How to fix the "Sorry, but C:\...\miktex-pdftex.exe did not succeed. " error?
The problem is with your installation, not updating packages. I had the same errors installing MiKTeX 2.9.5721 on windows 10 today.
2015-09-12 20:08:00,190-0400 INFO miktex-pdftex - running 'initexmf --quiet --update-fndb' to refresh the file name database 2015-09-12 20:08:00,412-0400 FATAL miktex-pdftex - The operation failed for some reason. 2015-09-12 20:08:00,412-0400 FATAL miktex-pdftex - Info: C:\Program Files (x86)\MiKTeX 2.9\miktex\bin\initexmf.exe 2015-09-12 20:08:00,412-0400 FATAL miktex-pdftex - Source: Libraries\MiKTeX\Core\Process.cpp 2015-09-12 20:08:00,413-0400 FATAL miktex-pdftex - Line: 290
After trying several fixes in this thread, this is what worked for me. I think first, there's a problem with the permissions in C:/Program Files (x86), which you can fix by creating a file on C:/ directly. Second (for me, maybe not you), I think there was an issue with another program trying to use one of the pdf map dl files (?) which was mentioned here. To solve this:
- uninstalled my previous version of MiKTeX2.9
- uninstalled adobe reader
- reinstalled adobe reader
- reboot
- moved the MiKTeX download to a folder on the desktop
- created a folder C:/MiKTeX 2.9
- ran the install wizard and installed to my new folder as single user. (I never got the system install to work.)
- After the wizard, immediately run MiKTeX Update Wizard. I selected to update only miktex-texworks-bin. (If I didn't run the updates before trying to TeX a document, nothing worked at all.)
You may be able to get away with not messing with your PDF viewer install, but definitely try creating a folder other than the Program Files (x86).
That error can also appear, when you insert an image and the path of the image has special symbols in it like umlauts (ä,ü,ö). So make sure you don't have any of these in your image path.
I had the same issue, this solution solved it without re-installation of MikTeX. Just search for MikTex Update (Admin) and update all the updatable packages. the first time the select all button is grayed out. go ahead with the preselected updates and finish. and then update again, this time select all. The trick is to run the Admin version of MikTex Update. That's it!