Robert C Mitchell's Blog

I’m pretty sure there has never been an update to iCloud for Windows that I haven’t had a problem with and this time is no exception. While attempting to upgrade to version 5.0, I ran into the 2343 error message.

Even if you go into Control Panel and try to repair or remove iCloud, you get the same error. This time however, I was able to retrace my steps and determine the cause of the error. I’m currently running Windows 10 with Office 2016. The last time I ran into the issue, I was running Windows 8.1 with Office 2013 and then I upgraded to Office 2016. I didn’t bother troubleshooting at that time, because I was going to do a clean install of Windows 10, and hopefully resolve the issue. That was until I tried upgrading iCloud today.

So whats the cause? Outlook 2016. Here is a snippet from the iCloud update notes.

iCloud for Windows v5 requires:

• Microsoft Windows 7 or later
• Outlook 2007 or later or iCloud.com (for Mail, Contacts, Calendars). Outlook 2016 is not supported.
• Internet Explorer 10 or later, Firefox 22 or later, or Google Chrome 28 or later (for Bookmarks)

Here’s the fix. Remove Office 2016 and install Office 2013. A Pain in the neck, yes, but it works. If you have an Office 365 Home subscription, it’s not all that bad. Also, you can’t remove just Outlook 2016 with the subscription. And removing just the 2016 version alone does not resolve the issue, it looks for Outlook 2013.

1. Remove Office 2016 from “Add/Remove Programs” in “Control Panel” and reboot
2. Log into your account at https://products.office.com
3. Select “Install”
4. Select “Language and install options”
5. Select “Additional install options”
6. Under “Version” select Office 2013 and install it

If you have a business subscription of Office 365, you may need assistance from your IT department to get the Office 2013 software.

Otherwise, hopefully you have the install media and license keys available to re-install after removing Office.

One you have the 2013 version installed, you can upgrade to iCloud 5.0 and don’t upgrade to Office 2016 until it’s 100% compatible. Or do what I did and completely remove iCloud. I never use it!