Symptoms
When trying to install or update the Office Timeline Add-in, the installation fails and you get an error message that says “Unable to write to the specified folder”:
Overview
This issue typically occurs when your %AppData% folder is redirected to a shared location. This is where Office Timeline tries to set up a file that triggers an onboarding (“first run”) experience for first-time installations. If we can't write in the %AppData% folder during setup because of security permissions, the installation process is disrupted and the “Unable to write” error occurs.
Solution
We’re working hard on developing a fix for this scenario and we’ll release it as soon as possible. In the meantime, to install the add-in successfully, the workaround is instructing Office Timeline to skip setting up the first-run experience. Here’s how you can do it:
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Download the latest enterprise deployment package from here:
OfficeTimelinePreExtracted.zip
(You need to have Version 4.3.4 or higher for the next steps to work) -
When configuring your software distribution system to install Office Timeline, add the parameter WITHFIRSTRUNSEQUENCE with the value 0 to the installation command line. For example, your installation command line could be:
msiexec /i OfficeTimeline.msi /qb! WITHFIRSTRUNSEQUENCE=0For more details on enterprise deployment, please see our guide here.
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Open PowerPoint and check if the Office Timeline tab is visible in the PowerPoint ribbon. This means the add-in was installed successfully.
Note:
Using this fix may prevent the automatic license activation sequence from running. If this happens, please create a script with the following steps to solve the issue:
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Install Office Timeline as described above.
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Run the command:
LkUtil.exe -L {license key}
The LkUtil.exe utility can be found in the Office Timeline installation folder.
If you’re still encountering issues installing Office Timeline, don't hesitate to contact us. We’ll be more than happy to be of assistance.