diff --git a/services/core/java/com/android/server/pm/UserManagerService.java b/services/core/java/com/android/server/pm/UserManagerService.java
index a02f83f992a23..800e55bacf435 100644
--- a/services/core/java/com/android/server/pm/UserManagerService.java
+++ b/services/core/java/com/android/server/pm/UserManagerService.java
@@ -2528,7 +2528,12 @@ public class UserManagerService extends IUserManager.Stub {
                     if (name.equals(TAG_USER)) {
                         String id = parser.getAttributeValue(null, ATTR_ID);
 
-                        UserData userData = readUserLP(Integer.parseInt(id));
+                        int userId = Integer.parseInt(id);
+                        UserData userData = readUserLP(userId);
+                        if (userData == null && userId == UserHandle.USER_SYSTEM) {
+                            fallbackToSingleUserLP();
+                            return;
+                        }
 
                         if (userData != null) {
                             synchronized (mUsersLock) {
@@ -2994,10 +2999,8 @@ public class UserManagerService extends IUserManager.Stub {
                     new AtomicFile(new File(mUsersDir, Integer.toString(id) + XML_SUFFIX));
             fis = userFile.openRead();
             return readUserLP(id, fis);
-        } catch (IOException ioe) {
-            Slog.e(LOG_TAG, "Error reading user list");
-        } catch (XmlPullParserException pe) {
-            Slog.e(LOG_TAG, "Error reading user list");
+        } catch (IOException | XmlPullParserException e) {
+            Slog.e(LOG_TAG, "Error reading user " + id + ": " + e);
         } finally {
             IoUtils.closeQuietly(fis);
         }