March 2026 CU for SharePoint Server Subscription Edition is available for download

15 Comments

1. 

   Fredrik Lundell
   On 11. March 2026 Permalink

   Hi Stefan! So this time March release is not a feature update…correct?

   Reply
   1. 

      Stefan Goßner
      On 11. March 2026 Permalink

      Hi Frederik,
      this is correct. March CU is not a feature update.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply
2. 

   Christian
   On 11. March 2026 Permalink

   Is there any information why this CU does not include a 26H1 feature update?

   Reply
   1. 

      Stefan Goßner
      On 11. March 2026 Permalink

      Hi Christian,
      there is no fixed month for a feature update.
      It is in most cases March or September but can be any other month as well.

      For more details:
      https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/product-servicing-policy/faq/faq-subscription-edition

      “…Feature Updates, which will be released twice a year (once in the spring and once in the autumn)”

      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply
3. 

   Christian
   On 11. March 2026 Permalink

   Stefan, I’m upgrading from the January 2026 patch and psconfig is throwing a SQL exception during the upgrade sequence: An exception of type Microsoft.Data.SqlClient.SqlException was thrown. Additional exception information: Invalid column name ‘SAFE_NOTIFICATION_DATA’. Has this issue come across your radar? I can reproduce it by running Upgrade-SPContentDatabase on any content database in my farm.

   Reply
   1. 

      Stefan Goßner
      On 11. March 2026 Permalink

      Hi Christian,
      this seems to be a project server related column. I have not heard or seen this issue – but Project Server is supported by a different team than SharePoint.
      My suggestion would be to open a support case with Microsoft to ensure this is investigated.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply
      1. 

         Jason
         On 12. March 2026 Permalink

         Hi Stefan,
         We’re also seeing the SAFE_NOTIFICATION_DATA SQL exception during psconfig/Upgrade‑SPContentDatabase on SharePoint Server Subscription Edition after updating to the March 2026 CU (farm previously on January 2026 CU). We don’t use Project Server and have:

         No Project Server Service Applications, Proxies, or WSP solutions in the farm.
         All content DBs report HasExternalProjectData = False.
         Test‑SPContentDatabase shows no MissingFeature or Project‑related issues.

         However, in the config database the following Project Server farm services are still registered:

         Microsoft Project Server Diagnostics Service
         Project Server Application Service
         Microsoft Project Server Events Service (ProjectEventService16)
         Microsoft Project Server Calculation Service (ProjectCalcService16)
         Microsoft Project Server Queuing Service (ProjectQueueService16)

         This appears to force the Project Server post‑upgrade path even in a farm without PWA, which then fails on the missing column SAFE_NOTIFICATION_DATA.
         Posting here to help correlate reports;

         Cheers,

         Reply
      2. 

         chao
         On 12. March 2026 Permalink

         I can reproduce this problem too. March has problem and we need to fix it.

         Reply
   2. 

      Urs Wedershoven
      On 12. March 2026 Permalink

      We also have this exact error message in one of our customer’s farms. There is no Project Server installed as far as I know. The customer does not have a Project Server license either.
      We have an english SPSE installation with the german languge pack. We are also coming from the January 2026 patch.

      Reply
4. 

   vikram
   On 18. March 2026 Permalink

   for the issue mentioned by users for march do we need to skip it until fixed

   Reply
   1. 

      Stefan Goßner
      On 18. March 2026 Permalink

      Hi Vikram,
      in case you mean the SAFE_NOTIFICATION_DATA error – no.
      The issue only affects database schema upgrades from January 2026 CU to March 2026 CU.
      Older or new database schemas can be upgraded without a problem.
      If your servers are currently on January 2026 CU ensure to first install February 2026 CU and run the config wizard to upgrade the database schemas to February 2026 CU level. A
      Afterwards you can install March 2026 CU without any problems.
      If your servers are on an older CU oder your servers already have February 2026 CU installed and the config wizard has upgraded the databases you can also install March 2026 CU without any problems.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply
5. 

   Reto
   On 20. March 2026 Permalink

   Dear Stefan, I really appreciate your blog. If you regularly install SharePoint CU, you really have to know your blog! Even after extensive research, I haven’t found a solution to the following problem. I hope you can help me… We install SharePoint CU in our SharePoint Subscription Edition farms 3-4 times a year (depending on the criticality of the security fixes). Everything’s working perfectly so far. Immediately after installing the CU (incl. running the Config Wizard :-)), the upgrade sessions for the individual farm servers are visible in Central Administration under “Check upgrade status” (with the status “Success”). When I access the “Upgrade Status” Page again a few weeks later, before the next update, the records from the last update have disappeared (“There are no items to show in this view.”). Can this be changed (e.g. retention time for these records can be configured or deletion of these records can be switched off)?

   Reply
   1. 

      Stefan Goßner
      On 20. March 2026 Permalink

      Hi Reto,
      this question has not come up before and I never looked into this – so I cannot answer this from the back of my head.
      My farms are all patched on a monthly cadence.
      My suggestion would be to open a support case with Microsoft to get this investigated.
      Feel free to send me the SR number via “contact the blog author” at the top right of this page.
      If I have bandwidth I can take ownership of the ticket.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply
6. 

   Martin Atteneder
   On 1. April 2026 Permalink

   Getting the following exception in Config Wizard after applying March 2026 CU over October 2026 CU on a SharePoint SE Single Server Farm.
   Anyone seen this?

   Regs

   Martin

   An exception of type Microsoft.SharePoint.PostSetupConfiguration.PostSetupConfigurationTaskException was thrown. Additional exception information:
   Action 18.0.15.0 of Microsoft.Office.Project.Server.Database.Extension.Upgrade.PDEUpgradeSequence failed. (EventID:ajywk)

   Exception: Cannot find the object “MSP_REMINDER_TEMP_STORAGE” because it does not exist or you do not have permissions. (EventID:ajywk)

   Upgrade [SPContentDatabase Name=SPContent_Root] failed. (EventID:an59t)

   Inner Exception: Cannot find the object “MSP_REMINDER_TEMP_STORAGE” because it does not exist or you do not have permissions. (EventID:an59t)

   Exception: Action 18.0.15.0 of Microsoft.Office.Project.Server.Database.Extension.Upgrade.PDEUpgradeSequence failed. (EventID:an59t)

   Upgrade Timer job is exiting due to exception: Microsoft.SharePoint.Upgrade.SPUpgradeException: Action 18.0.15.0 of Microsoft.Office.Project.Server.Database.Extension.Upgrade.PDEUpgradeSequence failed. —> Microsoft.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: Cannot find the object “MSP_REMINDER_TEMP_STORAGE” because it does not exist or you do not have permissions. — End of inner exception stack trace —

   Reply
   1. 

      Martin Atteneder
      On 1. April 2026 Permalink

      … over October 2025 CU – sorry.

      Reply