Do automatic installs of updates actually interrupt your session by surprise?

I'm in particular looking at "Install system data files and security updates"

Looks scary. Suppose I'm in the middle of something important. I walk away from the mac for a minute or two. Then I come back and find it running an update, which on my mac usually takes 35-45 minutes. Do I have that right?

And automatically install macOS updates? Same thing? No chance to prepare? For example, an update to Catalina would break all my 32-bit apps and make movies in old formats unusable, and then I wouldn't even be able to convert them to a newer supported format!

So would these automatic installs, if set, just run by surprise and possibly break things and interrupt a potentially very important session? Do I have that right? And if so, why would anyone want this behavior?

iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on Aug 19, 2020 9:38 PM

Top-ranking reply

Urquhart1244

Level 10

146,232 points

Posted on Aug 20, 2020 4:13 AM

Updates that require a restart (probably all of them) will prompt you, with a choice to do it later at a more convenient time. The preparation will happen in the background (e.g. downloads).

Major macOS version changes (e.g. Mojave to Catalina) are not automatic, regardless of settings. These are referred to as upgrades, not updates. The automatic updates are for point-releases (e.g. 10.14.5 to 10.14.6) and security updates and supplemental updates.

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Do automatic installs of updates actually interrupt your session by surprise?

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