May 2021 CU for SharePoint Server 2016 is available for download

The product group released the May 2021 Cumulative Update for SharePoint Server 2016 product family.

This CU also includes Feature Pack 1 which was released with December 2016 CU and Feature Pack 2 which was released with September 2017 CU.

The KB articles for May 2021 CU are available here:

  • KB 5001917 – May 2021 Update for SharePoint Server 2016 (language independent) – This is also a security update!
  • There was no language dependent fix released this month. The most recent language dependent fix is KB 4504723 from April 2021 CU

The download for May 2021 CU is available here:

Important: It is required to install both fixes (language dependent and independent) to fully patch a SharePoint server. This applies also to servers which do not have language packs installed. The reason is that each SharePoint installation includes a language dependent component together with a language independent component. If additional language packs are added later (only) the language dependent fix has to be applied again.

It is irrelevant which language you pick on the drop down in download center. Even the language dependent fixes are all in the same package for all languages.

After installing the fixes you need to run the SharePoint 2016 Products Configuration Wizard on each machine in the farm. If you prefer to run the command line version psconfig.exe ensure to have a look here for the correct options.

SharePoint 2016 May 2021 CU Build Numbers:

Language independent fix: 16.0.5161.1000

To understand the different version numbers please have a look at my article which explains the different SharePoint build numbers.

Please ensure to have a look at the SharePoint Patching Best Practices before applying new fixes.

Related Links:

19 Comments


  1. We published this to our dev and test environments this morning and our design manager stopped working. The design tab (page layouts) no longer shows up and previews don’t work – the snippet doesn’t have the preview code. If we add preview code to the snippet field it’ll then work until we click a button. Is there a workaround for this yet? We have two environments with changes pending to go out so this is affecting our ability to make changes.

    Reply

  2. Hello Stephan,

    We have applied Jan 2021 CU on our farm. Can we apply directly the May 2021 CU (which consist of one sts file ) or should we apply April 2021 CU ( which consist of two files – sts and wssloc file). What is the correct approach.

    Reply

    1. Hi Matheen,

      you should apply the wssloc file from April CU and the sts file from May 2021 CU.

      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

  3. Do you have same issue or this is local on my deployment ? Despite sysadmin rights on sql and dbo on all databases I got this error:

    Upgrade [SearchAdminDatabase Name=] failed.
    (EventID:an59t)
    Exception: User does not have permission to perform this action
    (EventID:an59t)

    April patch went without issues.

    Reply

  4. Everything was normal for us, all tests ran and passed, I checked logs, central admin, etc. and found nothing unusual. The snippets just don’t work now – that’s consistent between environments (developers reported this right away).

    Reply

  5. I am also getting this “User does not have permissions…” error when running the Products Config Wizard.

    An exception of type Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.PostSetupConfigurationTaskException was thrown. Additional exception information:
    Upgrade [SearchAdminDatabase Name=xxxxxxx] failed. (EventID:an59t)

    Exception: User does not have permission to perform this action. (EventID:an59t)

    Reply

    1. Hi Larry,
      I would suggest to open a support ticket with Microsoft to get this investigated.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

      1. Giving temporarily Farm Account Sysadmin on SQL solved issue for us, looks like we have mess in permission strucutre on sql level but on first look dbowner exists on all databases and server roles are dbcreator and security admin… What is interesting setup account with Sysadmin on SQL still has exception “User does not have permission to perform this action. “

        Reply

      2. Using PowerShell, I ran “Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceApplication | Upgrade-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceApplication” and is successfully upgraded all of the search-related databases. After doing that, I reran the Products Config Wizard and it succeeded.

        Since this was our test environment, I reverted to a pre-patch snapshot I had taken to try the process again. It failed again during the Products Config Wizard process when upgrading the Search databases.

        This time, I ran: psconfig.exe -cmd helpcollections -installall -cmd secureresources -cmd services -install -cmd installfeatures -cmd applicationcontent -install -cmd upgrade -inplace b2b -force -wait and it successfully performed the upgrade. I have no idea what is causing it to fail when using the Products Config Wizard utility.

        Reply

  6. After patching we experienced the inability to edit snippets – on patched environments this was consistent and not patched environments it was consistent that we could still edit snippets. Is this a bug that is known and a fix will be released? I’m submitting a support ticket but wanted to see if this was a known issue or would be expected to be unique.

    Reply

  7. Hi Stefan,

    The KB number mentioned for language dependent patch for April 2021 is incorrect I suppose, However the link underlying the KB number is correct.

    From the article:
    “There was no language dependent fix released this month. The most recent language dependent fix is KB 4493167 from April 2021 CU”

    Reply

    1. Thanks Wishnu. It should be fixed now.

      Reply

  8. To follow up, Microsoft reproduced the snippets being broken due to patching. It is being reviewed by the products team and will hopefully be fixed in an upcoming patch cycle.

    Reply

    1. Hey Stephen, Did you get any update from MS if the latest June Patch has this fixed.

      Reply

      1. There was no update. At the end of the support discussion they just said it was being reviewed and should be fixed in the next few patch cycles.

        Reply

        1. Do you know if the bug has been fixed in the July 2021 CU?

          Reply

          1. I did not see this fixed in the recent CU. Developers have figured out a workaround for short-term, but with another patch cycle approaching I hope to see a fix.


  9. Hi Stefan, I am patching my RD farm and getting error
    The web configuration file, C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\16\config\WEBCONFIG.ACCSRV.XML, does not have element “configuration/configSections/sectionGroup[@name=’SharePoint’]” or it is invalid.

    when I open the xml file, that section in fact is missing –
    I have run config wizard again sometimes second, third time resolves but in this case still fails
    Any advice? have you seen this before?

    Reply

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