Skipping acquire of configured file 'main/binary-i386/packages' as repository 'xxx' doesn't support architecture 'i386'

I get an error message while issuing

sudo apt-get update

Get:1 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial InRelease [95.8 kB]
Ign:2 http://repo.mongodb.org/apt/debian wheezy/mongodb-org/3.2 InRelease
Ign:3 http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb stable InRelease
Hit:4 http://ppa.launchpad.net/canonical-x/vulkan/ubuntu xenial InRelease
Hit:5 http://repo.mongodb.org/apt/debian wheezy/mongodb-org/3.2 Release
Hit:6 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security InRelease
Ign:7 http://dl.google.com/linux/talkplugin/deb stable InRelease
Hit:8 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates InRelease
Ign:9 http://linux.dropbox.com/ubuntu wily InRelease
Hit:10 http://ppa.launchpad.net/numix/ppa/ubuntu xenial InRelease
Get:12 http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb stable Release [782 B]
Hit:13 http://dl.google.com/linux/talkplugin/deb stable Release
Ign:14 https://apt.dockerproject.org/repo ubuntu-wily InRelease
Hit:15 https://apt.dockerproject.org/repo ubuntu-wily Release
Get:16 http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb stable Release.gpg [181 B]
Hit:17 http://linux.dropbox.com/ubuntu wily Release
Get:20 http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb stable/main amd64 Packages [1,191 B]
Fetched 98.0 kB in 0s (118 kB/s)
Reading package lists... Done
N: Skipping acquire of configured file 'main/binary-i386/Packages' as repository 'http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb stable InRelease' doesn't support architecture 'i386'

This cuts across various releases of ubuntu

I tracked down offending repo (any for Google chrome in this dir)

cd /etc/apt/sources.list.d
grep chrome * | grep -v amd64

or more generally

grep -r google  /etc/apt | grep -v amd64

Now do same as below for each repo file which matches above

cat /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome-unstable.list

### THIS FILE IS AUTOMATICALLY CONFIGURED ###
# You may comment out this entry, but any other modifications may be lost.
deb http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main

SOLUTION : limit to just 64 bit by introducing the [arch=amd64]

deb [arch=amd64] http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main

---

ROOT CAUSE : Google dropped support for 32-bit Chrome on Linux triggering an error when updating apt in 64-bit systems (with multi arch enabled) ... details here : http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2016/03/fix-failed-to-fetch-google-chrome-apt-error-ubuntu

To confirm you are using 64 bit ubuntu with multiarch enabled issue

dpkg --print-foreign-architectures

if it says

i386

then you have added 32 bit support, this will list your native arch ... issue

dpkg --print-architecture

if you are native 64 you will see this output so do SOLUTION shown above

amd64

Here is the command to remove multi architecture ( only if you have no 32 bit applications )

sudo dpkg --remove-architecture i386