Microsoft Auto Update gives "One or more updates package could not be downloaded" message

Hi Michael,

Sorry about all the inconvenience caused by this issue, we totally understand your frustration on this issue.

I've go through this thread and would like to provide my help here.

I've noticed during the troubleshooting with Qing, you focus on the permission level of the MAU's download folder. But as you completely re-installed MACOS Mojave 10.14.5 with no avail, I think it's the time for us to look at this issue from a different angel. I've searched for the similar issue like yours, some of them indicate issue was resolved after adding the DNS on their Mac. If it's convenient for you, please check if the following method could help in your scenario:

How to Use OpenDNS or Google DNS on Your Mac

Disclaimer: Microsoft provides no assurances and/or warranties, implied or otherwise, and is not responsible for the information you receive from the third-party linked sites or any support related to technology.​

Personally, I don't think this issue is related with the WiFi/Wired network, as all your other Mac's MAU is working as expected, this indicates there is nothing in this network will prevent the MAU to download the updates. So, I think we need to focus on the difference between this issued Mac and your other Macs (non-hardware). For instance, have you ever used proxy settings on this Mac?

Also, could you go to ~/Library/Logs/Microsoft, see if there is a log file named as autoupdate.log. If so, please provide us with this log, it might be helpful for the further troubleshooting on this issue.

Please let us know the update, we greatly appreciate your time and effort here.

Regards,

Alex Chen

Here's an update.

I have completely re-installed MACOS Mojave 10.14.5 - I did a cold install off the update servers - restarting the MAC with "R" gives you a utility screen where you install "cold" offf the internet connection.

This action did not seem to affect the problem at all.

I went upstairs to another laptop identical to mine running Mojave 10.14.5 and the auto-update on Office 365 worked fine with the new update 16.27 - no wrinkles.

I also hardwired by laptop to the internet - I got rid of the WIFI connection and went straight to modem. This didn't help at all either.

In a previous update, I had complete removed office and re-installed from scratch. Someone had me go laboriously through a list of folders and files to remove everything. I re-installed the latest version of office, however, at that point, the new version was installed and so MAU no longer told me I needed an update and my testing was over until the next version arrived which is now 16.27 and so replacing the entire MS Office package didn't work either.

Looking for new ideas.

Qing

The "manually check" option performs the same way as the "automatically check" option - the "update" function uses the same logic, the only difference is that now the MAU does not automatically check and give me notice of an update.

Again I have other Macs in my home and they update fine - so this is happening on only one Mac.

As I observe the update, everything goes as expected but if I observe carefully as the progress bar shows the download of each of the application packages...

I note that the "overall progress" resets to zero after each download. This indicates that the download of each successive package is not successful. This gives a very strong indication that the problem is specific to the download success and is most likely the permissions for the folder that is created or used for downloading.

I have seen reports on this forum that note the person found the root folder per in 'private/var...' and was able to move the files to their desktop and create an update using some complex commands from their "terminal" application on the Mac that I don't really understand. This would indicate that a similar problem was not similar at all because the packages actually downloaded. I do not believe that my packages are completing their download.

Hi Michael,

Thanks for your updates, I will keep working on this thread to help you.

First, I suggest you select the option "Manually Check" to update Office to check if the issue occurs:

Besides, I have consult with related source, please give me some time, if there is any updates, I will post the updates back.

Regards,

Qing

This is back....

MAU 4.12 wants to download 16.27.0 updates for office applications and when I try to update the updates result in failed downloads.

So this is the same exact issue that we cured last time by doing a manual download off the MS website. The whole autoupdate cycle just doesn't work on my computer.