July 2024 CU for SharePoint Server 2016 is available for download

13 Comments

1. 

   Martins Grube
   On 11. July 2024 Permalink

   Hi Stefan,

   We are facing an issue after installation of July 2024 CU in a SharePoint 2016 environment. So far we have installed CU in the Test environment. We are not proceeding with installation in the Production environment because of the issue.
   Before the installation we had June 2024 CU in place.

   Perhaps you can help with it. Maybe something is wrong with the CU package.

   Web Application “web.config” file has changed after the CU installation. Specifically, one line has changed:

   The attribute “Safe” was set to “True” before July 2024 CU. After CU installation the attribute value became “False”.
   It is the only change in the “web.config” file.

   This change appears to be affecting Site Collection creation via PowerShell / code.

   Sample script:

   $webApp = Get-SPWebApplication “{WebAppUrl}”
   $db = $webApp.ContentDatabases[[GUID]”{DB_GUID}”]

   $db.Sites.Add(“/sites/SiteCollection1”, {AccountName}, {EMail})

   Site Collection creation is failing with the following errors:

   1) In PowerShell:

   Exception calling “Add” with “3” argument(s): “This page has encountered a critical error. Contact your system administrator if this problem persists.”

   2) In SharePoint Logs:

   Error: Failure in loading assembly: Microsoft.SharePoint.ApplicationPages, Version=16.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c
   Safe mode did not start successfully. Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.WebPartPageUserException: This page has encountered a critical error. Contact your system administrator if this problem persists.
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.ApplicationRuntime.SafeControlsList.InitSafeControlsInfoFromConfig(Boolean inNonVRootAppDomain, SafeControlsContainer safeControlsContainer, SPWebApplication app, SPUrlZone zone)
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.ApplicationRuntime.SafeControlsList..ctor(SPWebApplication app, SPUrlZone zone)
   at Microsoft.SharePoint.ApplicationRuntime.SafeControls..ctor(SPWebApplication app, SPUrlZone zone)
   Error importing WebPart. Assembly Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal, Version=16.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c, TypeName. Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.WebControls.ContactFieldControl. This page has encountered a critical error. Contact your system administrator if this problem persists.

   https://{WebAppURL}/sites/SiteCollection1/_catalogs/masterpage/TabViewPageLayout.aspx – An unexpected error has been encountered in this Web Part. Error: This page has encountered a critical error. Contact your system administrator if this problem persists.

   Note that a Site Collection can be created in the same Database via Central Admin UI. But it is failing via PowerShell / code.
   We have custom solution where Site Collections are automatically getting created via code. So, our custom solution is now failing – Site Collections cannot be created.

   We have tried to manually change the value of the attribute “Safe” to “True” in the above mentioned “web.config” line – then Site Collection creation starts to work as expected. But we do not consider it a permanent solution – we did it only for a test.

   Is the above issue something that may be CU related?

   We observed another strange behavior during the Configuration Wizard after CU installation. In all the previous CU update instances the Configuration Wizard completed without issues.
   But after July 2024 CU there were hundreds of warnings for many Databases in the Upgrade Log file (no errors, though). Perhaps it is also somehow related?

   Here is an example of the warning:

   WebPart class [9a8d6fd1-1df5-5af8-3ed4-08962d6091eb] (class [Microsoft.Office.Server.Search.WebControls.ContentBySearchWebPart] from assembly [Microsoft.Office.Server.Search, Version=16.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c]) is referenced [12] times in the database [{DatabaseName}], but is not installed on the current farm. Please install any feature/solution which contains this web part.

   Tests in UI of our solutions haven’t revealed any issues yet – all web parts (both standard and custom) are working as expected.

   Thank you in advance!

   Regards,
   Martins Grube

   Reply
   1. 

      Stefan Goßner
      On 12. July 2024 Permalink

      Hi Martins,

      please open a support case to allow us to investigate this issue.

      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply
   2. 

      Stefan Goßner
      On 22. July 2024 Permalink

      The issue has now been documented here:
      https://blog.stefan-gossner.com/2024/07/22/trending-issue-certain-powershell-operations-failing-after-installing-july-2024-cu-for-sharepoint-2016-2019/

      Reply
2. 

   Martins Grube
   On 11. July 2024 Permalink

   I see that my attempts of formatting the above message have been removed. Also the “web.config” line is removed.

   This is the “web.config” line I was writing about – I removed few symbols – hopefully it will be kept when I add this comment:
   SafeControl Assembly=”Microsoft.SharePoint.ApplicationPages, Version=16.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c” Namespace=”Microsoft.SharePoint.ApplicationPages” TypeName=”SPThemes” Safe=”False” AllowRemoteDesigner=”False” SafeAgainstScript=”False”

   If there is another way to provide you information (which would retain formatting), then I could use it as well.

   Reply
3. 

   Kjell Robertsson
   On 12. July 2024 Permalink

   When applying the patch for SharePoint 2026 on prem, the test of the content databases reports a lot of missing web parts.
   Has anyone else got this issue?

   Reply
   1. 

      Martins Grube
      On 12. July 2024 Permalink

      Hi Kjell,

      The same here. I have mentioned it also in my comment above from July 11 (towards the end of it).

      Regards,
      Martins Grube

      Reply
      1. 

         Stefan Goßner
         On 16. July 2024 Permalink

         So far I have not see a support case on this topic. Without a support case we cannot engage the product group to investigate the issue.

         Reply
         1. 

            Martins Grube
            On 16. July 2024 Permalink

            I created a support case yesterday (July 15).
            It took some days as we decided to re-try the CU installation (the problem was repeatable) and we agreed internally to proceed with a Microsoft support case.
            I can send you the ticket number privately if needed.

            Reply
   2. 

      Stefan Goßner
      On 12. July 2024 Permalink

      Hi Kjell,

      please open a ticket with Microsoft Support on this to ensure that this gets investigated.

      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply
      1. 

         Stefan Goßner
         On 16. July 2024 Permalink

         So far I have not see a support case on this topic. Without a support case we cannot engage the product group to investigate the issue.

         Reply
   3. 

      Stefan Goßner
      On 22. July 2024 Permalink

      Hi Kjell,
      see here for details:
      https://blog.stefan-gossner.com/2024/07/22/trending-issue-certain-powershell-operations-failing-after-installing-july-2024-cu-for-sharepoint-2016-2019/
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply
4. 

   BL
   On 16. July 2024 Permalink

   Same issue here. SQL server browser services stopped running and needed to be restarted to resolve.

   Reply
5. 

   Shirley Elimanco
   On 23. September 2024 Permalink

   Thanks Martins Grube for posting the issue here as we also experience the exact problem posted in this site. We’ve been investigating this issue for more than a week until we found this.

   Error: Failure in loading assembly: Microsoft.SharePoint.ApplicationPages, Version=16.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c

   Reply