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Office installation is stuck

Microsoft Office can be installed on managed Windows devices using a configuration file (XML). The installation is possible via the policy configuration Windows Office → or via the Deploy Office 365 action and is supported on Windows Pro, Enterprise and Education from version 1703, not on Windows Home.

This installation can fail for many different reasons.

In principle, the Deploy Office 365 action should not be used if this has already been configured in the policy. A restart should be avoided during the installation.

Problem cases

  1. The Change policy action has the status Not now.
  2. Office does not install, although no errors may be visible in the list of actions.

In both cases, it is always worth taking a look at the task manager of the device. Often background activities are running that indicate an ongoing installation or the network card shows download traffic.

Case 1 - Not now

The Change policy action for a policy with the Windows Office configuration remains in the Not now status. This status only occurs when Office is installed via a policy while an installation is still running on the device or another Office suite has to be uninstalled first. The Deploy Office 365 action never receives this status.

  1. A Refresh device info action is sent to the device.
  2. The installation may contain large amounts of data that need to be downloaded and processed. Depending on the connection and hardware used, this can take a very long time. At least one hour should be allowed to pass if this status occurs.
  3. After the hour has passed, another Refresh device info action is sent to the device. If the Change policy action was delivered at least 60 minutes ago, Relution continues applying the policy, even if the device still reports an installation in progress. Without this refresh, this only happens with the next automatic refresh of the device information or when the device reports that the Office installation has completed.
  4. If there is still no change in the status, the installation can be reset using the Deploy Office 365 action with the Clear Office installation data option. Optionally, the Uninstall the current Office 365 Suite switch additionally removes the installed Office suite. If there is no installation data on the device and the switch is not enabled, the action fails.
  5. At least five minutes should pass before the installation is run again.

Case 2 - Office does not seem to install for no reason

This case can occur when using the policy configuration. In this case, Re-apply policies should always be run first and the further behavior observed.

If this is not successful either, the Office installation, which may be stuck, can be reset as described in case 1, step 4 (Deploy Office 365 action with the Clear Office installation data option).

Re-apply policies should then be run again.

If the device reports an error during installation via the policy, the Change policy action changes to the Error status and the compliance violation Windows Office configuration is invalid is raised. The Deploy Office 365 action, on the other hand, already reports success as soon as the device has accepted the command; a later failure of the installation is not visible there.