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Office Showing "Upgrade Required" in AutoUpdate even after 2019 to 2021 Upgrade.

Lucky736

Lucky736

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 18, 2004
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Ran into an issue in AutoUpdate showing "Upgrade Required." Appears 2019 is has reached EOL thus requiring a 2021 Upgrade. Paid for a Multi-User 2021 License. Each app shows the license as being activated and 2021 however it seems AutoUpdate is stuck with this...... Anyone else experience this?

I tried using the License Removal Tool on the MS Site and reinstalling, same issue. Also tried reinstalling the AutoUpdate app. Same issue.


Office.jpg
 
This worked for me in the recent past. Open Microsoft Word app and then click Word -> Update License. You may be prompted to sign in to your microsoft account to verify license again. Once this is done, update should appear against word and potentially complete updating.
 
Interesting. I don't have that option in any of the menu's. Also, tried holding Option and scrolling thru to make sure it wasn't hidden. Hmmm...
 
That is actually the version I have and the first version that notified me 2019 is EOL, so I upgraded, and now it has the above. :)
 
OP's post #1 shows AutoUpdate version 4.67, so that should be good.
Maybe "Upgrade Required" means your Mac system, and not the Microsoft apps.
Current Office would need macOS 12 (Monterey) or newer
What version of macOS are you running?
 
14.2.1. Definitely Up to Date on all fronts. That's why I am confounded. :) Odd that the other Office apps recognize the correct license, but the AutoUpdate doesn't seem to.
 
If you can try, please open Word or Excel and quit that app. Quit the Autoupdate app next. open the same application again and try to do the update and see if it finds the update now.
 
Just tried Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, and then AutoUpdate. Reopened AutoUpdate both from the app menus and on it's own. Same.
 
Does About Microsoft Word (or whichever Office app you open), top of the Word menu, show that there is a license, and it belongs to you . Those details should be the the 3rd and 4th lines in that "About Word" window.
 
Yep. Shows my 2021 License. I believe I may have found the culprit. Testing now. Annoyed I didn't try this sooner.
 
Well..... it appears there may be a bug in 4.67. I removed and downgraded to 4.60 and it allowed me to run all of the updates. The 4.67 ran and updated before one app update completed. It would not run that update after it restarted to 4.67. I removed and downgraded again, and that update completed. I upgraded to 4.67 again so we will see if the next round of updates allow or if this issue persists.
 
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Weird, that notice usually flags when your macOS version is out of date - I've got a 2013 MBP now showing it as Big Sur is no longer supported.

Guessing they'll push out a new auto updater soon.
 
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Lucky736 said:
Well..... it appears there may be a bug in 4.67. I removed and downgraded to 4.60 and it allowed me to run all of the updates. The 4.67 ran and updated before one app update completed. It would not run that update after it restarted to 4.67. I removed and downgraded again, and that update completed. I upgraded to 4.67 again so we will see if the next round of updates allow or if this issue persists.
Click to expand...
I encountered the same issue post-upgrading from MS Office 2019 to 2021 (macOS 14.2.1). The license is active in all applications, yet AutoUpdate v4.67 persistently demands an upgrade for apps. Interestingly, attempting to downgrade AutoUpdate didn't enable the update of other applications, which remain stuck at v16.78 in my case.
 
RedPanda2 said:
I encountered the same issue post-upgrading from MS Office 2019 to 2021 (macOS 14.2.1). The license is active in all applications, yet AutoUpdate v4.67 persistently demands an upgrade for apps. Interestingly, attempting to downgrade AutoUpdate didn't enable the update of other applications, which remain stuck at v16.78 in my case.
Click to expand...
Here you go, took me a min to find the direct link since on their page they removed it.


Remove the current AutoUpdate. Install this one. Run all of the updates EXCEPT for the AutoUpdate. Once they are done, run that one and everything should be up to date. :)

I am glad it wasn't just me on this, what a mess!

Let me know if this works for you as well.
 
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Lucky736 said:
Here you go, took me a min to find the direct link since on their page they removed it.


Remove the current AutoUpdate. Install this one. Run all of the updates EXCEPT for the AutoUpdate. Once they are done, run that one and everything should be up to date. :)

I am glad it wasn't just me on this, what a mess!

Let me know if this works for you as well.
Click to expand...
It worked! Thanks a lot 🙌🏻

The first time I opened the AutoUpdate application, it started installing Excel and was interrupted with an error (WTF!). The second time I ran it, it updated Excel smoothly and the rest of the applications.

I will also update AutoUpdate, and hopefully, they will fix the bug in the next release.
 
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RedPanda2 said:
It worked! Thanks a lot 🙌🏻

The first time I opened the AutoUpdate application, it started installing Excel and was interrupted with an error (WTF!). The second time I ran it, it updated Excel smoothly and the rest of the applications.

I will also update AutoUpdate, and hopefully, they will fix the bug in the next release.
Click to expand...
We people doing the requested updates, and upgrades, need to stick together! :D
 
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Hi @Lucky736! I ran into this with my users' machines. I tried it with mine and got the same message, but removing the MUA folder from the library and installing v4.60 did not work for me (as in it will only show me the AU v4.67 for updating, not the Office Apps) so I was wondering if you did anything else before reinstalling MUA.

Edit: Never mind, I didn't do the one thing after an uninstall... rebooted then reinstalled and it did show the updates. I did however had to quickly uncheck the Automatically Download and Update!

Thank you for noticing the version bug!
 
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Hey! Just came here to reply. On another system experienced having to undo and redo again, and then it behaved. My apologies for not getting to this sooner but glad you were able to get it sorted before I did!
 
No worries! My software team repackaged our install with the new 16.81 version and it is behaving as normal now for the new installs. So maybe a reinstall is needed with version 16.81 for those affected.
 
Had the same thing happen and found this thread, but grabbed the relevant individual app updates from MS instead:
learn.microsoft.com

Update history for Office for Mac - Office release notes

Provides IT Pros with information about the latest updates for Office for Mac, including links to download packages, and an update history
learn.microsoft.com
...and then MS AutoUpdate stopped with the "Upgrade Required" nonsense and just says all is up to date. Of course, we'll see if it does it again w/ the next batch of updates and/or if MS might fix this in a 4.68 release or such, prior?

This is not the first time MS AU has fallen flat on its face, by any stretch. At least a few times (2019 and 2021 versions, historically) it might update itself and never come back (scorch-earth clean reinstall MS AU needed to fix), or, it would update fine or MS AU did not even need any update, but then any actual Office app(s) would fail updating mysteriously in MS AU, and the only fix that worked was to scorch-earth clean remove MS AU, if not ALSO manually install each app from the same link, above. By then, MS AU would usually gets its half-baked act together and work for the next who-knows-how-many updates until, well, until something else happens, like this latest 4.67 failure. Bad stuff happens WAAAAAAAAY too often with MS AU, but, well, Microsoft...and why I don't use Windows (or keep it in a disposable VM as a last resort).

Good luck!
 
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