Windows 10 update stuck after restart with message "Working on updates 0%"

Question

I'm trying to install the Windows 10 update 1803 which is the big feature update for April 2018. It downloaded fine and gave a warning about a long update process. I confirmed starting to update and the PC worked for a while and then restarted.

Since then it has been stuck on the message: "Working on updates 0% Don't turn off your PC, this will take a while". It's been around 2.5 hours and no change is seen. The wheel is spinning though so it's not like the software is completely stuck.

What is a typical time for this kind of update? I searched online and all I could find is cases where it's taking a few hours but never where it was stuck at 0%.

At what point do I try to restart the PC? 8 hours? a day?

Solution

After 3.5 hours of 0 progress I decided to restart my PC. After restart windows restored itself to its state prior to the update which is great. Nice one Microsoft! This is the right way to handle a failed update.

Not really an answer to the question "would it have finished given more time?" but I didn't know it could come back and I was worried restarting might brick my Windows installation so this might be useful to someone.

EDIT: Retrying this a few days later (without my permission) ended up with a successful upgrade. Another computer also upgraded on its own to 1803.

Comments

[Ramhound]

"What is a typical time for this kind of update?" - It will depend on your system, specifically, how much data it has to move around. But if it has not progressed at all, in several hours, safe bet the process failed or stalled.

[LPChip]

The april upgrade is supposed to be faster than the previous upgrades. Typically it should update in 30 minutes.