Goodbye Semi-Annual Update Channel

In Microsoft Office there used to be 3 standard update channels from fast to slow. Users received updates for their Microsoft Office suite (Access, Excel, Word etc.) based on which channel they were in:

• Current Channel (CC)

• Monthly Enterprise Channel (MEC)

• Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel (SAEC)

(If you want to know more about the topic, see our article Demystifying Microsoft 365 Update Channels.)

In early April 2026, Microsoft announced in the M365 Message Center that they were going to unify SAEC and MEC into a single update channel – MEC. The process started on July 14, 2026. Microsoft claimed "This change is designed to simplify update management while continuing to provide a predictable, enterprise-ready servicing experience".

From this moment onwards, existing installations using SAEC have been receiving the same updates as MEC.

Since early April 2026, the tools used to configure update channels (OCT etc.) hadn't allowed choosing SAEC any longer, i. e. creation and deployment of new configurations on SAEC hadn't been possible since then.

As a user, you won't be affected by this change, but you may realize that ...

• You will receive monthly updates even if you are still in SAEC.

• If you have the In-App Update Button active in Access (File -> Account), SAEC may still be on the drop-down list, but selecting it followed by Ok (which normally starts the setup) will do nothing.

• Once you switch to another channel you won't be able to return to SAEC anymore.

As an admin you may have to update existing configurations and scripts (dependent on whether you use tools like OCT, ODT or the Admin Center for maintenance), validate your servicing workflows, pilot, broad deployment and rollback processes.

What it means for Access users

With the discontinuation of SAEC, we are more at the mercy of Microsoft's updates and more affected by their quality management.

Over the past few years, we've had to write fewer and fewer articles on AccessForever.org about serious, application-breaking update bugs. They occurred less frequently overall, and they were often discovered and fixed in the beta and preview channels or very quickly disabled/resolved through Feature Gates. After many months, we now consider this a sign of improved quality management – at least, we hope so.