SCCM Software Updates Scan failed with error = 0xc80003f3

Introduction

So, how to fix the “SCCM Software Updates Scan failed with error = 0xc80003f3”?

The other day, when distributing some software updates to a lot of my SCCM clients, I noticed that the software updates were not being downloaded to some of the machines. I got this message in the UpdatesDeployment.log:

Job error (0xc80003f3) received for assignment

Updates will not be made available

And I noticed the following message in the WUAHandler.log:

OnSearchComplete – Failed to end search job. Error = 0xc80003f3.

Scan failed with error = 0xc80003f3.

How to make the SCCM client download the updates?

Don’t reinstall the SCCM client 🙂 I tried that and it didn’t work.

The solution to this issue, the one that worked for me, and I believe it will work in most cases is:

1. Stop the WUAUSERV service (Windows Update)
   1. in Powershell (it’s how I do it):
      1. Stop-Service WUAUSERV -Force or
      2. if you are in a command prompt, type: net stop wuauserv
2. Rename the software distribution folder
   1. rename C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution to C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution.OLD
   2. if you feel brave enough, just delete it.
3. Start the WUAUSERV service
   1. in Powershell (it’s how I do it):
      1. Start-Service WUAUSERV or
      2. if you are in a command prompt, type: net start wuauserv

And that should do the trick! After these three simple steps, my machines started to download all pending updates!

Reference: Technet

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