Wsus won’t download updates

Had a customer whose wsus box wouldn’t download updates from microsoft with event id 364 – Content download failed. Reason: Access is denied. Source File &lt snip &gt destination File: d:\wsus\wsuscontent……
It looks like the permissions on the root of d: (in this case) are not correct – Network Service needs read access – unfortunately Network Service does not appear in the list of users to add to the drive (and you can’t right click d: to assign permissions).
Fortunately by using cacls you can change permissions – note that cacls is very powerful and you need to understand what you are doing before running this – take it from me, cacls going wrong can really mess with your system and your sanity and your job security!

If you are still with me, you need to do the following:
From a dos prompt:-
d:
cd\
calcs . <--- this provides you with the current state before you change it cacls . /e /g "NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE":r cacls . Then in wsus console, double click a client that needs an update, click on the status, click on an update that has failed. Click retry download. Look at the eventvwr and you should see event id 361 - Content synchronization started. A quick glance back at your wsus homepage should show the files being downloaded.