November 2015 CU for SharePoint 2013 is available for download

The product group released the November 2015 Cumulative Update for the SharePoint 2013 product family.
For November 2015 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, November 2015 CU includes all fixes from November 2015 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 November CU should be available at the following locations in a couple of hours:

  • KB 3101368 – SharePoint Foundation 2013 November 2015 CU
  • KB 3101373 – SharePoint Server 2013 November 2015 CU
  • KB 3101369 – SharePoint Server 2013 with Project Server November 2015 CU
  • KB 3101367 – Office Web Apps Server 2013 November 2015 CU – This is also a security fix!

The Full Server Packages for November 2015 CU are available through the following links:

Important: If your farm has been on a patch level lower than July 2015 CU: Unlike other CUs – after installing the November 2015 CU you need to run the SharePoint 2013 Products Configuration Wizard on each machine in the farm.
If you don’t run PSCONFIG after installing November 2015 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:

64 Comments


  1. Hello Stefan,
    i upgraded CU October to CU November and run psconfiggui.exe on all servers.
    SearchDB is now “Database is in compatibility range and upgrade is recommended”
    Search_AnalyticsReportingStore is “Database is too old and upgrade is required”
    an the Search_CrawlStore is also “Database is too old and upgrade is required”
    … contains user-defined schema. Databases must be empty before theycan be used. Delete all of the tables, stored procedures and other objects or use a different database.”

    Reply

    1. Hi Andy,
      I haven’t seen this issue. I would recommend to open a support case with Microsoft to get this analyzed.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

    2. Hi,
      could you run the following powershell commands?
      (Get-SPFarm).NeedsUpgradeIncludeChildren
      Get-SPPendingUpgradeActions -RootObject (Get-SPFarm) -Recursive

      Reply

      1. Too late, i have restored -Item “Global Search Settings”, -Item “Shared Services Applications\Search” and -Item “Shared Services Proxies\Search” from a farmbackup and all databases are okay and doesn´t needs an update?! Crazy world…

        Reply

        1. It could have been the same bug I had. The Microsoft.SharePoint.Upgrade.SPServerSequence was waiting to execute on the DB server. This Action will not run unless you run psconfig on the server to which it is assigned and you will not run psconfig there because there is no SharePoint installed on the DB server. Too bad you didn’t show this to MS Support, as it might come back in the future and I can’t repro it.

          Reply

  2. How long should it take to run psconfigui for this update? it has been running for 15 hours in my dev environment, which seems very long. It still shows that it is on Step 8 of 10. How can I tell if it is actually working?
    Also, can we run the exe on a WFE at the same time as on the App server, or do we have to wait until is done on the App server to start on the WFE?
    TIA
    Dean

    Reply

    1. Hi Dean,
      that depends on the number and size of the content databases and the previous patch level.
      Customers often detach all content databases before running psconfig to speed up the process and later add the content databases back in parallel from separate powershell windows as this can be executed in parallel.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

      1. This is a new farm that was created with the October 2015 CU a few weeks ago, it has about 15 content databases, that total around 300 GB.

        Reply

  3. We ran into an interesting issue with this last round of PUs and CUs:
    On 10 Nov 2015 we installed the PUs that came out for SharePoint (2010/2013). The SPS2013 versions seemed to break the internal version tracking for the .DLLs (etc.) that were on the various farm servers. This gave us an error running the PSConfig (SharePoint Product Configuration Wizard GUI [specifically]) command, by telling us that the language packs and one other KB required an update from October (which had been installed).
    So we attempted to install the November 2015 CU as a work around… Installing the latest CU will usually overwrite all of released updates since last Service Pack, natürlich? No… While it did resolve an issue with language packs, it did not fix the one odd ball KB that the Config Wizard was reporting as missing.
    We found this command: Get-SPProduct -Local and ran it on each server in the farm.
    That appears to have resolved the inability to run the Configuration Wizard (which we understand you need to do after you install any patches to a farm). We *think* based on documentation that this command re-enumerates all information from the Registry and MS Installer, thus updating the versions listed in SharePoint 2013’s internal database.
    I wonder how common this is?
    Stefan, any clarification of my inaccuracies would be well appreciated! -Gerhard

    Reply

    1. Hi Gerhard,
      your summary about Get-SPProduct -Local is pretty accurate.
      I personally did not have an occasion that I had to use it. I upgraded several farms to October and November CU without any issues but we have seen a small number of customer cases in the past with farms on various different patch levels where it was required to run it. Usually there are one or two servers in the farm where the central admin reports a missing patch which prevents PSConfig from running and that can be fixed by running Get-SPProduct -Local on the reported server.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

      1. I run Get-SPProduct -local on each farm server after installing the CU on the server. I’ve added this step to my patching SOP.

        Reply

    2. Thank you for this! This helped me in our environment, I had to run Get-SPProduct -local on a couple servers prior to running the product config wizard.

      Reply

  4. Hello,
    Can someone help me with this situation:
    We have farm with build version (15.0.4667.1000) now I’m trying update it to the latest version, but getting error message:
    “The expected version of the product was not found on the system”.
    Thank you

    Reply

      1. Hi Stefan,
        Thanks for quick answer:
        Here is the output from my SP farm:
        Products and Language Packs
        ——————————————-
        DisplayName : Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013
        DisplayVersion : 15.0.4569.1506
        DisplayName : Language Pack for SharePoint 2013 – Estonian/Eesti
        DisplayVersion : 15.0.4454.1509
        DisplayName : Language Pack for SharePoint 2013 – Lithuanian/Lietuvių k.
        DisplayVersion : 15.0.4420.1017
        DisplayName : Language Pack for SharePoint 2013 – Latvian/latviski
        DisplayVersion : 15.0.4420.1017
        so if I understand you correctly I need to update language packs to version 15.0.4569.1506?
        I also don’t understand why “Get-SpFarm | select version” showing build version 15.0.4667.1000 when this script showing version 15.0.4569.1506?
        Thank you.

        Reply

        1. Hi,
          all your language packs need upgrade.
          There is no single sharepoint version.
          Each component has a different one and the version returned by get-spfarm only returns the version of the language independent sharepoint foundation number.
          It is impossible to just look at a single number to understand the sharepoint version.
          The best information is available on the “Check product and patch installation status” in the central admin.
          See here for details:
          http://blogs.technet.com/b/stefan_gossner/archive/2014/08/19/sharepoint-patching-demystified.aspx
          You can find SP1 for the language pack here:
          http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=42543
          Cheers,
          Stefan

          Reply

          1. The difference between 15.0.4667.1000 and 15.0.4569.1506 is that the first one is the patch level and the second one is the patch baseline (here the SP1 baseline for the core product and RTM for the language packs).
            These are different things. Each CUs contain fixes up to a specific baseline in the past. That can be either RTM or SP1. The current CUs only support the SP1 baseline.


          2. Hello Stefan.
            I successfully installed SP1 for the language pack, but still getting the same error message.


          3. Can you please run the powershell script again and share the output?


          4. I don’t know why, but output not changed:
            Products and Language Packs
            ——————————————-
            DisplayName : Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013
            DisplayVersion : 15.0.4569.1506
            DisplayName : Language Pack for SharePoint 2013 – Estonian/Eesti
            DisplayVersion : 15.0.4454.1509
            DisplayName : Language Pack for SharePoint 2013 – Lithuanian/Lietuvių k.
            DisplayVersion : 15.0.4420.1017
            DisplayName : Language Pack for SharePoint 2013 – Latvian/latviski
            DisplayVersion : 15.0.4420.1017


          5. did you run PSCONFIG after installing the service packs?


          6. Yes, PSconfig was executed on all servers in the farm.


          7. Ok, if that is the case the required service packs were not installed. Thats all I can see from the data?
            If you try to install them again does it work?


          8. Did you install SP1 for EACH language pack? You go to the SP1 Language Pack download page Stefan showed (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=42543) and choose the language in the dropdown. So in your case you need seperate installs for Estonian, Lithuanian and Latvian – three exe files. My guess is you installed SP1 for the English Language Pack.
            I’ve seen the same issue on some dev machines and we ended up uninstalling the language pack, installing CU and then installing the language pack back, so you can do that if you’re on a tight schedule and deal with the language packs later.


          9. The idea of uninstalling the LP, then installing the CU and then installing the language pack again means that you have a complete mix of patch levels and some of the language specific files will not patch to the latest CU.
            Such a mix of build levels is highly discouraged as you can end up with all kind of errors.


          10. Hi,
            Looks that it was my fail as i only installed EN language pack. I downloaded LP’s for other LT LV EE languages and it OK now. Thank you for help.


  5. I applied the November CU last night and after applying the updates the sites all came up after the product config wizard was ran but I noticed in the event viewer sporadically there is the following message on every server ‘Load control template file /_controltemplates/15/KpiListFormTemplates.ascx failed: Thread was being aborted.’ The site is working and I don’t see any issues with functionality, any thoughts on why this is appearing?

    Reply

    1. Hi,
      “Thread was being aborted” usually means that Response.Redirect was called in the middle of handling the request (possibly a redirect from site/_layouts/… to site/15/_layouts/… or redirect to start.aspx, or redirect to AccessDenied). Nothing to worry about if stuff works.

      Reply

  6. Stefan
    I saw this error appear after installing October 2015 CU. Am still seeing it for November 2015 CU. In Search Service Crawl Reports, when trying to view Crawl Latency.

    Reply

    1. Hi Stephan,
      please open a support case to get this investigated.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

    2. Hello,
      Did you get the issue resolved? If so, I would appreciate if you could kindly repond.
      I am getting the exact same error on my farm and we are currently on Oct’15 CU (which is 15.0.4763.1000 and was successfully applied in Oct’15) . However we do apply the monthly SharePoint updates and the Config DB version shows 15.0.4797.1000 (which is the version for Feb’16 CU – which we have not yet applied).
      Cheers…
      Ashok

      Reply

  7. Hi
    Im wondering if it is ok to have sharepoint build number is 15.0.4571.1000 but all my language pack has 15.0.4571.1502 build? or did i miss some step?
    Note: i applied Project Server 2013 November 2015 CU
    TIA

    Reply

      1. Hey Stefan,
        Your Link is broken course “/Cheers,” is included.

        Reply

        1. Thanks for the hint!
          I fixed the link.

          Reply

  8. Hello Stefan,
    I am going to build SharePoint Foundation 2013 on single PC.
    It supports multi languages (English and Russian).
    Scenario 1 (do not use slipstream)
    1-1 install SharePoint Foundation 2013 RTM (English)
    1-2 install SharePoint Foundation 2013 Language Pack (Russian)
    1-3 install SP1 for SharePoint Foundation 2013 (English)
    1-4 install SP1 for SharePoint Foundation 2013 Language Pack (Russian)
    Is this procedure correct?
    Scenario 2 (use slipstream)
    2-1 install SharePoint Foundation 2013 with SP1 (Volume License, English)
    2-2 install SharePoint Foundation 2013 Language Pack (Russian)
    2-3 install SP1 for SharePoint Foundation 2013 Language Pack (Russian)
    Scenario 3 (use slipstream)
    3-1 install SharePoint Foundation 2013 with SP1 (Volume License, English)
    3-2 install SP1 for SharePoint Foundation 2013 Language Pack (Russian)
    Which scenario (2 or 3) should I choose?
    Regards,
    Kino

    Reply

  9. I just updated our environment with this latest CU. Here are issues I’m experiencing. Can anyone confirm they have the same on theirs’?
    1. User Profile
    When uploading user pictures, the images are named after the person who uploaded it and not the user login. This results in images referencing the same item.
    2. Top Nav Links
    Ampersand (&) are not decoded causing links to break. If you try to add a link like http://abc?a=1&b=2, Sharepoint saves it as http://abc?a=1&b=2 which does not work.
    3. PDF – Edit Button Grayed Out
    The edit button is grayed out when selecting it. This occurs only on sites that are hosted on an external server.
    4. PDF – Double Prompt
    On libraries configured to open documents with the client, when opening PDF files, users are prompted to open the document twice. It then opens the PDF using WOPI and using the client.

    Reply

    1. Hi Paul,
      I would recommend to open support cases for each of these issues to get them analyzed.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

  10. Hello Stefan,
    I am doing my first CU install for a SharePoint 2013 Farm. The client I am doing this for hasn’t installed a CU since their SP 1 install. Since psconfig needs to be run on all Farm servers I am concerned about their SQL box needing to restart. It is a shared SQL resource and I have been told that impact needs to be minimal. With SP 2013 and the CU I am installing have you seen any need to restart a SP Server after the install and/or psconfig? I just want to make sure that I convey the need for a restart to my client properly.
    Thanks

    Reply

    1. SQL Servers don’t have to be restarted for CU installation.
      If some files are locked on the SharePoint server you might have to restart this server if the installer cannot replace the file.

      Reply

  11. Aftering installing, we started experiencing some cross domain scripting issues on old 2010 sites with custom JS. Seems at the moment that the designer generated dialog links in the XSLT was the cause.

    Reply

  12. Hello,
    we experience a strange issue with the November CU for SharePoint 2013. We try to change a user profile picture for another user in the central administration. But the picture is not saved with the user name of the edited profile, the picture name points always to the name of the current logged in user.
    For example:
    – Logged in with Account “SP_Admin”
    – Change User Profile Picture from “User A”
    – The picture is saved with the name “sp_admin_MThumb.jpg”, not as expected “user_a_MThumb.jpg”
    We have this problem on several servers with November 2015 CU installed. Is this a known issue? Is there any workaround available?
    Thanks for your help
    Frank

    Reply

    1. Hi Frank,
      it seems that has not yet been reported to us. Please open a support case with Microsoft Support to get this issue analyzed.
      Thanks,
      Stefan

      Reply

    2. Frank,
      We have the same issue. I’m sure this is a bug in the latest CU. Haven’t been able to find any workaround besides getting users to upload their own pictures, which we don’t want to happen.

      Reply

      1. Hi _Niche_,
        if this is a problem you need us to investigate please ensure to open a support case with Microsoft.
        Thanks,
        Stefan

        Reply

  13. Hi Stefan,
    We ran into interestng issue : Failed to set SpView .JSLink for view
    Do You have any clue about it?
    Thank You
    Ender

    Reply

    1. Hi Ender,
      this is not a known issue. I would recommend to open a support case if you need this to be investigated.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

      1. Hi Stefan,
        We already resolved it.
        Thanx anyway
        Ender

        Reply

  14. Stefan,
    The office webapps, are listed as CU, however when you click on the link they say its a Security Update, so if I update the Nov 2015CU of Office Webapps, are they cumulative in the sense that they will install previous CU’s, SC, HFs as of Nov 2015?

    Reply

  15. Hi Stefan,
    I have a SharePoint 2013 installed with SP1. I installed the Dutch language pack with SP1. I installed the november 2015 CU on all my servers. All went well. When I now run the config wizard I get the error:
    Update for Microsoft SharePoint Enterprise Server 2013 (KB3101373) 64-Bit Edition (15.0.4771.1000)
    Missing on SPAPP-T
    This happens on all my servers. When I I restart the CU I get already installed not affected.
    Any ideas?

    Reply

    1. Hi Danny,
      please try running “Get-SPProduct -local” on the machine that states that the fix is missing (SPAPP-T per your error above) and run the psconfig wizard afterwards.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

  16. Hello Stefan,
    We currently have on two farms Q and P system with patch level 15.0.4797.1000.
    The reporting service DBs (serviceDB, AlertingDB and TempDB) always shown with status “Database is in compatibility range and upgrade is recommended” .
    I have tried several approaches with no luck.
    psconfig or psconfigui runs smooth. Due that their are not content DBs I am not able to use the upgrade sp contentDB cmlet.
    I tried also to get the DB into variable and to Provision, but I was not possible as well, like:
    (Get-SPDatabase | ?{$_.type -eq “Microsoft.ReportingServices.SharePoint.SharedService.Service.ReportingServiceAlertingDatabase”}).Provision()
    “Exception calling “Provision” with “0” argument(s): “XX_ReportingServices_Alerting on XX_DBAliaseFarm contains user-defined schema. Databases
    must be empty before they can be used. Delete all of the tables, stored procedures and other objects or use a different database.”
    (Get-SPFarm).NeedsUpgradeIncludeChildren
    Result: False
    Get-SPPendingUpgradeActions -RootObject (Get-SPFarm) –Recursive
    ObjectName : SQL Reporting Service Application
    ObjectType : Microsoft.ReportingServices.SharePoint.SharedService.Service.ReportingWebServiceApplication
    ParentName : XX_Config
    ParentType : Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPFarm
    Level : 1
    Status : OK
    stsadm -o localupgradestatus
    [39] other objects encountered, [0] of them still need upgrade or cannot be upgraded.
    Any idea?

    Reply

    1. Hi Hugo,
      can you try this command:
      PSConfig.exe -cmd upgrade -inplace b2b -force -cmd applicationcontent -install -cmd installfeatures
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

      1. Hi Stefan thanks for reply,
        I already tried that and also:
        PSConfig.exe -cmd upgrade -inplace b2b -wait -cmd applicationcontent -install -cmd installfeatures -cmd secureresources

        Reply

        1. Hi Hugo,
          then I would recommend to open a support ticket with Microsoft to get this issue analyzed in more detail.
          Cheers,
          Stefan

          Reply

  17. Hi,
    I have an issue multi values filter does not work for Calculated column in my SharePoint 2013 on Prim application. When i selected more than one item but its filtered only one value (for other field of different data type ,it is working). So one of SharePoint Community member suggested me that it is known bug and rectify by MS in CU Nov 2015. Before convey this info to my business user i wanted to make sure that this issue is covered by CU Nov 2015.
    Can you help me out.
    Thanks
    Vikas Mishra

    Reply

    1. Hi Vikas,
      I haven’t heard about this issue – so I cannot comment on whether this is fixed in November CU or not. I would recommend to evaluate this in your test environment.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

  18. Hello Stefan,
    We want to Minimize Error ” Processing this item failed because the parser server ran out of memory ” During Crawling of SharePoint 2013 search”
    While looking for this on Microsoft sites , we Found this KB Article ( https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3101362) i.e. Novemeber update from Microsoft which have the fix to minimze the impact.
    But we dont know the version of SharePoint Farm after seeing this update? Also i check its not an CU but only a simple update but the Official CU KB Article is what you described in your Article here “https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3101373” which contains BUG for Outbound Query federation , although we are using Inbound but not outbound and will be fixed in Jan 2016 , CU
    Can you suggest which UPdate we will prefer i.e November 2015 update only or Novemeber CU 2015 update for our Problem.
    In case you suggest for Novemeber update only then what will be version for SharePoint 2013 farm ?
    In case you suggest for Novemeber CU update then we have to Install Jan 2016 update , we agree ? Does it breaks inbound Search since it included Provision for CSS application
    Thanks for suggestion
    Can you suggest

    Reply

    1. Hi Neeraj,
      the fix for 3101362 does not change the database schema version – so you cannot find a specific version number in the Central Admin for this fix.
      You can either install 3101362 or the full November 2015 CU – both will include this fix. You can also go for any later CU (Dec, Jan, …) depending on which fixes you need.
      As always ensure to verify your fixes on a test environment before applying to production.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

      1. Thanks Stefan , so it means we dont have to run PSconfig after installing Patch for November update . we just have to install on all servers in farm and then just reboot ? Can you please suggest.
        Also If we go for FEB CU 2016 , which includes Provision for Cloud Search service Application , does it impact , the current set of Inbound search which was implemented just 4 months back via KB articles
        https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn607305.aspx
        https://technet.microsoft.com/en-in/library/dn197169.aspx#feedback
        In short our main worry is if we install Janor Feb 2016 CU , it will not impact the Currenlty set up previous hybrid set up which was not the latest one.
        Can you please suggest

        Reply

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