Be careful with automatic updates if not running Tahoe. Despite having only Security Responses selected for Automatic Updates in Sequoia, I got a popup Apple notification today, Updates Available. Usually, this generic notification is for App Store updates, but not today. The only update listed was in System Settings for Tahoe.
In the past on older OS’s, dismissing that notification would sometimes start download a major OS update anyway. I guess it’s time to be careful again with Apple potentially forcing major updates.
The only solutions I know are turning off Security Responses, and manually manage XProtect updates. Manually disabling ‘softwareupdated’ is the other possibility.
Personally, I would not turn off Security Responses.
However, I think it’s good practice in general to never accept an update through a notification. Instead, hit the notification outside of one of the option buttons. That will make the notification go away. If that then opens the Software Update section of Settings or the App Store, just quit. Done.
If you want to update or take a look at update options, go to Software Update yourself. Remember that details there are often hidden behind circle-i. Once you have selected the updates that you actually want from the list presented after clicking circle-i, and made sure that all the stuff you don’t want has been unselected, then you can hit the update button.
Bottom line, I’d never initiate an update from a notification. Ever.
I agree, I never accept an update through a notification.
Making the notification go away as you describe has sometimes, with OS’s before Sequoia, started auto-downloading a major OS update anyway – as I verified at the time by going to the Software Update section and seeing the giant OS download already in progress with only seconds to attempt to stop it and hope the major OS update wouldn’t somehow continue. I wasn’t the only one with this experience. That didn’t happen today in Sequoia, but I shouldn’t have gotten any notification at all. Thus, my warning for folks to be careful – in case this is another Apple bug or feature of forced software updates.
I have routinely set System Preferences/Settings as shown in this example from Tahoe.
Automatically
Download new updates when available – Enabled
Install macOS updates – Disabled
Install Security Responses and system files. – Enabled
My defense mechanism continues to be: Perform a full CCC backup and then initiate OS updates from Settings. This has been successful for me on multiple OS and beta OS instances. Of course, I have long since learned to verify what update will be installed as part update initiation.
Please don’t do that! XProtect updates are too important with no way to get automatically notified that an update is waiting. Being careful with OS notification is the way to go. You will have to spend a lot of time and effort finding out if XProtect needs updating. I had an instant just this week where I stumbled across a needed XProtect update that had not yet been installed and SilentKnight wasn’t aware of it yet either.
Additional techniques when presented with the notification could include turning off wifi (or whatever internet connection is in use) and going immediately to Settings and stopping any downloads in progress, then attacking the Notification, if it is still present.
It’s frustrating that this is still an issue. Thank goodness for TidBITS so I know more about this and can defend myself better against unwanted downloads/up***es.
When I migrated from Sonora on a MacMini 2018 to Sequoia 5.7 on a new MacMini 2024, it turned off audio alerts including notifications. This may have been a side effect of turning off Apple Intelligence, but I didn’t intend it, and I only noticed today it after finding Google security alerts had gone silent. I wonder if I accidentally might have turned them off when trying to quiet an alert that did not make itself visible on the screen, which has been a problem for a while.