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Update-Help -SourcePath Failure on Computer Without Internet Connection by Rohn Edwards

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Type: Bug
ID: 777012
Opened: 1/20/2013 11:49:37 AM
Access Restriction: Public
0
Workaround(s)
5
User(s) can reproduce this bug
When running Update-Help using the -SourcePath parameter on a machine without an internet connection that has had the help updated already, the command fails with "Unable to connect to Help content. Make sure the server is available and then try the command again." The Save-Help and Update-Help combination works perfectly when updating the help on a system with no help installed. I've seen this on Windows 7 and 8 (both 64-bit).

Deleting *helpinfo.xml files from the PowerShell folder ('dir $PSHome -filter *helpinfo.xml -recurse | Remove-Item -Confirm') seems to be a workaround for the issue.
Details (expand)
How often does this happen?
Always Happens

Have you seen this problem before in this product?

No, this is new to the most recent version
Reproduction Steps
1. Call Save-Help to save the help files
2. Disable the network adapters on the computer
3. Call Update-Help with the -SourcePath parameter pointing to the saved help files

If step #3 is successful, repeat it since it works if no help has been installed.
Expected Results
Successful call to Update-Help without removing helpinfo.xml files so that computers that are on networks not connected to the internet can be updated on a semi-regular basis.
File Attachments
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Posted by Gary Siepser on 4/16/2013 at 10:07 AM
On an offline 2008R2 system that has been updated to PSv3, I ran the update-help with sourcepath param tageting a folder containing the files from a save-help. It worked the first time. Then I attempted to immediately run the same line again and saw the same failure as noted in this bug. I ran it one more time though and added the -force param to it, and it succeeded in updating. From that point forward, I didnt need the force param, but I suspect this could be the one update per 24 hours thing.

So in my case -force did work to solve this issue.
Posted by Marcus Lerch [MSFT] on 3/14/2013 at 12:54 AM
Easy to reproduce for me too. Workaround however helped on all tested systems.
Posted by Shane Cribbs on 2/26/2013 at 3:01 PM
I can confirm this problem and that the workaround does indeed work.
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