Microsoft is acknowledging that many customers are having problems with the Outlook database after applying SP2. They have posted the following advice and workarounds:
http://blog.officeformac.com/office-for-mac-2011-sp2-database-upgrade-workaround/
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Office 2011 14.2 update installation problems
We have received numerous reports of problems when attempting to install the Office 2011 SP2 (14.2) update remotely using Casper. However, the update seems to deploy using ARD but you should be aware of a few peculiarities.
Microsoft changed the format of their update package from an .mpkg to a .pkg. While this might not sound like much of a change there are significant differences in how the two types work. .pkg files are flat packages that don't do anything more than bundle up files into an installation wrapper. .mpkg files are much more customizable and can link to other packages.
It seems that even though the 14.2 updater is a .pkg it is not actually a flat file. I don't know what magic Microsoft has tried to work but there seems to be many problems relating to this new composition.
While the updater runs fine from a local machine, attempting to deploy it though Casper does not work. Even though Casper (and the Mac) report that the installation was successful, the Office version remains the same and the update does not get installed.
Installing the .pkg through ARD works, however when you launch Outlook you get the following error:
Deleting the daemon from the user's startup items and restarting fixes this problem.
If you launch Word before restarting you will probably see this error:
After a restart this error should go away.
Once you restart, launch Outlook and you will get the following message:
Before clicking "Upgrade" it is a good idea to back-up the user's Main Identity.
Once you click "Upgrade" you are committed- you must let it finish or you will get data corruption. A 2GB profile on an i5 iMac took about 7 minutes to upgrade.
The upshot of all this is that SP2 is not a "fire and forget" update. A good deal of intervention is required to ensure that the process goes smoothly.
Microsoft changed the format of their update package from an .mpkg to a .pkg. While this might not sound like much of a change there are significant differences in how the two types work. .pkg files are flat packages that don't do anything more than bundle up files into an installation wrapper. .mpkg files are much more customizable and can link to other packages.
It seems that even though the 14.2 updater is a .pkg it is not actually a flat file. I don't know what magic Microsoft has tried to work but there seems to be many problems relating to this new composition.
While the updater runs fine from a local machine, attempting to deploy it though Casper does not work. Even though Casper (and the Mac) report that the installation was successful, the Office version remains the same and the update does not get installed.
Installing the .pkg through ARD works, however when you launch Outlook you get the following error:
Deleting the daemon from the user's startup items and restarting fixes this problem.
If you launch Word before restarting you will probably see this error:
After a restart this error should go away.
Once you restart, launch Outlook and you will get the following message:
Before clicking "Upgrade" it is a good idea to back-up the user's Main Identity.
Once you click "Upgrade" you are committed- you must let it finish or you will get data corruption. A 2GB profile on an i5 iMac took about 7 minutes to upgrade.
The upshot of all this is that SP2 is not a "fire and forget" update. A good deal of intervention is required to ensure that the process goes smoothly.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)