Windows 10: How to Check Status of Office 365 Update on Metered Connection?

Hi all. Office 365 offered updates early this week. Since I'm on a slowish/metered connection (a tethered 4G mobile phone) and have Windows set accordingly (this actually works well - seems to stop all sorts of background goings on that were slowing the connection) it asks for a manual go-ahead.

The updating seems to be taking forever despite the connection not being all that slow - I can play vido without any problems for example.

It's been told the run the update several times every day for the past several days now - both via the button in the yellow 'updates available' bar that pops up in Outlook, and the 'update options' button in file/accounts.

It's either taking forever to download the updates, or is not downloading but not putting up any error message - every time I restart any of the office applications or check in file/accounts it tells me there's still Office updates available.

When told to update it instead of immediately downloading them messes about deciding (again) whether there's an update available - it opens a red themed progress window, checks for updates (again - having already said that there were), says its downloading updates, and then (again - makes no sense at this point) says that there are updates available, and then offers the option to download them again. ie it seems to be repeating itself.

Clicking 'yes' to run the update just causes the progress window to disappear.

I've several times left it on line for several hours with nothing else running, still no joy - surely that should have been enough time for it to get the job done?

What's driving me nuts is that despite searching the web etc I can find no way to check the status of an Office 365 update - whether it's running or not, and what stage it's at.
That this isn't obviously available seems daft - another move no doubt to dumbing users down so that the great almighty can fiddle about in the background with your system...

Does anybody know of a way to check what's happening here? Am I missing something?

Thanks

:)

 

Cortana & Office 365 Integration

We are trying to integrate Cortana with our Office 365 subscription, but it never works. Here are the steps we have done:

• Turned on Cortona in the Office 365 Admin portal
• We are using Windows 10 1703 – connected Office 365 service to Cortana

Did the same on windows 10 mobile with no luck, Cortana says its connected to Office 365, but sees no data and we are getting zero errors

We went rough office 365 support first and tried all fo their suggestions, they kicked us over to Windows support which is currently closed.

We are on v1703 with all updates in place, it does not work on Windows 10 desktop or mobile

any ideas? I can give you all steps 365 support had us run through if that will be helpful

Thank you

Doug

 

Office 365 activation error after big Win 10 update

We appreciate your response, Keith. We suggest that you update Office 365 and see if it'll make a difference. You can simply do it by opening any Office 365 applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint). Here are the steps on how to do so:

• Open Office app, then click on File.
• Look for Account, then click on Update.
• Once done, restart your computer.

We're looking forward to your feedback.

 

Microsoft coding problems with Windows 10 and Office 365 updates

My old Dell desktop had Windows 7 and Office 365 (Office 2013), with Internet through a USB modem.
Office updates were delivered via Windows update. Last September, I bought a new Dell desktop that had Windows 10 preinstalled.
It used the same USB modem for Internet. I installed Office 365 on the new computer without problems.



However, Microsoft added a feature to Windows 10 that stopped all Windows and Office updates from automatically running for connections that they considered to be “metered”.
They also stopped providing Office Updates through Windows Update for those metered connections (those with a limited data plan).



As a result, I now have to manually check for Windows Updates.
Once that I acknowledge that my connection is metered, and that I want to continue with the Windows Update, it runs flawlessly.



As mentioned above, Office 365 updates are no longer delivered through Windows Update.
My Office 365 programs (i.e. Word, Outlook, Excel, etc.) do notify me when updates are available.
When I click to download the updates, it cross-checks files on my computer, and notes that I am on a metered connection.
It then asks if I want to proceed (as a way to prevent data overruns from automatically downloading large files).
When I accept the download, nothing happens – no progress bar, no change in notifications.



The first time this happened was when my new Office 365 (2013) programs asked for updates in September.
I was unable to get the updates to install (remember, no progress bar at all), when started from any of the Office programs’ notifications.
The same lack of response happened if I went to the Account page, and accepted the notification that “Updates for this product are available for download”.
So I called the Microsoft Help Desk. They connected to my computer, but were unable to get Office Updates to run.
They eventually elevated to second tier support, and that person also could not get the updates to run.
Their solution was to uninstall Office, and then reinstall it from the web site.



Office 365 ran fine until the next update notification. The updates would not run, so I called the Help Desk again.
They totally uninstalled Office 365 (2013), including all registry entries, and then reinstalled it from the Office site.



That worked okay until the next notification for update from Office 365 (2013) to Office 365 (2016).
The same thing happened. Instead of calling Microsoft, I went to the web for solutions.
Nothing helped. All of my settings were fine, and tools like SFC and DISM did not find any problems.
I tried a Quick Repair for Office 365, which did not help. So I ran the Online Repair, and that updated to the latest Office 365 version.



So the current status is that Office 365 will only update if repaired online.
That would be a “livable” situation, except that I have a lot of customized settings in my Office programs that must be reconfigured each time.
My current Office 365 version is 16.0.6.366.2036, and I received a new notification this morning that updates were once again available – sigh.



This problem has been reported by others with Internet connections that Microsoft counts as “metered”.
This is not a problem that is caused by my Windows 10 or Office 365 installations.
It is a problem that is caused by bad Microsoft coding. Although Microsoft must be aware of the issue, they don’t seem to be interested in fixing it for this small group of customers (people with limited data plans).



Wish list:

• I have a 20 GB data plan, and would like to just change settings so that Windows Update and Office Update run automatically.
• Since Windows Update does work manually, and since the Office folks can’t seem to fix their coding issue, it would be nice if Office Updates are once again tied to Windows Update.
  At least that would let the Microsoft A-team work on a resolution.
  So far, the Office support folks are definitely looking more like the B-team ;-).