanup job or by an expiration schedule (set up with CHGEXPSCDE) whose action is to delete it.
• The session connected to a different system than the user expected, such as test instead of production.

How to find the problem

1. Check the system name in the top corner of the sign-on display. Make sure you're on the system where your profile lives.
2. An administrator can run DSPUSRPRF USRPRF(name). If it ends with CPF2204, the profile doesn't exist. If the profile is shown, the problem is the password or the profile's status.
3. WRKUSRPRF USRPRF(ABC*) lists profiles that start with the same letters, which catches spelling mistakes.
4. For a profile that existed before, look in the QAUDJRN audit journal for a DO (delete) entry if the system audit level (QAUDLVL) includes *DELETE, or ask whoever runs profile cleanup.
5. Find out which IBM i release the system runs, so you know which meaning applies.

How to fix it

• Retype the user ID and password. On IBM i 7.5, treat CPF1120 as "one of the two is wrong" and check both.
• If the profile doesn't exist, ask the security administrator to create it with CRTUSRPRF, or restore it from backup with RSTUSRPRF followed by RSTAUT to bring back its private authorities.
• If the session points at the wrong system, correct the host name in the emulator's connection settings.
• Don't keep guessing. Each failure counts toward QMAXSIGN, and the profile or the display can be disabled when the limit is reached.

DSPMSGD MSGID(CPF1120) MSGF(QSYS/QCPFMSG)

Technical reviewer: Albert Joseph, WND Software.

Last reviewed 2026-10-18 by the WND Software team. Written in our own words. For the full reference, check IBM’s documentation for your IBM i release.