Microsoft AutoUpdate Not Working?

Anonymous
2021-03-18T10:48:49+00:00

Over the past few days, I kept receiving the notification from Word that it needs updating, however, when I go to update it, I get the message

'Update error...Updates are temporarily unavailable, please try again in a few minutes.

Shortly after, this is followed by another pop-up that states 'There was a problem with the Microsoft Update Assistant and your recent work might be lost. We apologise for the inconvenience.' 

It gives me the option to restart the update assistant, which I have done a number of times, however, I just get exactly the same problem over and over again. Is there anything I can do to fix this?

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Anonymous
2021-03-20T00:29:39+00:00

Did you use a tool like CleanMyMac the remove "universal Binaries"?

I had that a couple of days ago, downloading and re-install it from the Microsoft AutoUpdate Release history page: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/officeupdates/release-history-microsoft-autoupdate

Good luck!

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  1. Anonymous
    2021-04-05T21:01:19+00:00

    Same here, after a couple of days: Need to reinstall it again!

    I now keep the installer on a central place (NAS) and just start it as soon as updates are missing or the the error message is displayed. Sad, but it works fine.

    Something is wrong! My first idea (a relation to cleaning tools) was wrong. It's hard to find any pattern. Many of the systems are different.

    Looks like a general issue to me! But this is something that Microsoft needs to confirm.

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  2. Anonymous
    2021-05-14T00:08:48+00:00

    Fact is Microsoft AutoUpdate 4.35 (May 2021) doesn't work - even after a complete uninstall.  Doesn't matter which Mac - both M1 and Intel.  After install, all you get is the Update Error - Updates are temporarily unavailable.  So the only bad solution is to install the April AutoUpdate package but then it wants to update to the May package which of course doesn't work.  The fact is this error was happening when the May update was in beta - how did it get through testing? 

    Does somebody know a way to install the latest insider version of MS Office outside the AutoUpdate?    At least Edge can be updated through Edge.

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  3. Anonymous
    2021-05-14T07:38:12+00:00

    I disagree - 4.35 is working fine for me on Intel running big sur 11.3.1

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  4. Anonymous
    2021-05-14T13:16:48+00:00

    I have three Macs on 11.3.1 (one iMac plus two Macbook Pro's - one is an M1) and all three have the same problem.  Also, other people are reporting it, hence it's not an isolated incident.  I've tried running in safe mode to see if a 3rd party app might be causing it, tried changing DNS, and other workarounds.  Is it possible to even check what's causing the constant update error message - is there a log file? 

    Does anybody have a workaround to get the MS Office Updates?

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