I regularly gripe about this, so perhaps my two cents might be reassuring for folks:
1) There always appear to be server issues on the McAfee side from time to time. They usually last no longer than 6 hours, sometimes 12. On occasion, we've seen continuous problems for 24-48 hrs. Whenever I can't get an expected update, I hang tight for at least 24 hours - be warned, McAfee Front Line Support (chat/phone) will always advise uninstall/reinstall (it's what they'll always recommend for any problem). Your best bet is to visit the forums and see if anyone else is having the same probs.
2) DATs/updates/upgrades are pushed progressively around the world. So when/whether you get an update depends on where you are. Here in the UK, I've seen DATs come out 12-24 hours later than folks in the US; product updates/upgrades sometimes roll out slowly over a period of a month.
3) I've guesstimated that if the McAfee server is overloaded, it'll report back that your product is up-to-date, even tho' it may not be. There's some sort of a timeout in there somewhere. Similarly, with network issues - I sometimes find that my computer(s) don't get their DAT update immediately when I connect, and that I need to force an update on occasion for it to come down. I've just accepted this as a way of life for McAfee stuff - don't forget that it's not a corporate system - DATs aren't pushed to machines automatically, they're requested from your side.
4) Yes, there appear to have been some irritating issues this New Year - I've only just gotten my DAT for 3 Jan - the first one for this year on my count. And I have to manually check for updates to get it. There appears to be two separate routes for getting an update - the manual Check For Updates request appears to use a different protocol/channel to the auto-update - hence if I don't get an expected update automatically, I'll always force a Check For Updates request.
5) Manually downloading and installing SuperDATs or DATs from the McAfee website doesn't work for home products (unless this has changed recently). We've been complaining about this for years.
6) Weekend DAT updates have only recently been instigated. Apparently it's been something of a bumpy ride, but things seem to have settled down a bit now.
Anyway, just my thoughts in case anyone is interested...
Cheers,
Gopha.