Skype for Business Mac Client CU3 February 2017 Update Summary

There been a new Cumulative update 3 released for the Skype for Business Mac Clients. This is February 2017 cumulative update 3 for the SfB Mac Client with some new features and bugs addressed. Thanks to Tom Arbuthnot for tweeting this news last night.

The Feb 2017 cumulative update 3 brings

Peer-to-Peer desktop sharing
Additional USB Device Support
Several other improvements for the client

P2P desktop sharing and more certified usb device support is great and im sure alot of people have been eagerly waiting these features.

More info check out on info on Tech Community here

Manual Download to new Update

You can AutoUpdate or the Manual download link if below. I tried AutoUpdate but it wasn’t showing CU3 version to update to as you can see in screenshots so i manually remove and installed the new version. Suspect the new update will be there soon.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=54108

CU3 Update Version Number

With 6th February 2017 update – 16.3.0.240

Features Added / Bugs

There’s a couple of new features added list above with CU3 and also some bug fixes regarding duplicate contacts, CPU usage when screen sharing and call transfer which are detailed below from Microsoft Tech Community.

Features Added	Details
Desktop sharing in P2P Conversations	In our last update, we introduced the capability to share during an audio conversation and promised that we would add sharing for IM/Chat sessions as well. With this release, we now have included that support, so you can now share during a P2P session for audio and IM. We hope you find it useful. Please take the time to let us know what scenarios we have enabled for you. Is this for helpdesk? Does it make collaboration frictionless when you can quickly share your screen? Perhaps other scenarios? Let us know.
Additional USB Device Support.	As we get feedback and combine that with telemetry from the client, we note there are some USB devices that are not performing as expected. With this update, we have certified 5 devices and will continue to add devices going forward. That list includes the Polycom CX300, Jabra Speak 510, Jabra Evolve 65, Plantronics Blackwire C520-M and the Logitech Webcam C930e.
Further Improvements / Bug Fixes
– Customers report duplicate contacts during search	This was related to caching. With this update, impacted customers should take the action to logout out and delete their sign-in information. Sign back in and let us know if that has solved the issue.
– Customers have reported that CPU usage was high during screen sharing	Work has been done and the addition of VBSS viewing should help there. We also expect to add VBSS sharing in a future update which will continue to improve performance.
– In certain scenarios, customers reported issues with call transfer.	We have updated this experience to hopefully remove those issues. Please try this out and let us know via the forums if it’s working better for you.

Don’t forget about Known Issues

Its worth reading over these as there’s quite a few ! – Updated 7th Feb 2017

E911 support required SfB Server CU4 or Lync Server 2013 CU8 HF2 – Please make sure you have these updates deployed if you require E-911 services. It does state the below in grey though. Also in known issues it mentions E-911 with ADFS not supported yet.

Important: Users will not be able to dial 911 until the CU4 server update is applied.

Also mentions the requirement for mobility again and the requirements for the latest SfB Servers and Lync Server 2013 CUs if you don’t have mobility enabled.

Other known issues that took my interest are below but there’s alot alot more so please check them out before you get questions and helpdesk tickets.

E-911 with ADFS not supported
Skype Room Systems cannot join a meeting schedule by Skype for Business on Mac.
A Skype for Business on Mac user sometimes sees a blank screen when a Skype for Business on Windows user shares the desktop in an IM conversation (peer-to-peer or group IM).
If a user is not logged in to Outlook, presence information in Skype for Business on Mac does not update based on the Outlook calendar.
There is a known limitation with Mac search where it will not show federated contacts and Skype consumer contacts; it can only show contacts in the local Active Directory.

More know issues details check them out i recommended it.

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Known-issues-Skype-for-Business-on-Mac-494ac5d5-50be-4aa7-8f5a-669c71c98c9a?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US&fromAR=1

How do i update to CU3?

Two methods which are the same as the previous updates.

Either using the Microsoft AutoUpdate (MAU) if you have already deployed the SfB Mac client already ( I did try but was showing older version at the time of writing this)
Or for new users a manual download via Microsoft download centre here

Do i need to update Lync / SfB Servers ?

For the Feb 2017 CU the requirements server side are the same as November & January SfB Mac Client Cumulative updates but on the known issues page there are two important things to note, the first around E911 support which is very important and the second the requirement for mobility to be enabled if you don’t have the latest CUs deployed for Lync Server 2013 or SfB Server 2015. Details are below.

911 support requires Skype for Business Server 2015 CU4 (build 9319.272 or higher, now available) or Lync Server 2013 CU8 HF2 (coming soon).

Important: Users will not be able to dial 911 until the CU4 server update is applied.

Without Skype for Business Server 2015 CU4 (build 9319.272 or higher, now available) or Lync Server 2013 CU8 HF1 (build 8308.974 or higher, now available), Skype for Business on Mac requires Mobility enablement on the server side. After updating to builds 9317.272 or 8309.973, Mobility enablement will no longer be required.

It does note under the manual download detail that’s its recommended for the best user experience to ensure customers are running the latest Server side cumulative updates which are November 2016 for both SfB and Lync Server 2013. Or it mentions move to Office365 for always up to date infrastructure which made me smile. Downloads link are below.

SfB Server 2015 (9319.272) – November 2016 CU4 here
Lync Server 2013 (8308.974) – November 2016 CU8 HF1 here
Lync Server 2010 – SfB Client not supported I’m afraid so it suggests Mac 2011 client only.

Client Functionality and Client Comparison

Also worth checking out the Client comparison tables for Skype for Business Server 2015 with the new CU3 update so you know differences between windows and Mac clients.

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn933896.aspx

Screenshots of AuotUpdate , Manual Process and P2P Desktop Sharing

Booted my iMac up and first got asked to update the Microsoft AutoUpdate Tool. I’ve not booted my mac in a while.