Why do I STILL have a red 1 notification if I performed the latest update?

I have recently updated my MacBook Pro and my partner's MacBook Air to Catalina and have had the issue with the System Preferences icon badged for a update when the software is up to date.

The solution (provided to me by Apple Support) is to use the Terminal command (one line)

sudo defaults delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate.plist LastRecommendedMajorOSBundleIdentifier

defaults delete com.apple.preferences.softwareupdate LatestMajorOSSeenByUserBundleIdentifier

followed by

System Preferences - Software Update screen, and then press Command + R to force a refresh

Open System Preferences > Software Update and see if that shows anything pending. It is not alway apparent:

Clicking "More Info.. " will display pending updates and let you install. Security Updates and Safari updates with be there, not in the Mac App Store as with older versions of MacOS.

ALWAYS have a fresh backup before doing these updates, especially Security Updates. They seem most likely to create trouble.

If you are sure you are fully up to date, try this:

1) In the Finder, press command-shift-G

2) Type or paste the following:

~/Library/Preferences

and press enter

3) Locate the file

com.apple.SoftwareUpdate.plist

and drag it out of the folder (place it in your desktop, for example)

4) Restart your mac, and confirm that the issue went away.

5) Drag the com.apple.SoftwareUpdate.plist from your desktop to the trash

This should be the accepted answer:

sudo defaults delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate.plist LastRecommendedMajorOSBundleIdentifier 
defaults delete com.apple.preferences.softwareupdate LatestMajorOSSeenByUserBundleIdentifier

RickReed wrote:

I have recently updated my MacBook Pro and my partner's MacBook Air to Catalina and have had the issue with the System Preferences icon badged for a update when the software is up to date.

The solution (provided to me by Apple Support) is to use the Terminal command (one line)

sudo defaults delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate.plist LastRecommendedMajorOSBundleIdentifier

defaults delete com.apple.preferences.softwareupdate LatestMajorOSSeenByUserBundleIdentifier

followed by

System Preferences - Software Update screen, and then press Command + R to force a refresh

this is and issue in macOS 10.15.4

Solution:

• open terminal type in:

cd /Library/Preferences/ && open ./

• then search this file:

com.apple.SoftwareUpdate.plist

• rename to

com.apple.SoftwareUpdate.plist.old

then restart and the notification badge It is no more.

If you are using macOS Catalina 10.15.4, follow the steps below:

1. Open Terminal and run the following commands one by one:
   1. defaults delete com.apple.systempreferences AttentionPrefBundleIDs; killall Dock
   2. defaults delete com.apple.systempreferences DidShowPrefBundleIDs; killall Dock
   3. rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate.plist
   4. rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.preferences.softwareupdate.plist
   5. sudo rm /Library/Preferences/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate.plist
   6. sudo rm /Library/Preferences/com.apple.preferences.softwareupdate.plist
2. Reboot to safe mode by following steps in this article.
3. Check for updates by going to Apple icon > System Preferences > Software Update
4. Reboot to normal mode

I had the same issue when I did the latest update (very annoying). I have more than one profile on the MacBook that had the issue so I had to go into the other profile and go through the set up with the new update. Once I completed the set up for all the profiles on the computer, the notification went away.

Same issue, but my fix was easy. I opened settings, un-clicked the "Automatically keep my Mac up to date" and then closed settings. The red "1" indicator went away. Back into settings, re-clicked "Automatically keep my Mac up to date" and I have not seen the indicator since.

2018 MacBook Pro 15"

Catalina 10.15.4

While in the Finder, press "command shift G", copy then paste the following line into the window that opens…

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.preferences.softwareupdate.plist

…press Return. The file to delete will be highlighted. Delete the file then restart your Mac.

Luis, I think you had it right the first time...

It was the file named "com.apple.SoftwareUpdate.plist" that I deleted, and after re-start, a new one got created. This worked for me, albeit with a slightly delayed reaction (kee nethery above reported this as well).

FWIW, I don't see a file named "com.apple.preferences.softwareupdate.plist" I see a "com.apple.preferences.accounts.plist" and a "com.apple.preferences.sharing.plist" but I didn't touch either one of them.

Also, not sure if this made a difference, but before I re-started, I turned off (unchecked) "Automatically keep my Mac up to date". Now however, it is back on (checked), but I didn't do this. It still works though, red dot is still gone, so I'll keep it the way it is.

Thanks! This was very helpful!

For those who don't know how to access terminal, you may enter command+spacebar to access Spotlight and type in Terminal.

Had to google it as I'm pretty new to Mac.

After which you can go ahead and copy paste:

sudo defaults delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate.plist LastRecommendedMajorOSBundleIdentifier

defaults delete com.apple.preferences.softwareupdate LatestMajorOSSeenByUserBundleIdentifier

It would prompt for your password (if you have any) and enter as per normal.

followed by

System Preferences - Software Update screen, and then press Command + R to force a refresh

Hope this helps too!

Logout of your account. Restart your Mac. Login to your account. See if that cures it.

Maybe I spoke too soon...It was still red dot right after re-start, but a few minutes later I looked, and it is now off!

BTW, before I re-started, I turned off (unchecked) "Automatically keep my Mac up to date"

mitch_san_angeles wrote:

Hi Luis,

I tried your suggestion, but it didn't work :(

Probably because I made a mistake - silly me!

There are two plist files with similar names... the one I should have written is

com.apple.preferences.softwareupdate.plist

(and NOT com.apple.SoftwareUpdate.plist)

This is a bug in 10.15.4. Is there a ticket (Jira, whatever) opened to resolve it?

Thanks.