A few days after starting to roll out the Windows 10 October 2018 Update to users, Microsoft has temporarily stopped distributing the latest feature update for its desktop operating system.

The company says it’s “paused the rollout … for all users as we investigate isolated reports of users missing some files after updating.”

Update 10/09/2018: Microsoft believes it’s identified the issue, and is making a new test version of the October 2018 Update available to Windows Insiders.

Shortly after the the October 2018 Update was released, a number of users reported that installing the update caused their computers to delete documents, photos, videos, and music files.

There have also been other complaints about the Edge web browser failing to work after the update or running into problems installing the update at all. But the unexpected file deletion is probably the biggest show stopper.

For now, Microsoft advises anyone who has already manually downloaded the update without installing it yet not to do so. Folks who have already applied the update and run into problems should contact Microsoft using the phone number or link listed in the “known issues updating to Windows 10, version 1809” section on Microsoft’s support page.

The Windows 10 October 2018 Update brings new features including a Cloud Clipboard, a SwiftKey-powered keyboard for touchscreen computers, and tools to make it easier to use an Android or iOS device with Windows. But it seems like Microsoft could have done a better job of testing the update before starting the official rollout.

Over the past few years, Microsoft has used its Windows Insider program to roll out test builds of Windows to beta testers before making most new features available to the general public. The last step before a public release is typically to offer a Release Preview version, but Neowin notes that Microsoft skipped that step this time around. Whoops.

Anyway, there are probably two good takeaways here:

  1. It’s probably not a great idea to be first in line to install Windows updates on your primary computer. Microsoft hadn’t yet started rolling out the October 2018 Update through automatic updates yet, so the folks encountering these problems were all people who had attempted to download and install it manually.
  2. Backup your data. USB hard drives are super cheap these days. Network Attached Storage devices can be a bit pricier, but they make it much easier to automate the process (and you can also use them as file and media servers). And for good measure, consider subscribing to a cloud backup service so that you won’t lose your files if Windows deletes them… or your house burns down with your computer inside.

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13 replies on “Microsoft puts Windows 10 October 2018 Update on hold”

  1. My windows updated automatically and it deleted my documents file. It also deleted my pictures folder. 🙁

  2. Personally, 1803 disabled the touch screen in my yoga 11e and the keyboard does not get disabled when I use it in tablet mode. I tried reinstalling the drivers several times and searched the internet for a resolution but I couldn’t resolve the issue. I actually thought that maybe something was wrong with the hardware until I booted Ubuntu and suddenly everything is working properly but only when running Linux.

  3. Just emphasises why we should have the option not to update windows.
    ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’, still remains one of the most reliable strategies in technology, and I’ll be keeping those windows 7 servers for a while yet.

  4. Last year’s ‘Fall Creators Update’ killed my Wifi. Reinstalling drivers didn’t help. I had to buy a different Wifi adapter to get it working again. Now this new ‘Update’ will delete my files? What else will it break? Other non-Microsoft operating systems like Mac OS X, iOS, Chrome OS, Android and Linux don’t have these major update issues. Maybe that’s why WinTel PC market share has fallen below 40%.

    1. Ok, I’m not defending Microsoft here, they f* up badly this time. But to be fair, here’s a rundown my non-windows updates.
      1) Meizu m6, updated flymeOs. Before the update, the UI was well translated. After the update, half of the UI is in english (my grandfather’s phone, he does not speak a word in English). Other “fun” updates I’ve had to deal with on android included Samsung slowing down a device to an unusable level and Huawei almost halving battery life of a device.
      2) Ubuntu 14.04 update to 16.04. My wifi and webcam stopped working. WTF? I managed to get the wifi working again, but not the webcam. To this day, I have no idea, what happened.
      3) Ubuntu 16.04 to 18.04. Oh dear, here we go again. So, after the update, my machine took a minute to boot! ON AN SSD! WTF? Had to fix it, it was (surprise, surprise) a bug. By the way still not resolved in 18.04.1. Also my printer won’t work anymore…
      Ok, I know, ubuntu sucks…
      4) Any linux distro I’ve ever used breaks my graphics drivers on major update, although that’s not exactly linux’s fault.
      5) iOS? SRSLY? A joke? When was the last time a major update of iOS did not have a problem?

      As much as I dislike android, so far it has given me the most painless update experience of all platforms. Again, I am just trying to be fair here. In your post, you implied that no one but Microsoft has bugged software. Honestly, that is bulls*it.

  5. Even if MS skipped the last Release Preview step, this bug was already reported during the Insider betas.

  6. Since 98SE I have had a symlinked second drive on my desktop computer. I learned early about symlinks and junctions. Everyone should learn this. My laptop once had an optical drive. It is now a symlinked drive.

    1. Oh, yeah. When I started using UMPCs with tiny eMMC drives I learned about them fast! Actually I’ve used them on all sort of linux devices (even on my N900 phone back in the day), but didn’t know Windows had it too.

      1. It is done via command line. A helper application is Link Shell Extension by Hermann Schinagl.

  7. I’ll wait here for my upvotes from all the people that downvoted me, when I said this exact same thing will happen.

    1. Looks like your still getting downvoted.
      I guess this is proof that Karma does in fact NOT exist.

Comments are closed.