NI Update Service: An Error Has Occurred and NI Service Update Must Exit

Updated Mar 25, 2022

Reported In

Software

  • NI Update Service

Operating System

  • Windows

Issue Details

NI Update Service 2.0 or later experienced an unhandled exception and/or crashed and displays the following error:
An Error Has Occurred and NI Service Update Must Exit.
What caused the error and how can I get the update service to work again?
 

Solution

To recover from this error, the configuration file must be deleted so that NI Update Service can recreate it.

You can find the configuration file in one of the following locations:
  • Microsoft Windows XP:
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\National Instruments\Update Service\config.ini 
 
  • Microsoft Windows Vista/7/8/10:
C:\ProgramData\National Instruments\Update Service\config.ini


After you delete the file, relaunch NI Update Service to recreate the configuration file. Information about which updates have been selected to be hidden will be lost and all updates will be displayed as new, but the program should operate normally.

Additional Information

The error occurs because the configuration file is in an undetermined state. This can be the result of a forced system shutdown while NI Update Service was attempting to cache information to its configuration file or if the update service version is downgraded after uninstalling a more recent version.

Note: In order to see these folders, you must have Windows configured to show hidden/system files.