Microsoft Office 365 cannot update from 16.99 to 16.100 (macOS 15.6.1)

[MacMorrison]

I installed Office 365 on macOS Sequoia 15.6 and it cannot update its Office apps (Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Word) using Microsoft AutoUpdate 4.79 - the app updates take forever to download and fail to install. I tried several times with no change in results (each app simply shows "Update error..." with no explanation).

I'm going to try downloading the Microsoft office apps installer again to see if it has the new versions of the apps...

I uninstalled the apps and re-downloaded the Office 365 package (2.7 GB) and it still had updates(!) Everything updated from version 16.100 to version 16.100.1 (25081721) properly this time.

Make sure to turn off Copilot in the settings if you don't want it.

 

[BigBlur]

I'm going to try downloading the Microsoft office apps installer again to see if it has the new versions of the apps.

If that doesn't work, you can uninstall the apps and get them through the Mac App Store. Then you don't have to deal with Microsoft AutoUpdate, which is known to be annoying and problematic at times. The apps will get updated through the App Store instead.

 

[MacMorrison]

Good idea.

I took a look and the App Store versions are a good idea if you don't want the extra apps Microsoft puts into the package - specifically: Microsoft Defender, OneNote, OneDrive, Outlook, and Teams.

I might test the App Store versions of the Office apps on my next install - I remember finding a support thread acknowledging the update errors are a known bug, but the Library folders they suggested deleting did not exist on my system.

 

[Petrus X]

I lost faith in the Microsoft products. Weekly updates, as if they can't write code decently.

 

[Hajj.david]

If that doesn't work, you can uninstall the apps and get them through the Mac App Store. Then you don't have to deal with Microsoft AutoUpdate, which is known to be annoying and problematic at times. The apps will get updated through the App Store instead.

I strongly suggest doing this and it is exactly what I did, no more MS updater annoyances.

 

[MacMorrison]

I just updated the apps to 16.101.1 (Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook) using Apple's App Store.

No problems. OneNote still doesn't open notebooks, but I don't use it.

 

[MacMorrison]

Updated to 16.101.2 (bugfix updates for each app) without problems.

I really recommend installing these apps via Apple's App Store from now on (instead of via Microsoft's .dmg download from your Microsoft account) - the updates download quickly and install without problems, and you don't get unwanted apps like Defender and Teams automatically installed. You save bandwidth, storage space, and time.

 

[Petrus X]

I really recommend leaving Microsoft and these 'services'. There are other solutions, quite satisfying.

 

[maflynn]

I lost faith in the Microsoft products. Weekly updates, as if they can't write code decently.

Yeah, I don't have the auto-update running - not worth the resources or the constant updates.

 

[MacMorrison]

Microsoft rammed a lot of AI into their new Office app updates (and Windows, obviously)... their surveillance and poor quality (broken updates) makes Windows 11 an unattractive proposition.

Use as little Microsoft as possible.

LibreOffice is great - it can do most of what you need for office apps.

 

[MacMorrison]

Microsoft released update 16.103 (25110922) for its macOS Microsoft 365 apps.

I did a bit more in-depth testing of the Office apps and I found that the apps cannot connect to Microsoft 365 services - specifically, Outlook can't set up Microsoft 365 or Outlook email accounts, OneNote cannot create notebooks on the 365 account, and Word, Excel, and PowerPoint cannot connect to OneDrive in the Save windows (Online Locations). This means that you can use Microsoft 365 for local files on your computer, but not their cloud services.

Outlook does allow you to add a non-Microsoft email account - I used a test Yahoo account and it was added without a problem. So it's possible that you can use Outlook in OCLP with Google, iCloud, Yahoo, IMAP, or POP accounts (whether you should is a separate matter).

I found that Word, Excel, and PowerPoint seem to be arbitrary in how their saved files appear in Finder - Excel and PowerPoint showed file extensions while Word did not. I checked and unchecked the "Show file extensions" in each app's Settings and the outcome did not change (Word files remained without extensions, Excel and PowerPoint files showed file extensions).

 

[gilby101]

I found that Word, Excel, and PowerPoint seem to be arbitrary in how their saved files appear in Finder - Excel and PowerPoint showed file extensions while Word did not. I checked and unchecked the "Show file extensions" in each app's Settings and the outcome did not change (Word files remained without extensions, Excel and PowerPoint files showed file extensions).

The setting in the apps, e.g. Word > Preferences > General > Show File Extensions is only for viewing files within the app.

Finder: You can set this for individual files in Finder > Select file > Get Info. But you can also tell Finder to show all extensions, ignoring any setting on an individual file. Finder > Settings > Advanced > Show all filename extensions.

This means that you can use Microsoft 365 for local files on your computer, but not their cloud services.

I can't reproduce your problem with Word or Excel. They take great delight in preferring my OneDrive over the local file system. I don't have any solution for you, but it may be worth your while persevering if you actually want to use OneDrive for documents.

 

[MacMorrison]

Thanks, the problem may be unique to my system or account. OneDrive isn't important to me, but it might be for other users.

Ditto with the file extensions - I didn't realize the setting was just for the files' appearance in the Office apps, but that makes more sense. I have no idea why the applications randomly show or hide the extensions in Finder, though (and not just the Microsoft 365 apps).

I did experiment with the Finder setting to show (hide) extensions, but that has no effect on which application shows or hides extensions in a global sense. I may give this another test in a system where I haven't attempted to migrate data, just to see if it has different results.