as a side note i have this same error plastered through my logs. for both success and error jobs. we don't use file transfer. lack of time means i haven't tracked it down to anything. but i suspect this is more fundamental in the condor config (which i've likely done too) then something specific in the job he's running.
I thought we'd reduced the occurence of that message in newer version of HTCondor, but I don't know which version(s) people are using.
The .update.ad file is used to convey updated information, via a ClassAd, from HTCondor to the job. Failing to write the .update.ad is basically always a result of the update happening before or after the sandbox directory exists, so these errors don't cause problems.
- ToddM