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

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

  • KB 3114935 – SharePoint Foundation 2013 April 2016 CU
  • KB 3114938 – SharePoint Server 2013 April 2016 CU
  • KB 3114936 – SharePoint Server 2013 with Project Server April 2016 CU
  • KB 3114934 – Office Web Apps Server 2013 April 2016 CU – This is also a security fix!

The Full Server Packages for April 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 April 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:

16 Comments


  1. I noticed there was a fix in there for “When you try to create a SharePoint group that has a specially formatted name, the IIS worker process may restart.” Is there any posts out there or documentation regarding this bug? It would be nice to know how to not trigger this problem until we are able to test/apply the CU.

    Reply

    1. This can (e.g.) happen if you are trying to add a site group named “abc?%” (the last two characters are important).

      Reply

  2. I posted this in yammer and Dean Gross told me to ask you 😉
    I want to try a new approach i found below a blog post.
    I already tried it out in a VM Sandbox (and it worked) but i’m not sure if this is supported by Microsoft.
    I install the patch with the powershell script provided by here:
    https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/russmax/2013/04/01/why-sharepoint-2013-cumulative-update-takes-5-hours-to-install/
    But then i do not execute the Configuration Wizard. First i upgrade my content database by executing this powershell line:
    “Get-SPContentDatabase | Upgrade-SPContentDatabase -UseSnapshot -Confirm:$false”
    (I read somewhere that this only works with SQL Enterprise Server)
    Big advantage here is. The sql server performes a snapshot for the database and if someone tries to access a site that is in a content db upgraded right now he/she will see this information (see picture)
    After upgrading this content db the user can proceed working.
    After this powershell command is finished i execute the wizard and it upgrades the remaining DBs. As i did not find another blog post about this great feature i’m wondering what’s wrong with that 🙂
    Is there something?
    Thanks
    Stephan

    Reply

    1. Hi Stephan,
      this approach is perfectly fine – there is nothing wrong with it. It’s used by various different IT departments to reduce the downtime caused by SharePoint patching. You can also run multiple Powershell sessions to upgrade several content databases in parallel if you like.
      And you are right: you need SQL enterprise editon to make use of the snapshot functionality.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

  3. Does it include the fix for the Follow functionality to work in a multi farm environment ?

    Reply

    1. Yes it includes this fix.

      Reply

  4. Stefan
    Attempting to patch SharePoint 2013/Project Server 2013 DEV 2 server farm to April 2016 CU
    SharePoint. (KB31148936)
    1 server installs successfully with no issues
    1 server generates error “An error occurred while running detection”
    Attempted to bypass check using packagename  PACKAGE.BYPASS.DETECTION.CHECK=1
    On unsuccessful server received error “The installation of this package failed”
    Also attempted to stop search service using powershell script but package still fails
    Both servers Windows 2008 R2
    Currently @ SharePoint 15.0.4571.1502 & SP 1
    Project Server 15.04649.1001
    Next steps?

    Reply

    1. Hi Walt,
      never(!) use PACKAGE.BYPASS.DETECTION.CHECK=1 without being guided by Microsoft Support.
      If you manage to force a patch on a system where the fix misses prerequisites using this option you would need to reinstall the box afterwards.
      The symptoms are not sufficient to diagnose the problem.
      If you need assistance with with the installation of a CU you should open a support ticket with Microsoft.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

  5. After upgrading to April 2016 CU Open with Explorer is not working , We are having problem in opening from this location in explorer & Add this site to trusted sites, This is already there in trusted site list but still not working, Any idea?

    Reply

  6. Is anyone else having issues disabling alerts after installing the April 16 CU? I can no longer disable alerts at the web app level via the Central Admin, stsadm or powershell. The settings update fine when I check, but list alerts continue to trigger. thanks.

    Reply

  7. Hi Stefan,
    Do you know if SQL Server 2014 SP1 CU 7 is supported with this April 2016 CU for SharePoint 2013 ?
    Thanks in advance

    Reply

  8. After installing the April, 2016 CU, receive the following error message on all newsfeed web parts: “SharePoint site feed web part failed to render “Wiki content” column because of an error in the “Multiple lines of text” field type control. Object reference not set to an instance of an object. Web part causes page not to open. Any thoughts on a repair?

    Reply

    1. Hi Rae,
      I just double checked and this is not a known issue.
      I would recommend to open a support ticket with Microsoft to get this analyzed.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

    2. Did you solve it ?

      Reply

  9. Hi Stefan,
    In one of our SharePoint server 2013 farm we have installed this update however post installing the same, we can’t fetch any usage report or search report.
    We have already checked and confirmed everything is configured properly with respect to analytic.
    We have even confirmed that enable receiver value is true and receiver has required value.
    What should we do? Please suggest.

    Reply

    1. Hi Pankaj,
      please verify if the issue still occurs with the latest CU (currently August 2016 CU) to ensure that this is not an issue which has already been addressed. If the issue still occurs with the latest CU I would recommend to open a support ticket with Microsoft to get this analyzed.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

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