Windows reports "Metadata Staging" Error (0x80070490) in DeviceSetupManager (Dec. 2023)

[German]Brief information for Windows users or administrators who come across "Metadata Staging" error entries of the DeviceSetupManager in the Event Viewer. This has probably been occurring under Windows since the end of November 2023 because a Microsoft Meta Data server has been unavailable since then. After two blog readers have already asked me about the topic, I'm preparing a blog post about it.

"Metadata Staging" error 0x80070490

Volker S., a German blog reader, has contacted me by email on December 9, 2023 and said that the topic was of interest to the blog and the readership. He told me in the mail with the subject "Event Viewer: hundreds of entries Error: DeviceSetupManager", that he found a lot of error entries like shown in the screenshot below.

I have been finding hundreds of these error messages (0x80070490) in the Event Viewer since 7.12.23 15:26:

When you open the messages, you can read the following:

I checked it on my system (Win 10 v1909 IoT Enterprise LTSC); the entries are displayed in the Custom views/Administrative events branch. The first event entry is from December 7, 2023, and Volker wrote that he hadn't noticed any changes to his PC's behavior, crashes, etc. Since he has not installed anything or changed his configuration, he asks if other readers still have this problem? He is using Windows 10 22H2, Build 19045.3758.

MetaData server not accessible

In December 2016, I published the German blog post Windows Update führt zu "Metadata staging failed"-Fehler, where the "Metadata Staging Failed" error send from DeviceSetupManager, caused by a Windows update at the time, was discussed. German reader Jan Neddenien came across the old blog post – because he received corresponding error messages in his Windows.

Jan wrote that the DeviceSetupManager errors and warnings about MetaData staging have been occurring again since the end of November 2023. Among other things, the "printer icons" under "Devices and Printers" are suddenly no longer available. This is the case on older but also on newly installed systems and therefore has nothing to do with any Windows updates (as described in the article from 2016), he told me.

Jan states that in his German comment that the error is simply related to the fact that the MetaData server(s) are no longer accessible or no longer working on the part of Microsoft. Adjusting the registry entry "DeviceMetadataServiceURL", as I suggested in the blog post  mentioned above, doesn't help either.

How to suppress the error entries

Jan's suggestion is to deactivate the logging of constant warnings and errors in the event log. There are two ways to do this:

• either deactivate the DeviceSetupManager logging
• or disable MetaData staging completely

The latter approach would also have the advantage that the system would not be slowed down by unsuccessful attempts to reach the MetaData server. This is because nobody at Microsoft seems to be interested in the inaccessible MetaData server. DeviceSetupManger logging can be deactivated with the following .reg statement:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WINEVT\Channels\Microsoft-Windows-DeviceSetupManager/Admin]
"Enabled"=dword:00000000

To deactivate MetaData staging, the following .reg statement is required:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Device Metadata]
"PreventDeviceMetadataFromNetwork"=dword:00000001

MetaData staging can be completely deactivated via policies with the following reg statement:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Device Metadata]
"PreventDeviceMetadataFromNetwork"=dword:00000001

Simply save the instruction in a .reg file and import it as an administrator using the rule editor.

German blog reader Marina Schnell wrote in this comment, that she observed the error after installation of the 2023-11 Cumulative Update for Windows 11 Version 22H2 for x64-based systems (KB5032288). She used the setting "Change device installation settings" in the Control Panel and set it to No. That has the same effect as the registry entries given above. Thanks to the readers for the tips.