client won't install newest 20H2 even though it says it needs it

Question

I recently approved 20H2 in WSUS. I looked for the most recent to approve which was a December 3, 2020 release of En-US x64 Business Editions. Strangely, the newest version of the 20H2 update doesn't say anything supersedes it, but it also doesn't supersede anything even though I can see previous 20H2 versions in WSUS. The November 9, 2020 release says it supersedes a previous release and no update supersedes it. Not sure why the December 3 release didn't supersede it.

Most clients liked the December 3 version that I approved, but 1 client in my pilot group reported to WSUS saying it needed it, but would never find it and try to install it. As soon as I approved the November release the client happily started downloading it.

What's up with these 20H2 releases? Should I leave both versions approved? I have a Windows Update Log if anyone wants to see it, but it looks fine to me.

Answer 1

Hi KlishBrian,

Thanks for your posting on Q&A.

Should I leave both versions approved?
No. There is no need to do that. As you mentioned above, the clients have downloaded the November released 20h2 feature updates. In my opinion, there is no essential difference of the feature updates between in October、November and December. The only difference is the cumulative updates included in the update package.

I found the following picture to share with you:

We may need to install cumulative updates on the clients after upgrading to 20h2 successfully. Please try to install the latest cumulative updates(kb5001649) to upgrade to latest(19042.870).

Hope the above will be helpful.

Regards,
Rita

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Answer 2

@Rita Hu -MSFT Thanks for your response.

As you mentioned above, the clients have downloaded the November released 20h2 feature updates

As I mentioned most clients downloaded the December released 20H2. Only one client wouldn't. For that client I had to approve the November released 20H2 before it would download 20H2.

Maybe if I only approve the November release and that would work for all clients? I can't say for sure since I don't know why one client didn't like the December release.

Also, I still don't understand why the December release didn't supersede the November release.

Answer 3

Definitely not what I'm seeing:

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Additionally:

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Answer 4

And like I said above, I had approved the December update and that 1 pilot client did not find it when checking for updates. I had 3 machines in my pilot group. 2 of them grabbed the December update that was approved, but the 3rd client wouldn't. When it checked for updates it found nothing after nearly 2 weeks if it being approved. If the December release isn't liked by some clients then I'll need to decline it and just approve the November release. Either way both of them will still needed the latest CU applied afterwards anyhow.

Answer 5

You should visit the "computers needing this update: 41" link you show in your screenshot. Yes, it's a LINK, even though it's not underlined. Then visit the report to see what systems claim they need that update. it's possible that the client system you have in the 1 target group that this update is approved to is NOT in NEED of this update.

Better yet, go to the computer report of the system that you want to upgrade, and click on the link for the needed updates. Then see what is not approved vs what is approved.