Well I'm embarrassed to say this but the failure to update is in fact user error
Previously I don't remember actually highlighting extensions to select them but I found by accident running the cursor over them selects now works when depressing the "process selected items" button. In my defense the need to again select each item after they have been listed in the left window is not exactly intuitive, but we got there in the end... DOH!!
from this
to this
now the updates feature is functioning