Managed macOS Updates

Prompted updates allow Mac users to update their computer using built-in methods when they are best able to do so. This balances providing a flexible experience while ensuring that important security updates are installed in a timely manner.

Notifications appear once per day until 24 hours before the deadline. After this point, notifications will appear every hour. In the final hour before the deadline, notifications appear every 30 minutes, and then every 10 minutes.

Notifications will be silenced if Do Not Disturb is enabled. As the deadline approaches, however, notifications will bypass your Do Not Disturb settings.

macOS will attempt to prepare the update in advance, minimizing the amount of time taken after restarting your computer. In many cases, macOS updates finish installing within 5-10 minutes.

Please be sure update prior to the deadline to avoid potential unplanned disruptions.

If you have already been notified of the required update but have not installed it by the deadline, macOS will forcibly restart and install the update for you so long your computer has enough space to do so and is sufficiently charged.

If you have been away and turn your Mac on for the first time after a deadline has passed, macOS will consider the update to be “overdue” and require the update be installed within an hour. If you have not started the update on your own in that time, macOS will forcibly install the update for you.

As noted in the “What happens if the deadline has passed?” section, macOS will attempt to forcibly restart and finish installing the scheduled update when the deadline is reached.

Additionally, if you have enabled automatic macOS updates, macOS may restart significantly earlier than the deadline (often on the first or second night after the update declaration reaches your Mac). In this scenario, you will see two notifications: one for the scheduled update deadline, and another one informing you that macOS will try and install an update that night.

Prompted macOS updates are being deployed to ensure alignment with industry best practices and the University’s Minimum Security Standards Policy, which outline the importance of running a patched, up-to-date operating system. Computers that cannot run supported versions of macOS or do not update to a supported version may not be allowed to access BU network resources. Additionally, many key vendors, such as Microsoft, Crowdstrike, and Cisco, only provide patches and support for the three most recent versions of macOS (often referred to as the “N-2 policy”).

If there is a technical need to remain on a specific version of macOS, please contact your local IT support representative to discuss appropriate measures.

Apple did not provide administrators with an option for requiring that updates be installed by a deadline until macOS 14 Sonoma. Nudge was created by the MacAdmin community to fill that gap, allowing administrators to require updates in a consistent manner across the different versions of macOS.

Nudge will prompt on a schedule depending on if and how you deferred it previously. As the deadline approaches, longer deferral options will no longer be available to select and Nudge will appear more frequently.

To minimize disruption, Nudge won’t appear while you engage in critical tasks like delivering a PowerPoint or Keynote presentation or participating in a Zoom or Teams meeting.

As the update deadline draws near, prompts will appear regardless of your settings or activity. Please update prior to the deadline to avoid potential disruptions.

Once the deadline has passed, Nudge will block your ability to see and interact with other applications until you have installed the update. It will not forcibly start the update for you; you must start it on your own.

Your Mac will not restart automatically. Nudge can only direct you to install available updates; it cannot install the update for you.