If either of the mentioned files are missing or you don’t see the correct results as described here, do the following:Ĭlick the link below to download the installer for the latest version of AutoUpdate. Missing files or incorrect results? Install latest version of AutoUpdate rw-r-r- 1 root wheel 326176 May 25 07:31 /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/ In the output, such as the following example, look for permissions set to -rw-r-r- followed by root wheel as the owner. Check permissions and owner - Launch Daemons If you don't see these permissions, install the latest version of AutoUpdate below. rwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 326176 May 25 07:31 /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/ In the output, such as the following example, look for permissions set to -rwxr-xr-x followed by root wheel as the owner. Check permissions and owner - Privileged Helper Tools To investigate this error, follow the steps below: Step 1. So I downloaded and installed the latest v4.42 version (December 14, 2021).An error message upon attempting to run Microsoft AutoUpdate (MAU) may be due to a missing helper file or incorrectly set permissions. The release notes mentioned that Microsoft switched to a new CDN in the v4.40 release, which triggered me to try updating it manually before trying something else. So I went ahead and found the release notes of Microsoft AutoUpdate and found that it can be downloaded and installed separately from Office itself. In contrary to others on the forum, it did not fix the issue for me. Hostname:~ user$ sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchAgents/.plist Other updaters: Download and install Service Pack 1 (12.1.0). Hostname:~ user$ sudo launchctl unload -w /Library/LaunchAgents/.plist Microsoft AutoUpdate 2.3.6 is back online: Microsoft AutoUpdate for Mac 2.3.6 Update. Hostname:~ user$ sudo launchctl stop /Library/LaunchAgents/.plist Hostname:~ user$ sudo chown root:wheel /Library/LaunchAgents/.plist hostname:~ user$ sudo chown root:wheel /Library/LaunchDaemons/.plist The permissions of the AutoUpdate files should be root:wheel according to the post. While searching for a solution on the Microsoft Office forum, I found a post that mentioned to check the AutoUpdate file permissions in the LauchAgents and LaunchDeamons system folder and reload it. The MAU version that had the issues was v4.39 (September 14, 2021). This was really annoying, because Office apps kept notifying me of available updates after every restart of one of the Office apps.

Now it did open the tool, but it looked like it failed updating itself and got stuck in the “Installing” state before it could update Office. Normally it starts Microsoft AutoUpdate (MAU) which searches for Office updates.

A constant appearing message in Word and Excel about to “Check for updates” triggered me to start updating Microsoft Office on my Mac.

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