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Software Update Failing (NSURLErrorDomain error -1012) on Catalina 10.15.7 (2021-01-24)

On my Macbook Pro 2020 with Catalina 10.15.7

Software Update Failing is failing since a few days!

Today is 2021-01-24, the Errors seem to have started on 2021-01-17


System Preferences --> Software Update shows:

Unable to check for updates

Make sure you are connected to the interne


% sudo softwareupdate -l in the Terminal.app shows:

Finding available software.

The operation couldn’t be completed. (NSURLErrorDomain error -1012.)


% sudo softwareupdate --dump-state

% open /System/Applications/TextEdit.app /var/log/install.log

allows some analysis...


here a part of the log file :

2021-01-24 20:54:54+01 ... softwareupdated[552]: SUScan: Scan for client pid 552 (/System/Library/CoreServices/Software Update.app/Contents/Resources/softwareupdated)
2021-01-24 20:54:54+01 ... softwareupdated[552]: Adding client SUUpdateServiceClient pid=2025, uid=502, installAuth=NO rights=(), transactions=0 (/usr/sbin/softwareupdate)
2021-01-24 20:54:54+01 ... softwareupdated[552]: Failed Software Update - Refusing invalid certificate from host: swscan.apple.com
2021-01-24 20:54:54+01 ... softwareupdated[552]: Failed Software Update - Refusing invalid certificate from host: swscan.apple.com
2021-01-24 20:54:54+01 ... softwareupdated[552]: SUScan: Fetching the catalog failed due to an error. Although our catalogTestMode is nil, we will not exit a TestMode (if we are in one).
2021-01-24 20:54:54+01 ... softwareupdated[552]: SUScan: Elapsed scan time = 0.2
2021-01-24 20:54:54+01 ... softwareupdated[552]: SUScan: Error encountered in scan: Error Domain=NSURLErrorDomain Code=-1012 "(null)" UserInfo={NSErrorFailingURLStringKey=https://swscan.apple.com/content/catalogs/others/index-10.15-10.14-10.13-10.12-10.11-10.10-10.9-mountainlion-lion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog, NSErrorFailingURLKey=https://swscan.apple.com/content/catalogs/others/index-10.15-10.14-10.13-10.12-10.11-10.10-10.9-mountainlion-lion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog, NSLocalizedRecoverySuggestion=Make sure you’re connected to the internet, and then try again., SUErrorRelatedCode=SUErrorCodeScanCatalogNotFound}
2021-01-24 20:54:54+01 ... SoftwareUpdateNotificationManager[1396]: AssertionMgr: Take com.apple.softwareupdate.NotifyAgentAssertion-BadgingCountChanged assertion with type BackgroundTask for pid 1396, id 0x87DC
2021-01-24 20:54:54+01 ... softwareupdated[552]: Scan got error The operation couldn’t be completed. (NSURLErrorDomain error -1012.)
2021-01-24 20:54:54+01 ... softwareupdated[552]: SUScan: Scan for client pid 552 (/System/Library/CoreServices/Software Update.app/Contents/Resources/softwareupdated)
2021-01-24 20:54:54+01 ... softwareupdated[552]: SUStatisticsManager: Successfully reported statistics for category 5


Extracted from above :

NSErrorFailingURLKey=https://swscan.apple.com/content/catalogs/others/index-10.15-10.14-10.13-10.12-10.11-10.10-10.9-mountainlion-lion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog
NSLocalizedRecoverySuggestion=Make sure you’re connected to the internet, and then try again.
SUErrorRelatedCode=SUErrorCodeScanCatalogNotFound


Downloading this file in Safari works without problem.

https://swscan.apple.com/content/catalogs/others/index-10.15-10.14-10.13-10.12-10.11-10.10-10.9-mountainlion-lion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog

So this seems to be a certificate problem and has been encountered with older systems, too.

I tried a lot of things following old threads but nothing works.


Can you people on Catalina still update?

Is this a problem on Apples side?


Posted on Jan 24, 2021 12:51 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jan 25, 2021 8:07 AM

ok, long hours later.... I solved this....


I had ocsp.apple.com blocked in my /etc/hosts file,

this breaks software update (but not the app store)


.-)

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Software Update Failing (NSURLErrorDomain error -1012) on Catalina 10.15.7 (2021-01-24)

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