Software Update errors

I have a problem with installing system software updates through System Preferences → Software Update on an iMac running 10.14.6.




When I upgraded the MacOS from 10.12.6 to 10.14.6 I found that there were three updates needed doing still in Software Update. The 10.14.6 Supplemental update, a Safari update and a printer update but when I tried to install them I got an error message, see screenshot below.







I checked the System Preferences → Date & Time to make sure that was set correctly which it was. I then tried doing a Safe Boot and installing from there and also installing from a different User account but got the same error message.




I found an installer for the printer software that I had previously downloaded on another Mac so copied that to can external hard drive and successfully installed that from the external HD. I then downloaded the 10.14.6 Supplemental software update from the Apple website and tried installing from the DMG but that reported an error with the installer and failed, so I downloaded it on a different Mac, copied it to an external drive and tried installing it from there without success.




At this point I rebooted into the Recovery Partition and ran First Aid from Disk Utility before reinstalling the MacOS. When this had completed I tried running Software Update again but got the same error message as above.




I went back into the Recovery Partition and disabled SIPS through Terminal, rebooted the Mac and deleted the contents of the /Library/Updates folder. I went back into the Recovery Partition and reenabled SIPS through Terminal before rebooting and trying Software Update again. Something had obviously changed because although it failed again I got a different error message, see screenshot below.







I’m now running out of ideas. Does anyone know of a solution to this problem?

iMac 27″, macOS 10.14

Posted on Jul 28, 2020 3:36 PM

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Posted on Aug 13, 2020 3:35 PM

Well I got there in the end. I ended up having to wipe the drive and do a clean install of the MacOS, then import the user data back from a Time Machine backup. I was a bit worried that the issue with the system software updates not downloading might have ended up coming back in from the backup, but it didn’t and now everything works as it should.




Interestingly, I used the same USB installer disk to install the ‘clean’ system as I used when I did the original upgrade to 10.14 from 10.12 so the problem must have been caused by something in the upgrade process and not the installer. Just in case anyone comes across this same issue in the future

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 13, 2020 3:35 PM in response to Sean Dale1

Well I got there in the end. I ended up having to wipe the drive and do a clean install of the MacOS, then import the user data back from a Time Machine backup. I was a bit worried that the issue with the system software updates not downloading might have ended up coming back in from the backup, but it didn’t and now everything works as it should.




Interestingly, I used the same USB installer disk to install the ‘clean’ system as I used when I did the original upgrade to 10.14 from 10.12 so the problem must have been caused by something in the upgrade process and not the installer. Just in case anyone comes across this same issue in the future

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Software Update errors

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