## TL;DR
Error 0x87d00264 means the deployment has not yet started on the client - policy may not have arrived, the available time has not actually been reached in the client timezone, the client is in provisioning or a conflicting state, or evaluation is being suppressed. Confirm the deployment assignment and client policy first, then force a machine policy and evaluation cycle on a test client and watch UpdatesDeployment.log to see whether the deployment is even being processed.

```text
sccm error 0x87d00264 update deployment not yet started
```

## Use this when
- Deployment status shows 0x87d00264 well after the scheduled available time for many clients.
- Clients receive other deployments normally, isolating the problem to this assignment.
- The deployment was set to available in the future, copied with old schedule values, or targeted while clients were offline for a long period.

## Not for this skill when
- The deployment is intentionally waiting for its first maintenance window after the deadline. That is expected behavior, not this error.
- The client has no Configuration Manager agent health at all. Repair the client first.

## Steps
1. Verify the assignment itself in the console: open the deployment properties and confirm the collection, the available and deadline times, and whether it is required or available. Check the times against your timezone and the client timezone, because a deployment scheduled in a different zone can legitimately not have started yet. Verify: the deployment schedule is confirmed correct in both server and client local time, or the scheduling mistake is found and corrected
2. On a test client, confirm the deployment exists in local policy: run a machine policy retrieval cycle, wait for policy to process, and search PolicyAgent and UpdatesDeployment logs for the deployment unique ID. If the ID never appears, the problem is policy delivery or collection membership, not the update itself. Verify: the deployment ID appears in client policy, or its absence is proven and collection or policy delivery becomes the target
3. Check collection membership and client health for the stuck machines: confirm they are still members of the target collection, the client is active and approved, and no client settings disable software update deployments for them. A silent collection change is a frequent cause of a deployment that never starts. Verify: the test client is an active, approved member of the collection with software updates enabled in its effective client settings
4. Force the software updates deployment evaluation cycle and a scan cycle from the client actions, then read UpdatesDeployment.log forward from that timestamp. The log should show the assignment being evaluated; if it shows suppression due to a maintenance window, provisioning mode, or another deployment in progress, that entry is your answer. Verify: the log shows the assignment evaluated, or names the specific condition suppressing the start
5. Resolve the named suppression: end a stuck provisioning mode, wait out or adjust a blocking maintenance window rule, or repair a client stuck in a previous deployment state by restarting the client service and re-evaluating. Then confirm the deployment moves from not yet started into evaluation, download, or a concrete later state. Verify: the test client leaves 0x87d00264 for a later deployment state, and the same correction is applied to the remaining stuck clients

## Why it happens
Not yet started is a pre-evaluation state: Configuration Manager has no record of the client beginning work on that assignment. That happens upstream of everything update-specific - in scheduling, collection membership, policy delivery, or client-side suppression conditions such as maintenance windows and provisioning mode. Because the console code looks identical for all of them, the only efficient path is verifying each link in order with the deployment ID as the tracer, from console assignment through policy arrival to the evaluation log. Recreating the deployment without that trace often reproduces the same state, since the broken link, such as a collection rule or a timezone offset, survives recreation.

## Variants and edge cases
### 0x87d00264 only on newly imaged machines
New clients may still be in provisioning mode or missing their first full policy cycle. Confirm provisioning is complete and the first machine policy has fully processed before judging the deployment.

### 0x87d00264 after copying an old deployment
Copied deployments carry old schedule and group references. Compare every property of the copy against a known good deployment, especially the software update group version.

### 0x87d00264 on clients in a different timezone
A deadline set in server time can start hours later than expected for remote sites. Standardize on client local time settings in deployment schedules where the design allows.

Compatibility: Applies to Microsoft Configuration Manager current branch software update deployments to Windows clients.

## Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_xufRUS0mdAYz-jHx2H0zWg