how can I quit Microsoft Database Daemon & SyncServicesAgent so that I can update Microsoft word?

Could you link to some of the many people who can not exit the daemons by quitting them in Activity Monitor.

Have a look here:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/mac/forum/macoffice2011-macstart/every-time-i -try-to-upgrade-i-get-a-screen-that/0ad0dbea-b675-4376-b7f5-ee045db90450?page=2& tm=1355255207299#LastReply

and here:

http://www.computer-boffins.ca/2010/10/office-for-mac-2011-sync-services-agent/

There are others!

I found a couple of people in those links advocating the same as you, actually one of them was you.

You (and the others having issues) have an Office component running that has not been accounted for, note that many in your posts succeeded by turning it off and staying online,

So we will disagree.

Hi !!

You are just right!! and going offline worked for me too!! Nothing else worked but going offline did it!!

Thanks sooooo much!!!

Awseome! This worked a treat... Thank you parkwright!! :-)

Say what you want - but I COULD NOT keep syncservicesagent closed in activity mon - it would open immediately. I tried multiple times. I then took JamjarPW's advice to disconnect from the internet and BAM! closing it in Activity Mon worked right after. Genius!

I'm one.

Going offline does work - it shouldn't make any difference, but it does.

What can I say?

I don't need to go offline, so who knew

Strangely I only had to go off-line on one of the three machines I have. They're all set-up the same (not that that means anything).

Interestingly, online or offline, the two processes immediately restart. Offline the installer 'sees' them quitting and proceeds with the update.

They only restart if I am still running MS Office after I quit them, if Office is not running they stay quit. And I never need to go offline (2 MBP's and an Mac, all running 10.8.2)

Check that no Office helpers are running, Reminders, My Day, Daemons and Agents, Office has a few (most people forget Reminders or My Day)

Were or are you also syncing to a Gmail account or an Android phone?

Gmail! And Google Drive on the affected machine (not sure that's relevent though).

The only difference is Gmail.

Well spotted Sir.

Google services (Gdrive, Calendars etc) use syncservices just as Office does, probably needed to exit that as well.

I grow less attracted to MS Office daily.

Makes a lot of sense and probably explains why the offline thing works.

Live and learn.

I wouldn't use office at all if the rest of the world didn't. Whatever happened to WordPerfect? Or WordStar come to that?

Or you could use the brute force:

Open Terminal,

Type:

bash

Press enter.

And copy paste:

while true; do kill $(ps -ef | grep -i SyncServices | grep -v grep | awk '{print $2} '); done

It will keep killing the syncservices (no need to go offline) and you will see your Office updates starting to install.

Do Ctrl+C in the Terminal to stop the infinite loop.

Enjoy.