Mac Autoupdate Failure for Version 4.80 - Error Message on Update Attempt.

Mark Rustad 80 Reputation points
2025-09-07T05:01:07.0566667+00:00

A recent update sent a new autoupdate to my Mac. Since then, the autoupdate fails with "Update error...". I downloaded the installer from the troubleshooting page and get the same result. Clearly nothing will ever update until it is resolved. The version I have is 4.80.

For what it is worth, I never enable autoupdate, but approve updates as they arrive. That is inconvenient, as the autoupdater nags me about enabling autoupdate every 2 hours. I have complained about that behavior more than once in the past from a work account. Clearly no one tests using it without enabling autoupdate, which I will not do - I want to know what is updating and when. In this case, I know that the last thing updated was autoupdate, so it broke itself with the latest version.

I am running the latest released macOS Sequoia 15.6.1 on an M3 MacBook Pro.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Other

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  1. redleh 30 Reputation points
    2025-09-09T13:34:29.1166667+00:00

    Hi,

    I have noticed exactly the same. Our machines are on Sequoia 15.6 or 15.6.1. I noticed problem last week and started investigating and noticed the follow until last Friday:

    The Autoupdate was returning errors, you had to manually click update on each individual app and in the end only Defender and Edge would not install.

    Looking at the install.log in the mac, Defender had issues running a script. Edge just wouldn't give the option to install, only an error but it actually had the latest installed so I think it is just not clearing from the list.

    Today same issue but was able to install Defender, it's a newer version compared to last week attempt so maybe Microsoft noticed something, however edge still returning error and no update button.

    It still does not run smooth, have to manually update apps and getting errors that cannot contact AutoUpdate server. I have the latest MS Autoupdate installed (you can manually download new version but I compared and have the same).

    Either something changed with MS autoupdate or a combination of latest sequoia and MS autoupdate but as I can see that the script error seems to have been fixed at this stage I think it is a MS issue because historically it is not first time something similar happens with Microsoft Autoupdate app and will be raising a case.

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  2. Mark Rustad 80 Reputation points
    2025-09-09T21:29:58.83+00:00

    I am now noticing that autoupdate is still working, it just shows errors for the components "Microsoft Error Reporting 2.2", "Microsoft Help Viewer 1.1" and "MicrosoftComponentPlugin 12.3". The fact that I see other things still updating would seem to make the issue a little less urgent, but still annoying. I don't know what changed. It feels like these components may have been removed from the update server or something. Perhaps these components are no longer used, but it should be cleaning up after itself. I surely can't tell what is needed and what isn't.

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  3. Jason Rolls 15 Reputation points
    2025-09-24T13:54:47.5966667+00:00

    Consistently receiving message from autoupdate "autoupdate cannot connect to the update server".

    I have followed all suggested steps from Microsoft (Copilot chat), and nothing helps.

    This has happened to me both in Sequoia and Tahoe.

    Wish Microsoft would fix this.

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    4 people found this answer helpful.
  4. Dave Garratt 25 Reputation points
    2025-10-18T13:29:33.96+00:00

    Just had a chat with Apple support and the following information was provided :-

    Apple and Microsoft are aware of issues with Microsoft Office AutoUpdate failing on macOS Tahoe, with numerous reports from other users on both the Apple and Microsoft support forums.

    The problem appears to be related to incompatibility between the new operating system and the Microsoft AutoUpdate tool, which is a common issue after a major macOS update. For some users, the updater fails to connect to the server, while for others, the Office apps themselves may fail to open correctly.

    When a major macOS update like Tahoe is released, there can be compatibility issues with other software. In this case, the Microsoft AutoUpdate tool on macOS Tahoe systems is failing to connect properly to Microsoft's update servers, likely due to a bug or incorrect permissions introduced by the new operating system.

    • Apple and Microsoft generally work together to resolve compatibility bugs after major OS releases. Since macOS Tahoe is relatively new, this is likely an issue that will be addressed in a future update to either the Office suite or macOS.
    • Since the App is downloaded from Microsoft website, you can provide feedback directly from within any Office app by going to Help > Feedback. This helps Microsoft's engineers gather more information to develop a permanent fix.

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  5. Ant-5478 6 Reputation points
    2025-10-19T01:14:46.3633333+00:00

    Hello.

    This might be related since I just upgraded my client's unsupported macOS Ventura v13.7.8 to Sequoia v15.7.1 because Apple and Microsoft dropped support recently. I'm currently unable to upgrade his installed Mac Office (university's 365 subscription) v16.101 to v16.102. It queues the updates and then "Download error..." I tried rebooting and trying another macOS account. Nothing helped. croppedscreenshot

    How do I fix this?

    :( Thank you for reading and hopefully answering soon.

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