This past April 12, Microsoft issued the Service Pack 2 update for its popular Mac software suite, Office 2011. The service pack offer quite a bit of improvements for the software suite. Many updates impact Outlook e-mail. Soon after the announcement, some users were reporting problems with corrupted identity files when trying to install the new application. Originally, Microsoft handled this issue by telling users about the problem and giving them instructions on how to fix the issue either before they install the SP2 update or right after they install it. However, the software giant has recently decided to stop distributing the update altogether through its Autoupdate utility. The suspension is indefinite until the company finds a better solution to the corrupted identity database issue.
If you are one of the users experiencing problems with you Outlook identity database files, be sure to look up blog posts on several independent blogs on how to fix this issue yourself. The instructions are quite straightforward and many even come with step by step screenshots so you will not get lost in the process of fixing the problem. If you have not yet installed the update, you can opt to wait until Microsoft gets its act together on this issue. Alternatively, you can look up blog posts on the instructions for applying the update. You have to prepare your system before you apply the update to make sure your identity database does not get corrupted or otherwise encounter the same problems many users are reporting about this update.
If you really want to download and apply this Service Pack, Microsoft has not pulled the update from its servers even though it has yanked it from its autoupdate service. You can manually download it from Microsoft’s Office for Mac updates website.
Despite the update being pulled from its autoupdate service, Microsoft is still offering it for manual download through its Office for Mac updates site.