Common Question: Why do I have to install the language dependent fixes for SharePoint Server 2016 if I do not have a language pack installed?

The answer here is very simple: you need them because SharePoint Server 2016 already ships with a built in language pack!
SharePoint without a language pack would not be usable as it would not be able show any text on any website. It would not know in which language to show the text. To ensure that our customers don’t have to install a language independent core product and afterwards a language pack we always bundle our language independent SharePoint components with one language pack and ship that as our SharePoint Server 2016 installation bits.
You can (e.g.) have an english version of SharePoint Server 2016, a german version of SharePoint Server 2016, a french version of SharePoint Server 2016 and so on.
This can easily be verified on a SharePoint Server 2016 installation by looking into the layouts directory of an english SharePoint Server 2016 installation:

The 1033 directory holds the language dependent files for the english SharePoint installation. Additional language packs will add additional directories aside this directory (e.g. 1031 for german language pack).
So you always should install both patches, the language independent and the language dependent to ensure that the patch level of the language dependent files is in sync with the language independent core components of SharePoint Server 2016.

20 Comments


  1. Does this applies to SharePoint 2019? Do we need to install both language dependent and language independent patch every month?

    Reply

    1. Yes of course. Both fixes are always required.

      Reply

  2. So we only have to download wssloc file (aka language pack) once for all languages whatever the language we chose from Microsoft download center ?

    Reply

  3. So everytime we download the monthly patch in SharePoint update page, we have to also download the wssloc file (SharePoint Server 2016 MUI/language patch) and patch at the same time?

    Also I don’t quite get which is language dependent and which is language independent patch. Could you please explain?

    Reply

    1. yes – you need to download both. The language independent component is the core functionality. It does not includes any strings for the UI as these string need to be localized into multiple languages.
      SharePoint comes with one language when we ship it. E.g, english or german or spanish – depending on which language version you install. And you can later install additional languages using language packs.
      The language independent components are patched separates from the language dependent components.

      Reply

  4. Can I install both types of updates at one time or do I need to install one, run Psconfig and then install the other and run Psconfig again? and which one do I do first?

    Reply

    1. Hi Brad,
      you can install both fixes and run the config wizard afterwards.
      Sequence does not really matter.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

  5. If I’m installing a Language Independent update from a month that does not have a Language dependent update, can I apply the language dependent update from the previous month at the same time and just run the config wizard once, or do I need to update twice. In this scenario, I haven’t updated in a few months.

    Reply

    1. Hi Mike,
      on config wizard run is always sufficient. Install all desired updates and run the config wizard afterwards.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

  6. Wanted to clarify…
    If last month we installed the latest language independent/dependent updates and this month there is only a language independent update.
    Do we
    1. install this month’s language independent update only and then run psconfig or
    2. install both this month’s language independent update and last month’s language dependent update (though that was already installed last month) and then run psconfig?

    Reply

    1. Hi Chon,
      you cannot install a fix twice. If it was already installed last month, then you only install the remaining fix for the current month.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

  7. Also can we use wsus to apply these updates (and run psconfig afterwards) or should we be discussing the updates manually from their kb articles?

    Reply

  8. Hi Stefan, what is your view on deploying these updates via wsus/windows update (and running psconfig afterwards) versus manually downloading the updates from the kb articles?

    Reply

    1. Hi Chon,
      SharePoint fixes cannot be uninstalled. It is recommended to evaluate all SharePoint fixes in a test environment before applying in production. In addition the fixes have to be installed on all servers in a SharePoint farm in sync and it is mandatory to run the SharePoint configuration Wizard afterwards.
      To correctly perform these steps I would recommend to to them manually.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

  9. Hi Stefan,

    We have installed SharePoint 2016 on a standalone VM.

    But when we ran the config wizard came across the “RPC unavailable” error for which we installed the Patch KB3115299 as per this article https://www.sharepointdiary.com/2016/09/failed-to-create-the-configuration-database-the-rpc-server-is-unavailable.html. Once we ran this Patch we were able to Run the Config Wizard without any issue.

    But, when we tried to install the Arabic Language Pack, The installation fails every time. Any ideas why?

    Thanks

    Reply

    1. Hi Soni,
      what error do you get when installing the language pack?
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

        1. In this case you need to check the msi installer log to see why it failed.

          Reply

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