Microsoft Office is arguably one of the company’s most popular app suites. While it’s pretty easy to install, set up and use, there are a few bugs and glitches some users might experience from time to time.
In this article, we’re talking about your Office tools stuck at the “updating Office please wait a moment” message, including the causes and the potential solutions you can try to fix the problem.
What causes this error?
Several reasons can cause the ‘Updating Office, please wait a moment’ error. Some of the most popular ones are as follows:
- Outdated Windows version
- Corrupt or broken Office installation
- Fast startup
- Multiple Office versions installed on the same machine
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How to fix this?
Here are a few solutions you can take to fix the problem.
Restart your PC
At times, something as simple as restarting your computer can fix seemingly random issues, including BSODs and any booting errors you might run into. If the Office suite on your PC is throwing errors, a restart might be enough.
Update your PC
Another thing you should do is to update your PC. Updating your PC will, in most cases, update your drivers and fix any issues in the process.
Check out this detailed guide to know how to update your PC here
Update Office
Manually updating your Office Suite is also a good idea. That’ll help you get over any stuck or incomplete updates that might’ve been causing the ‘Updating Office, please wait a moment’ issue.
Remove conflicting versions
If you’ve got multiple installations of Office on your PC, remove the ones you don’t use. At times, having different versions of the same program installed on one computer and under one user can cause conflicts between the two, causing errors in both installations.
Reinstall Office
Reinstalling a program removes any corrupted files that may have been causing issues.
Step 1: Press the Windows key and search for any Office program. Then, click on Uninstall from the right side pane.
Step 2: Find the Office installation, click it and click the Uninstall button.
Once the uninstallation is complete, install the suite again and it should work just fine.
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Restart the Click to Run process
There’s a chance that the error is being triggered because of Office’s click to run process being hung. Restart it to see if that solves your problem.
Step 1: Launch the Task Manager and in the Processes tab, find the Microsoft Office Click-to-Run service. Right-click it and select End task.
Step 2: Now head over to the Services tab and find ClickToRunSvc. Right-click the service and click Restart.
This should restart the service and resolve the ‘Updating Office, please wait a moment’ error in the process.
Launch Office as admin
Running programs with administrator privileges can help resolve any permission errors that might be triggering the issue.
Check out this detailed guide to know how to launch a program with administrator privileges.
Disable Fast Startup
While fast startup as a feature is usually meant to help users boot their PCs faster, it can sometimes cause issues with software or hardware. Try disabling fast startup to see if that solves your problem.
Step 1: Press the Windows key and search for Power & Sleep Settings. Click the corresponding search result.
Step 2: Click on Additional power settings on the right.
Step 3: Click Choose what the power buttons do on the left.
Step 4: Click the Change settings that are currently unavailable option and then disable the fast startup, sleep and hibernate settings.
Now restart your PC, and it should work just fine.
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Reregister DLLs
Reregistering some DLLs used by Office can potentially solve the error. Here’s how.
Step 1: Press the Windows key and search for Command Prompt. Click the Run as administrator option on the right.
Step 2: Type the following command and hit enter.
for %i in (%windir%\system32\*.dll) do regsvr32.exe /s %i
Now restart your PC, and Office should work just fine.
Repair your Office installation
Sometimes, you might have a broken Office installation. Follow these steps to repair your installation.
Step 1: Press the Windows key and search for any Office program. Click on Uninstall from the right side pane.
Step 2: Find the Office installation, click it and click the Change button.
Step 3: You’ll see two options as explained below.
- Quick Repair: This will work offline and resolve the most common issues with your Outlook Installation.
- Online Repair: As the name suggests, this option uses the internet and performs a more thorough installation repair.
We recommend trying quick repair first and then moving on to online repair if the former doesn’t solve the ‘Updating Office, please wait a moment’ error.
Perform a clean boot
To isolate the problem, perform a clean boot and then start the missing processes one at a time to find your culprit.
Step 1: Press the Windows key and search for System Configuration.
Step 2: Head over to the Services tab.
Step 3: Uncheck the Hide all Microsoft Services checkbox. Now click the Disable All button.
Step 4: Now head over to the Startup tab and click on Open Task Manager.
Step 5: Click the Startup tab again, select all the services and click the Disable button.
Now try rerunning the problematic program, and the ‘Updating Office, please wait a moment’ error should be gone.
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