Group Policy Error 0x8007000d in Server Event Log

If your server event logs are filling up with Group Policy client-side extension errors referencing error code 0x8007000d (“The data is invalid”), the cause is almost always a corrupted or incompletely-downloaded Group Policy XML file in the local Group Policy cache — not a problem with the GPO itself on the domain controller.

Example Error

Event ID: 8194
Event Source: Group Policy Local Users and Groups
Description: The client-side extension could not remove computer policy settings for '{GUID}' because it failed with error code '0x8007000d The data is invalid.'

The Fix

1. Open File Explorer and navigate to:

   %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Group Policy\History

2. Delete all the GUID-named folders found there — these are the local Group Policy cache, which Windows will rebuild automatically.
3. Open an elevated Command Prompt and run:

gpupdate /force

The cache folders will reappear as Group Policy reapplies from scratch, and the corrupted XML causing the 0x8007000d errors should be gone. If the errors persist after this, check connectivity to the SYSVOL share on your domain controllers, since a flaky SYSVOL replication or network path is a common root cause of the cache becoming corrupted in the first place.

Still the Fix on Current Server Versions (Updated for 2026)

This is unchanged on Windows Server 2025, the current LTSC release — the local Group Policy cache still lives under the same %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Microsoft\Group Policy\History path, and clearing the GUID-named folders there followed by gpupdate /force still forces a clean rebuild. If you’re seeing this on a large number of machines at once rather than a single client, it’s worth checking SYSVOL replication health across your domain controllers first (dfsrdiag replicationstate or the DFS Management console) — a replication backlog can cause the same 0x8007000d symptom across many clients simultaneously, which points at the DC side rather than anything to fix per-machine.

Resources

• Group Policy