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

The product group released the February 2016 Cumulative Update for the SharePoint 2013 product family.
For February 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, February 2016 CU includes all fixes from February 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 February 2016 CU should be available at the following locations in a couple of hours:

  • KB 3114722 – SharePoint Foundation 2013 February 2016 CU
  • KB 3114726 – SharePoint Server 2013 February 2016 CU
  • KB 3114723 – SharePoint Server 2013 with Project Server February 2016 CU
  • KB 3114338 – Office Web Apps Server 2013 February 2016 CU – This is also a security fix!

The Full Server Packages for February 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 February 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/
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:


28 Comments


  1. Hi Stefan,
    The Kb article links does not work. Is there delay in publishing the KB article?
    Thanks

    Reply

    1. Hi Jeevan,
      as outlined in my blog post: “The KB articles for February CU should be available at the following locations in a couple of hours”
      The download links work already.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

  2. Vielen dank, Stefan. As always I appreciate your blog posts.
    I’ll eagerly but patiently wait for the links to go live. At the moment they links lead me to a page that says: “Try searching for what you need. This page doesn’t exist.”

    Reply

    1. The KB links always take a while to go live but the download links for the binaries are already working.

      Reply

  3. Hi Stefan,
    since Nov.2015 CU we have a problem with vsdx files (In our test and prod environment). When someone work on vsdx files with visio 2013 an save back to SharePoint the title value of the vsdx file will be set to blank.
    With all other Office file types inclusive vsd files the problem does not exist.
    Is that a know issue? thank you
    dominik

    Reply

    1. Hi Dominik,
      I have not heard about this issue.
      If this is a problem you need to have investigated I would recommend to open a support case with Microsoft.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

    2. Dear Dominic,
      Are you still facing the visio title metadata issue?
      I am actually facing the same problem.
      Please let me know in case you sorted out.
      With many thanks.
      Best,
      Patrick

      Reply

      1. For your information, the last SharePoint Server 2013 CU of August 2016 corrected the problem on my side.
        Best,
        Patrick

        Reply

  4. Hi Stefan,
    First I would like to thank you for that very informative blog.
    I can’t install the “February 2016 CU for SharePoint 2013 Foundation” on a server where the “January 2016 CU for SharePoint 2013 Foundation” was previously installed. The error message is “The expected version of the product was not found on your system”. With the “server” edition of sharepoint 2013 the exact same upgrade scenario was possible. Both farms have additional language packs installed.
    I want to install the new CU because the farm has the “unable to get property ‘replace’ of undefined or null reference” error. Our actually farm version is “15.0.4787.1000”. The Upgrade status of the farm is “succeeded” and all content databases are upgraded.
    I hope that Microsoft will fix that issue in the next CU.
    Thank you.
    Best regards,
    Lucian

    Reply

    1. Hi Lucian,
      this is not expected and not a known issue.
      Please open a support case with Microsoft to get this analyzed.
      Without a support case we cannot analyze and fix it.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

      1. “15.0.4787.1000” is Januar CU. You have to install Februar CU or PU to fix the error message is “The expected version of the product was not found on your system”. Did you run psconfiggui?

        Reply

    1. Hi Mohan,
      this does not seem to be a general issue. As always you should evaluate SharePoint fixes in a test environment before applying to production. Here you can evaluate potential issues. If you find any ensure to open a support case with Microsoft to get them analyzed.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

      1. Applied MS16-015 in Test and Finally in Prod Environment , Everything Went fine

        Reply

  5. I recently installed the Feb CU with the thought that this would also apply all previous SharePoint security updates. I installed the CU and then ran Windows Update, all the security updates showing before the CU installation are still showing. Approximately 17. Am I misunderstanding CUs and how they handle security updates.

    Reply

    1. Hi Scott,
      your understanding is correct. Feb CU contains all previous security updates. Not sure how Microsoft Update determines which security updates are required. Might be that the older security updates cannot be matched to the latest CU on the system and Microsoft Update assumes that the older security fixes are still required.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

  6. Hello Stefan,
    I updated my development environment to the January 2016 CU and am experiencing the issues most have reported regarding User Profile Service not starting or hanging in a “Stopping” status. I’ve also read some individuals who are updating to February 2016’s CU from January 2016 CU are either continuing to have that issue or having a host of other problems as well.
    Since my production environment is still happily on November 2015 CU I’m hesitant to jump that to the February 2016 CU given the host of problems others are having, along with my own which I’ve validated.
    Without opening a support case with MS have the previous problems surrounding UPS been addressed or superseded with the February 2016 CU release do you know? Or are there any work-arounds regarding these similar issues as well?
    Thanks!
    -Alex

    Reply

    1. Hi Alex,
      I just double checked and we don’t have any escalations on this issue here.
      So it seems no customer reported it or if it was reported only a short while ago.
      Without customers reporting this issue we cannot investigate or create a fix.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

    2. We have applied January CU in 2013 Environment , but Never experienced any issues

      Reply

  7. Hi Stefan,
    thank you for sharing your knowledge about the SharePoint Updates and how to properly patching SharePoint.
    It seems there is a bug in the february 2016 CU.
    If users had changed their region settings in their user profile to “Always use my personal settings”, updates to their profiles will fail at saving them (ULS-Message: […] Error while trying to validate calendar type value. Invalid calendar type: The value must be in SPCalendarType enumeration.[…]).
    This will also happen, if you change the regional settings to this option or if an administrator changes this setting for them.
    I was able to reproduce this error on two farms.
    Link to a blog (not mine), with detailed information about the cause:
    http://thesharepointfarm.com/2016/03/error-setting-the-regional-settings-for-a-user-profile/
    Regards,
    Jan

    Reply

    1. Hi Jan,
      I would recommend to open a support case with Microsoft to report this issue.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

  8. Hi, Stefan. Just a question, Do I have to install the SharePoint 2013 Feb 2016 CU both in Consuming Farm and Publishing Farm to be able to fix the broken Follow link feature ?

    Reply

  9. Hi Adrian,
    Feb CU is only a partial fix. This fix is not sufficient to resolve the issue.
    The second part of the fix is planned for April CU.
    So you need to wait till April CU to completely fix the follow sites in a multi-farm environment issue.
    Cheers,
    Stefan

    Reply

    1. Hi, Stefan. I appreciate your response. I have been thinking on what could be wrong in my environment that I can still replicate the issue after installing the CU. We will just wait for April CU. Thank you.

      Reply

    1. Hi Andy,
      I haven’t heard about this issue. Please ensure to open a support case with Microsoft so that we can investigate this issue.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

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