January 2016 CU for SharePoint 2013 product family is available for download

The product group released the January 2016 Cumulative Update for the SharePoint 2013 product family.
For January 2016 CU we have full server packages (also known as Uber packages). No other CU is required to fully patch SharePoint.
As this is a common question: Yes, January 2016 CU includes all fixes from January 2016 PU.
ATTENTION:
Be aware that all Updates for SharePoint 2013 require SharePoint Server 2013 SP1 to be installed first.
Please also have a look at the article that discusses how to properly patch a SharePoint 2013 farm which has Search enabled (see below).
Previous releases of the SharePoint Server 2013 cumulative update included both the executable and the .CAB file in the same self-extracting executable download. Because of the file size, the SharePoint Server 2013 package has been divided into several separate downloads. One contains the executable file, while the others contain the CAB file. All are necessary and must be placed in the same folder to successfully install the update. All are available by clicking the same Hotfix Download Available link in the KB article for the release.
This CU includes all SharePoint 2013 fixes (including all SharePoint 2013 security fixes) released since SP1. The CU does not include SP1. You need to install SP1 before installing this CU.
The KB articles for December CU should be available at the following locations in a couple of hours:

  • KB 3114492 – SharePoint Foundation 2013 January 2016 CU
  • KB 3114497 – SharePoint Server 2013 January 2016 CU
  • KB 3114493 – SharePoint Server 2013 with Project Server January 2016 CU
  • there is no January 2016 CU for Office Web Apps Server 2013

The Full Server Packages for January 2016 CU are available through the following links:

Important: If your farm has been on a patch level lower than July 2015 CU: July 2015 CU and later contains a breaking change compared to earlier builds which requires running the SharePoint 2013 Products Configuration Wizard on each machine in the farm right after installing the CU.
If you don’t run PSCONFIG after installing January 2016 CU (on a farm which had a lower patch level than July 2015 CU) crawl might no longer work – so ensure to schedule a maintenance window when installing this CU which includes PSCONFIG runs.
See here for detail: https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/stefan_gossner/2015/07/15/important-psconfig-is-mandatory-for-july-2015-cu-for-sharepoint-2013/
This CU fixes the issue with outbound query federation which was introduced with October, November and December 2015 CU.
Be aware that the SharePoint Server 2013 CU contains the SharePoint Foundation CU. And the SharePoint Server 2013 with Project Server CU contains Project Server CU, SharePoint Server CU and SharePoint Foundation CU.
Related Info:

64 Comments


  1. Hello, If I am at SP1 currently do I need to apply all of the patches in between if I wanted to deploy this new one? or can I just apply this new one and it includes all of the changes in between? Thanks!

    Reply

    1. Hi Jacob,
      as written in the blog above: “This CU includes all SharePoint 2013 fixes (including all SharePoint 2013 security fixes) released since SP1.”.
      So just this CU is sufficient.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

  2. Hi,
    You link to an article about the outbound query federation beein broken. Why do you do this since the article says it will be fixed in Januaryt 2016 CU?
    Is it not fixed?

    Reply

    1. Hi Cato, I updated the wording to be more clear.

      Reply

  3. I can confirm that with this January 2016 CU Hybrid Outbound Search works again. Yay!

    Reply

  4. Hi Stefan.
    Which database(s) (config, admin, content, etc…) is/are being updated by this CU?
    Thanks!

    Reply

    1. Sorry – I don’t have a list.

      Reply

      1. Content DBs, APP Management DB, BdcServiceDB, ConfigurationDB, … nearly all, except SessionState, Metadata, PerformancePoint…

        Reply

        1. Be aware that this was the case for your specific previous patch level.

          Reply

          1. December 2015 CU -> January 2016 CU


    1. Hi Tobias,
      we can only investigate such issues if a customer raises a support case.
      That means: no support case -> no fix.
      I double checked and found that the issue you mentioned was reported by a customer in December through a support case.
      The fix is currently planned for March 2016 CU.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

      1. Vielen Dank für die Mühe!
        Grüße
        Tobias

        Reply

      2. Hi Stefan, this is an interesting read. After posting my blogpost about the UPS issue I did send some e-mails about it to Microsoft, but I didn’t receive any anwsers. Now I understand. I did not know that I had to make a support case for it. Never read about it, also. Reading the various comments and your explanation about it, perhaps you could enhance about it and tell us how this works? This forum is not the place to discuss how bugs are being fixed by Microsoft, so I won’t go into that. It’s good to read that someone did report this issue and that the UPS issue will be fixed in the March CU. Looking forward to this one!

        Reply

        1. I have the same issue with OCT CU

          Reply

    1. Hi Zane,
      Fixes will only be created if customers open a support case to report such issues. Posting to a forum and adding comments to my blog are not the right way to report such issues as we need a support case from a customer to investigate such issues.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

      1. Hi,
        according to Trevor, this was fixed in this CU: http://thesharepointfarm.com/2016/01/ms16-004-causes-a-typeerror-on-sharepoint-lists/ “The resolution is to apply the January 2016 Cumulative Update for SharePoint.”.
        As for how we tell Microsoft about bugs, it would be nice to have a Connect site. I had a problem with a bug and I located it, found a workaround and don’t need support, but I would like to tell Microsoft about it. Using MS Support means signing an agreement, going through diagnostics with a support engineer on my production farm (I’m not too comfortable with that), because I can’t repro it on a test environment and paying money if it turns out to be a configuration/supportability issue instead of a bug. I agree that blog comments are not the place to submit bugs, but there’s lack of a better, place without major commitments (like Connect).

        Reply

        1. Hi Piotr,
          internally we report many problems in our products each day.
          But fixing a problem is expensive – e.g. it takes developer resources which should work on the next version on the product, testing the fix is expensive as well and each code change has a chance to introduce a regression.
          In addition for many problems there are valid workarounds.
          With other words: if we know about a problem but there is no customer asking for a fix through a support case, then a fix the fix will not be created.
          Conclusion: reporting a bug through a connect site would not help to improve the quality of the product.
          Cheers,
          Stefan

          Reply

          1. Hello Stefan
            Is it fair to assume then that if you are on (say Oct’15 CU) and were planning on applying MS16-004, then we should:
            – either hold back and not apply it
            – or if you have already applied MS16-004, then plan to apply Jan’16 CU ASAP?
            Thanks,
            AG


  5. I have been able to install other CUs & did the December a few weeks ago one however this time I’m getting “an error occurred during detection” Any ideas? should I rerun the SP1? to take it to a base then re-try the Jan update?

    Reply

    1. Hi Paul,
      hard to say what is causing it but it sounds as if there is a problem with the installer database on this machine.
      I’m not sure if there is an easy way to resolve this.
      I would recommend to open a support case with Microsoft on this.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

  6. Hi Stefan,
    Is there any impact if I upgrade my IE8 browsers to the latest version IE11 on all my WEB and App servers? I’m on September CU and planning to install the January CU.

    Reply

    1. Hi Edmonk,
      should not be a problem but I would always recommend to evaluate in a test environment to ensure that all customizations taken into account.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

  7. Hi,
    I have installed the MSDN ISO SharePoint 2013 with SP1 (15.0.4569.1506) with no other updates.
    Do I need to run first the true SP1 (kb2880552) before installing this January 2016 CU ?
    Also will there be an ISO with SP2 eventually?
    Thanks,
    Symon

    Reply

    1. hi Symon,
      no that is not necessary – you can install January 2016 CU on the ISO install directly.
      We don’t have SP2 for SharePoint 2013 so there cannot be an ISO with SP2.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

  8. Hi there,
    If I’m updating the servers in my farm each month using Windows Updates via WSUS, do I still need to install the CU’s as well?
    Cheers,
    Siobhan

    Reply

    1. Hi Siobhan,
      security fixes should be evaluated and installed as soon as possible but we recommend to install CUs only if they fix specific issues you encounter or if requested by Microsoft support.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

  9. Hi, We need to install SP1 on our farms and then an Uber patch. Would the September 2015 be a stable choice? Also, your article mentions an article explaining how to patch a farm with search enabled but I must be missing it somehow.
    Thanks,
    Jerry

    Reply

    1. Hi Jerry,
      I cannot really recommend a specific CU as all CUs have potentially specific issues which could affect your specific environment. You should evaluate the CU you plan to install in a test environment which is as identical to your production environment as possible.
      The article you are looking for is this one: https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/tothesharepoint/2013/03/13/how-to-install-update-packages-on-a-sharepoint-farm-where-search-component-and-high-availability-search-topologies-are-enabled/
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

  10. Hi,
    Has anyone had any issues provisioning a new UPS with this CU? Reason I ask is I’ve just been building a new SP Farm, it was built on SQL 2014 SP1 so I needed to install at least the April 2014 CU. However being a brave person I decided to jump to this latest CU to see what happens. For info installed the pre-req’s, binaries, PS script to create farm and config dbs then ran PSConfigGUI. Checked CA was available and rebooted. Then applied this Jan 16 CU to the farm, ran PSConfigGUI to upgrade the farm. Then went about building a couple of web apps, my site hosts etc. Finally the infamous UPS provisioning. UPS service application was provisioned via the GUI.
    The problem was I couldn’t get the UPS service started, it would stick at “Starting” for about 40 minutes before timing out. Looking in the event log there were lots of application crashes involving the Resource manager. And event viewer contained errors such as:
    UserProfileApplication.SynchronizeMIIS: Failed to configure ILM, will attempt during next rerun. Exception: System.FormatException: Index (zero based) must be greater than or equal to zero and less than the size of the argument list.
    After wasting a number of hours trying to resolve the issue I gave up. Deleted the SharePoint servers and started again. Keeping the same SQL servers I rebuilt everything in the exact same process but applied CU May 2015 (I’ve used this in the past with no issues) and low and behold everything came up roses.
    I am going to try to reproduce the issue again but I wondered if anyone has reported an issue.
    Cheers
    Rob

    Reply

    1. Hi Rob,
      had same issue, spent a week troubleshooting it and finally discovered that SQL2014 is not supported on plan SP2013 (even with SP1). So I made clean install of SP2013 SP1, immediately installed November 2015 rollup and only after that performed usual setup of SharePoint (we have it scripted in powershell for multitenancy). After these steps UPS provisioned normally and started normally. Cheers

      Reply

    2. I have been able to replicate this in two different environments now on a fresh build of a SharePoint 2013 farm (With the Jan 2016 CU). I then created another farm using the December 2015 CU and the User profile Synchronization Service was back normal.

      Reply

      1. Hi Gaurav,
        ok then you should open a support case with Microsoft to allow us to investigate this issue. Without a support case its not possible for us to escalate this to the product group to request a fix.
        Cheers,
        Stefan

        Reply

        1. Hi,
          I upgraded to Feb CU because of Microsoft (BIG Mistake to listen to them …) and the UPSync messed up. It gets stuck on stopping. Its production. Any suggested fix?

          Reply

        2. Hi Stefan
          I replicated this in my dev/ test farms so there’s no urgent need for my company to pay for a fix. Is there somewhere I can report this without having to pay for a support ticket?
          Thanks!

          Reply

          1. Hi Gaurav,
            there is no other way to report it than to open a support case.
            If the issue is caused by a problem in our product (and the product is in mainstream support) the support case will be free of charge.
            Cheers,
            Stefan


          2. Thanks Stefan
            Unfortunately the only links I am seeing are for paid support. Do you know from where can I create a “free” support ticket? Or are you saying that I should create a paid ticket and if it’s a product issue, I’ll not be charged for it? Either way, it will be great if you could let me know the correct link to open the ticket.
            Thank you


          3. Hi Gaurav,
            you need to create a paid support ticket.
            If the issue is proved to be a problem in the product you will not get charged.
            Cheers,
            Stefan


  11. Hi Stefan
    It might be a coincidence with myself not noticing earlier. After the installation of Jan 2016 CU for SP2013 I noticed on my test machine some errors in the logs for SP2013 workflows. Updating the Workflow components and applying the SQL Upgrade Scripts to the Workflow Databases resolved the issue.
    Is there a link between SP2013 Jan 2016 CU and the need to update Work Flow Components?
    Thanks

    Reply

    1. Hi Geoff,
      I haven’t heard about such a relationship – I would recommend to open a support case if you need a clear statement on this.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

  12. Hi Stefan,
    one of our server I got the error:
    Installation failed: The expected version of the product was not found
    I check and see the Language Pack for SharePoint and Project Server 2013 –
    German/Deutsch
    is the old version. how can I install the cu?
    DisplayName : Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013
    DisplayVersion : 15.0.4571.1502
    DisplayName : Language Pack for SharePoint and Project Server 2013 –
    German/Deutsch
    DisplayVersion : 15.0.4420.1017
    DisplayName : Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2013
    DisplayVersion : 15.0.4420.1017

    Reply

    1. You can see that the german language pack for SharePoint is on RTM level (15.0.4420.1017).
      RTM is unsupported since a long time.
      You need to install SP1 for the german language pack – afterwards you can install the latest CU.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

  13. Hi Stefan,
    I just wanted to make some clear understanding on the monthly patches that Microsoft releases. There are always “Microsoft Server Software” where affected software is Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013 , example :3039768 on MS16-015
    Beside that we have “Microsoft Office Services and Web Apps” whose affected software is also Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013 example :3114335 and 3114481 on MS16-015 , are we supposed to install all these in SharePoint 2013 Farm ?
    Note :We have two separate Farm for SharePoint and Office Web Apps

    Reply

    1. Hi Mghimire,
      SharePoint 2013 server patches have to be installed on SharePoint, Web App fixes on the Office Web Apps.
      The fixes only install on the affected server – so you cannot accidently install them on the wrong box.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

      1. Thanks Stefan ! that makes sense

        Reply

  14. We just installed this CU on our installation of SharePoint 2013. The problem I’m running into is as follow:
    Click on “Settings” gear icon in upper right corner.
    Site Settings -> Content and Structure
    At the top of the window on the right, in the blue bar with the headers, I click on “View: Default View”, then select another view to change it. This is not chaning. It remains “View: Default View”. I’ve tried this in IE and Chrome. I’m still trying to figure out where to report this to Microsoft, but I figured I’d post it here anyway.

    Reply

  15. Have there been any issues around Upgrading from Feb 2015 CU to Jan 2016 CU? When I attempt to upgrade, it tells me ‘The expected Version of the product was not found on the system.’ but your blog + everywhere else states that you only need SP1. Any suggestions?

    Reply

  16. we tried in our Dev environment . SharePoint 2013 SP1 + April 14 CU (15.0.4617.1000 ) ,after Install Jan 16 CU.
    We have issue with user profile services not working well. FIM seems to be gets error/complete .. RAM utilization high on UPS Server.
    again we have to plan increase the Ram and test again.

    Reply

    1. We tried in our [Test / Dev / Lab] environment . SharePoint 2013 SP1 + April 14 CU (15.0.4617.1000 ) ,After Install Jan 16 CU we got below the error.
      Environment : Test / Dev / Lab User Profile Issue 1: Forefront Identity Manager Service Stop I 2 :
      User Profile Service Application – User Profile Incremental Synchronization pausing
      Please let me know if Is there any issue with Jan 16 CU with User profile .

      Reply

      1. Hi Deepesh,
        if you encounter an issue with a CU, please open a support case with Microsoft to report it.
        That is the only way to get the issue investigated.
        Cheers,
        Stefan

        Reply

        1. HI,
          We have an issue after install Jan 16 CU, one of my end user facing issue with Attachment :-User deleted a.pdf (attached file) and add same name a.pdf (attached file), when hits save button ,got error .. file already exists., while before the Jan 16 Patch its worked well.

          Reply

  17. Hello Everyone,
    Has anybody had any trouble to deploy .wsp solutions after installing January 2016 CU?
    Thanks

    Reply

  18. Hi we need some help regarding CU3 update of sharepoint in our server. We got this error in event log:
    The Workflow Manager backend failed to start at location ‘WorkflowServiceBackendHost.OnServiceStarted’ due to an exception: System.InvalidOperationException: The current version of the Workflow Resource Management Store, 1.0.2.0, is older than the running product which is designed for the Workflow Resource Management Store version 1.3.0.0. Please upgrade the Workflow Resource Management Store.
    at Microsoft.Workflow.Common.AsyncResult.End[TAsyncResult](IAsyncResult result)
    at Microsoft.Workflow.Service.WorkflowServiceBackendHost.OnStartCompleted(IAsyncResult result)
    where the workflow backend service doesnt start.

    Reply

    1. Hi Ryan,
      https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn133867.aspx
      “It is important that any Cumulative Updates (CU) for SharePoint Server 2013 and Workflow Manager are installed in a coordinated fashion.”
      At any given Patch Level SharePoint 2013 is only compatible with the current patch Level of Workflow Manager at the same time.
      So if you install January 2016 CU for SharePoint you also have to ensure that Workflow Manager is patched to the patch Level that was current on January 2016.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

  19. Anyone know why the download and install for kb2880552, which is the second SP1 update, actually updates through the Jan 2016 CU? I have a current client who installed SP2013 from an ISO that included SP1 (build 15.0.4569.1000). They wanted to go to the fixed SP1 (build ​15.0.4571.1502). So I downloaded the package from kb2880552 and installed. Now this client is on build, 15.0.4787.1000 and not what they wanted.
    Thoughts?

    Reply

  20. Hi Ron,
    if they installed SP2013 with SP1 included there is no need for an updated SP1.
    The updated SP1 is only required on systems which were installed with SP2013 RTM.
    Anyway: if they really want to install it they can download it from here:
    https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=42544
    Cheers,
    Stefan
    Cheers,
    Stefan

    Reply

  21. Hello Stefan,
    Is it recommended to run the binaries parallely on all the servers as it took a quite a long time while installing Aug CU.
    PSConfig took only 2 hours but running exe took around 6 hours.
    Regards
    Prajith Jayaprakash

    Reply

    1. Hi Prajith,
      you can run them in parallel to reduce the patch time or you can patch them one after the other and exclude the one being patched from the load balancing to keep your farm up during patching.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

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