Wrong MS 365 Apps for Enterprise update channel

Question

Hi, MS 365 Apps for Enterprise Admin Center reports many devices with monthly enterprise channel update channel despite GPO having been around for more than 2 years changing update channel to current. I see that in configuration.xml file monthy enterprise channel is specified but still on majority of devices it was successfully changed to current channel. What to do here to troubleshoot - CM reports 140 managed o365 clients but do not know which query it uses to see devices - on one device I have seen that OfficeMgmtCOM is false but still it has wrong channel.

Answer 1

Hi @Bojan Zivkovic

You need to set Office with Current update channel, am I right?

> CM reports 140 managed o365 clients but do not know which query it uses to see devices

If CM is Configuration Manager, I would suggest you post a new thread on Q&A with tag "mem-cm-general", as issues focus on Configuration Manager are out of my support scope.

In addition, as issues of Microsoft 365 Admin Center are not supported on Q&A forum ~ If you need help on Admin Center, it's recommended to post new threads on Microsoft Tech Community --- Admin Center.

Thanks for your understandings.

Following information is from Group Policy perspective, hope it could be helpful.

> MS 365 Apps for Enterprise Admin Center reports many devices with monthly enterprise channel update channel despite GPO having been around for more than 2 years changing update channel to current

Is the group policy (Set for more than 2 years to switch to Current Channel) the "Update Channel" policy under Computer Configuration\Policies\Administrative Templates\Microsoft Office 2016 (Machine)\Updates?

• If yes, I would suggest you check whether the computers are devices in a specific OU or a specific domain with this policy enabled.
  I suggest you let Office receive updates from CDN, not local source or Configuration Manager.
  Besides, please make sure Office update is enabled.
• If not, please try this group policy to specify the update channel you need.
  By default, Group Policy refreshes in the background every 90 minutes. If you want to refresh policy assignment immediately (for example, if you're testing in a lab environment), you can use the gpupdate command.
  And then please go to one computer with wrong Office update channel, update Office (Go to File in one Office app > Account > Under Product Information, choose Update Options > Update Now) to have a check.
  For more, please refer to "Change the Microsoft 365 Apps update channel for devices in your organization".

> I see that in configuration.xml file monthly enterprise channel is specified

Could you please tell us where do you find the configuration file?
Is it used run with ODT to deploy Office when initial installation? Is it ran with Configuration Management?
If the group policy above is set, Update Channel are subject to the result of Group Policy setting, as group policy has higher priority.

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Answer 2

I have double checked gpresult on one of affected machines - update channel is set to current ie GPO was applied but still o365 client is using monthly enterprise channel. CM is Configuration Manager but we do not use it to manage updates of o365 clients - just thought o365 clients reported as managed by CM might have been the same ones with wrong channel.

Configuration.xml file is being used during o365 client installation (Configuration Manager) - so long story short, we deploy o365 client as app using CM but we do not manage it afterwards regarding patching hence I really can not pinpoint what is going on here.

Also this entry on affected machine is not empty:

CCMManaged = UpdateNotifyObject

suggesting it is managed by CM, I do not why honestly.

Answer 3

I can not access scheduled tasks remotely on Windows 10 devices so checking status of this task even on a single device is challenge, let alone on 100+ devices ...

Why have these o365 clients been managed by CM all the time? Which action/setting might have been root cause?

Answer 4

I don't see how I can see if scheduled task for Office is there - contacting more than 100 users to check themselves would be silly also so ... People with monthly enterprise channel get updates regularly (I do not see too old version on any device in MS 365 Apps Admin Center) but still they haven't had update channel switched to current - I guess getting updates for monthly enterprise channel means they have scheduled task in healthy state.