Update service said to be broken down by DNS settings

Jan 31, 2019 10:31 GMT  ·  By

A number of users are currently experiencing issues with Windows Update, as the service appears to fail when trying to check for and download updates.

While many are blaming Microsoft for another issue breaking down Windows Update, it looks like the culprit is a bad DNS configuration that a number of devices at various ISPs are getting.

Most of the customers who are reporting issues with Windows Update right now appear to be Comcast users, but I’ve also seen similar problems being reported in the United Kingdom. BT Broadband customers also claim they can’t check for updates on their systems.

Given the glitch is not specific to Windows 10, but caused by bad DNS settings, previous Windows versions are impacted as well.

Windows 10 users experiencing error are getting the following message when launching Windows Update: “Error encountered. We’ll continue to check daily for newer updates. We couldn’t connect to the update service. We’ll try again later, or you can check now. If it still doesn’t work, make sure that you‘re connected to the Internet.”

Switch to Google’s DNS server

Needless to say, the functionality of other apps or Windows 10 featured could be hit as well, including here the Microsoft Store. The downloading of new apps could thus fail if the bad DNS configuration is used, and apps like Weather and Mail may not be able to refresh and download new content.

In most of the cases, simply rebooting the router to be assigned a new IP should resolve the issue, but you can also try switching to Google’s DNS server until the problem is resolved.

Neither Microsoft nor any of the affected ISPs provided information on what exactly is happening, but we’ve reached out to the software giant for some details and we’ll update the article when and if an answer is offered.

UPDATE: Here's a guide to help you fix Windows Update if the service is broken by bad DNS settings.