SOLVED: Office365 Office 2016 Not Changing From Deferred to Current Channel

Office 2016 from Office365 will stay in the “Channel” it was installed with even if you change from Deferred to Current or Current to Deferred in Office365.  There are three ways to force Office365 Office 2016 to change channels and I suggest using the third one.

1. Uninstall and Reinstall Office
2. Repair Office
   1. Right click on your START button and select APPS & FEATURES
   2. Scroll down to and click on MICROSOFT OFFICE 365 PROPLUS
   3. Click the MODIFY button
   4. Follow the process
3. Use the Microsoft FIXIT Tool which you can Download directly from Microsoft
   1. I found this fixit tool to be fast and easy

I am not sure why Microsoft would make Office365 Office 2016 not periodically check in with the portal to see what configuration it should be, but it does not.  I called Microsoft Partner support after changing our configuration from Deferred to Current and finding out 2 days later that nothing had changed on the desktops.

Office365 is set to deploy the Deferred version of Office 2016 by default and that is likely a good thing.  However, there are many good reasons to want to change Office365 from Deferred to Current channel including:

1. Testing
2. Needing a new feature
3. Needing to eliminate a bug that has been fixed
4. You just like to live on the edge, like us at URTech.ca 🙂

This post explains how to change Office365 from Deferred to Current.