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

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

  • KB 3115023 – SharePoint Foundation 2013 May 2016 CU
  • KB 3115029 – SharePoint Server 2013 May 2016 CU
  • KB 3115024 – SharePoint Server 2013 with Project Server May 2016 CU
  • KB 3115022 – Office Web Apps Server 2013 May 2016 CU

The Full Server Packages for May 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 May 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:

25 Comments


  1. Our current patch level is – April 12, 2016, cumulative update for SharePoint Server 2013 (KB3114938).
    If we install – May 10, 2016, cumulative update for SharePoint Server 2013 (KB3115029), we will have to run PSConfig and restart servers etc..
    If we just install the updates listed in KB3115029, we won’t have to run PSConfig and restart servers, yes?
    •May 10, 2016, update for SharePoint Foundation 2013 (KB3115034)
    •May 10, 2016, update for SharePoint Foundation 2013 (KB3114952)
    •May 10, 2016, update for SharePoint Server 2013 (KB3115018)
    •May 10, 2016, update for SharePoint Server 2013 (KB3114943)
    •May 10, 2016, update for SharePoint Server 2013 (KB3114931)
    •May 10, 2016, update for SharePoint Server 2013 (KB3085562)
    Will this give us the same patch level as installing the full CU?

    Reply

      1. Thanks Stefan
        Doh!, was just a thought, installing the full CU in our test farm as I type… 🙂
        Cheers
        Trevor

        Reply

  2. On my 2013 SP1 environment, the CU passes ok in TEST, but fails in QA with “the expected version of the product was not found…”
    The 4 LPs have all the 1502 SP1, so i’m kinda scratching my head. Tried PACKAGE.BYPASS.DETECTION.CHECK=1, but it goes on a endless extracting loop… is there a way to find the eventual hotfix that blocks the CU?

    Reply

    1. Hi Emmanuel,
      NEVER(!) use PACKAGE.BYPASS.DETECTION.CHECK=1 without being advised by support.
      It will cause an unsupported farm as you are forcing a fix on a machine where the required base patches do not exist.
      You might end up in having to reinstall your machine afterwards.
      Instead run the following powershell script which will tell you the baseline of all components which should tell you what is missing:
      http://blogs.technet.com/b/stefan_gossner/archive/2015/04/20/powershell-script-to-display-version-info-for-sharepoint-product-and-language-packs.aspx
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

      1. Hi Stefan, that’s what i checked first, but the SPS and its four LPs are reporting as 1502. Afaik, that’s the correct SP1.
        I tried downloading important updates and everything, but no avail, still “the expected version of the product was not found…”
        It happens also with the march update, and the patch level looks like december 2015. Any ideas?

        Reply

        1. update : it’s the japanese LP that blocks the update. althought it’s written 1502, if i remove it, the CU installs.
          The link looks ok thou, but the installer run in japanese, so i’m not 100% sure : https://www.microsoft.com/ja-JP/download/details.aspx?id=42082. what gave me the idea is that pack has some components that look very old : 15.0.4420.1017 (and some 4571.1502)

          Reply

          1. ok, great!
            Be aware that you have to install the CU again if you decide install the language pack again to update the LP to the CU patch level.
            Cheers,
            Stefan


    1. Hi J,
      I don’t have control over this page and don’t know who is responsible.
      So if you don’t see my blog as a trustworthy way to check for CUs I cannot recommend one.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

  3. Does this CU fix the issue that a December 2015 CU caused? That particular issue is…when you go to save to a SharePoint Document Library and you access the save location of that library from your Favorites (Windows 7) / Quick Access (Windows 10), no scroll bar shows up in the Save As dialog window. Just curious, because I am just surprised it hasn’t been fixed yet since it’s an almost 6 month old issue, that’s fairly critical for users in a SharePoint environment. Thanks in advance!

    Reply

    1. Hi Justin,
      issues get considered for a fix if a customer opens a support case and requests the fix.
      Did you do this? You should not wait for another customer to do this as that might be delay the process.
      I’m not familiar with the issue you described so I don’t know whether it got fixed or not or if a fix request was raised by a customer.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

  4. Hi Stefan,
    I have spent hours of troubleshooting on permission error when applying May’16 CUs. It is failing with exception :User does not have permission to perform this action on Search Admin database. It appears all the permissions are in place for search admin DB.
    I made sure the service below are stopped when when running the config but it still fail with error above. Any Help would be much appreciated.
    SPTimerV4
    OSearch15
    SPSearchHostController

    Reply

    1. Hi Mohammed,
      are you executing PSConfig with in context of the farm account?
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

  5. Hi I have installed the latest May 2016 CU (KB3115029) Can someone please check for me as i dont have a farm setup with a prior version , But email to SP groups sems to be broken now . so share document/item with an SP group no alerts are sent , Sending to an indavidual is fine. This worked prior to the CU. Just need confirmation please.

    Reply

  6. After applying the May CU our Reporting Services won’t execute any subscriptions or work with the SQL agent. Anyone having issues with that, or is it just local phenomenon for us?
    Getting errors like “Cannot find site lookup info for request Uri http://[servername]:32843/14db18529dff4c4b87df18ccc299d822/ReportExecution.svc.” and when googling around I get the recommendation to recreate the SQL Reporting Service. Well let’s just say that’s not an option I like 🙁

    Reply

    1. Hi Kristoffer
      Do you still have this issue ?, is this after installing the May CU ?
      @ Stefan : Do you know any regressions for May CU ?
      Regards
      Shany A K

      Reply

  7. Hey Stefan,
    I am bit confused here when my TVM(Threat Vulnerability Team) installed OS/SharePoint Security/Windows Patches and it upgraded my GUID build no from August 2015 to July 2016 I still don’t understand how did the Build version got upgraded when the SharePoint admin team didn’t even install the CU’s.
    I was thinking since the SharePoint Security Patches were installed with other pateches the GUID no was changes but that doesn’t mean its upgraded to the June 2016 CU so I was planning to just do the May 2016 CU couple of CU’s behind Microsoft. What would you suggest. Thank You

    Reply

  8. Hello Stefan,
    So, I have the November 2014 CU installed on my SharePoint Server 2013 and now MS released the April 2017 CU.
    To get my environment updated, do I need to install first the July 2015 CU, run the PSCONFIG and after that install the April 2017 CU?
    Thank you for your reply!
    Marco

    Reply

    1. Hi Marco,
      there is no need to install July 2015 CU first. You can directly install April 2017 CU. Just ensure to run PSConfig after the installation and do not postpone this to a later maintenance window.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

      1. Thank you for your fast reply!
        😉

        Reply

  9. Hello Stefan,
    I am in doubt about the cumulative update installation process. I have a Project Server 2013 with the version 15.0.4569.1000 and for SharePoint Server 2013 I have the version 15.0.4571.1502 (SP1 Mark 2).
    When I tried to install the last Project Server 2013 CU, I received an error “Installation Failed” (on the log – error 17303), so, I have 2 questions:
    1) Do I need to install SP1 Mark 2 for Project Server 2013 before install the last Project Server 2013 CU?
    2) Why the installation process for the last CU is consuming a lot of CPU? I had to increase from 04 vCPUs to 08 vCPUs to get some progress on the process. Did you realize this issue on your tests (extra CPU consuming)?
    Last CU: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3191912/may-9-2017-cumulative-update-for-project-server-2013-kb3191912
    Thanks a lot for your support!

    Reply

    1. Hi Marco,
      you should ensure to have the same service pack for as well Project Server and SharePoint on your box.
      I haven’t seen the additional CPU usage with the CU. Might be related to your specific configuration.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

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