Troubleshooting Windows Updates in Windows 11

Most of the time Windows Update works without any issues and you can get your regular Windows Updates or Windows Insider builds with any trouble. However, occasionally you can have an issue with Windows Update and updates stop working. Fortunately, there are a few ways to fix Windows Update.

Here are a couple of ways to fix Windows Update that have worked for me and should help you to get your updates working again. It could be a Windows Update error like 0x800705b4 or 0x50070078. It could be that you get a message saying Windows Update needs to retry download the update but doesn’t actually download anything.

In this guide and video I show you how to fix Windows Update issues and the first step is to use the built in Windows Update Troubelshooter.

You can find this in Settings, System, Troubleshoot.

Click on other troubelshooters and then click on Run next to Windows Update.

Windows Update Troubleshooter will then run and reset Windows Update. This clears out most common issues.

If that still doesn’t work there is another procedure that works for me every time.

1. Right Click on the Start button and select Computer Management
2. Expand Services and Applications
3. Click on Services
4. Click on the Windows Update service
   1. 
5. Click on Stop
6. Use Windows Explorer and navigate to “c:\windows\SoftwareDistribution”
7. Delete all the content in the folder (highlight it all and select Delete)
8. Some files may not delete but the important ones are Download and DeliveryOptimization, if they won’t delete reboot and go back to step 3.
9. Reboot
10. Go to Windows Update and your issues should be resolved.

Here is a step-by-step video guide to how to troubleshoot Windows Update issues in Windows 11.