"Updates for this Mac are managed externally". No they are not!!!

If you can't connect to the App Store, iTunes Store, or other Apple services - Apple Support may be the root cause of your difficulties. Needless to say, if you are using, or have used at any time in the past, any non-Apple "anti-virus", "cleaning", or "Internet security" products including "banking security", anything at all in that broad category of utterly useless garbage, don't. A lot of things won't work if you do.

Somewhere a happy medium exists between always shutting down a Mac and never shutting down a Mac, but yes if you have some odd problem simply rebooting it is justified.

richardfromholmdel wrote:

It shows nothing, just takes me back to the first screen.

The interesting thing is that from a different User account on this same Mac (one without Administrator permission), things are normal (i.e. exactly as expected). I don't get the message about no internet connectivity and I also dont see the message about the Mac being managed externally.

That is why I suspect that the root cause is that the Settings App is unable to establish an Internet access. Sometime tonight I will reboot the computer and try again.

?

You can file a bug report here—Apple Feedback http://www.apple.com/feedback

richardfromholmdel wrote:

Today, I got a strange, never-before-seen, error message saying that updates to my Mac are managed externally. Which is not true.

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/324a3135-ab81-4873-bed7-8adf39372a13

Before anyone comments, I want to say that I am the original purchaser, the personal owner, the administrator, and the sole user of this computer. It is NOT externally managed. I check for updates every week or so. This is the first time I am seeking this message.

The other strange thing - which might be related to the problem - is that it says that there is no Internet connection. The internet connection is actually working fine in my web browser and other apps, so that message is wrong and is possibly the root cause of the problem. Is it possible that for some reason, the Settings app is unable to contact the Apple update servers and this is somehow causing its logic to be messed up?

My hardware and OS details are:

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/3ca5951d-f716-4141-8cec-bf24e17f42b7

Is there a reason why the Setting app alone would not be able to establish an Internet connection?

I do not know what is "Setting app" (?)

I would simply try at a later date...

That is why I suspect that the root cause is that the Settings App is unable to establish an Internet access.

That's a plausible explanation.

Unless I'm mistaken what you keep referring to as the Settings App is System Preferences though.

 (Apple menu) > System Preferences... > Software Update. Correct?

👍

Apple should probably just call it Settings.

It certainly appears to be a spurious message, but what do the Details... disclose? If it's being managed those details should be disclosed, e.g. "This Mac is being managed by <company, etc>"

richardfromholmdel wrote:

I rebooted the Mac and the problem went away.

Rule #2 if you have an issue—Reboot