How to schedule the System and Mac App Store to perform updates overnight?

Question

How to schedule the System and Mac App Store to perform updates overnight?

I have a family member who lives in a remote area with no internet access except by a satellite service that has a 10GB monthly data limit — except for between 2am and 8am.

Every month it seems like the he has at least 2-4GB of updates — either system updates, or iMovie, or MS Office.

How do I set up his Mac to update software only between 2am and 8am? Maybe I'm missing something, but as near as I can tell, Apple hasn't bothered to give users any option for scheduling updates.

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.13

Posted on Jun 17, 2021 3:45 PM

Reply

Answer 1

VikingOSX

Level 10

126,276 points

Jun 24, 2021 4:54 PM in response to BDAqua

Automator has a Calendar Alarm workflow where one could insert a Utility Library > Run Shell Script action that would use the

softwareupdate -i -a

One sets the Calendar Alarm launch time to 2:15 am through an end-time suitably long enough to perform all updates. The software update will not have any effect on application updates that were not acquired through the Mac App Store, or not from Apple.

In System Preferences > Energy Saver > Schedule… one could set a Startup or wake with a flexible day schedule and clock time. On the same panel, is the option to Shutdown a few hours later. This avoids having the Mac running around the clock, and only turns on at 2 am, performs software updates, and turns off again at some definable time frame before 8 am. Coordinate these settings with the Automator Calendar alarm settings.

Reply

Answer 2

BDAqua

Level 10

251,131 points

Jun 24, 2021 3:43 PM in response to 100 Watt Walrus

I think what it amounts to is turning off Automatic Updates in Sys Prefs>App Store, then scheduling a a script to...

softwareupdate -i -a

in Calendar.

Reply

Answer 3

BDAqua

Level 10

251,131 points

Jun 17, 2021 4:33 PM in response to 100 Watt Walrus

Update apps and macOS, without ever launching the App Store - ChrisWrites.com

Reply

Answer 4

Jun 24, 2021 3:10 PM in response to BDAqua

Hi BDAqua. I was hoping you might reply! There are some great tips in there, but unless I glossed over it in my reading, I don't see instructions there for scheduling a time for downloads to occur. I do see suggestions for separating the download process from the update process, but what I'm going for here is telling the computer to wake up at 02:00 and download the available updates.

Reply

Answer 5

Jun 27, 2021 1:53 PM in response to VikingOSX

Thanks BD and Viking! That all sounds like it should work. We'll try this.

Reply

How to schedule the System and Mac App Store to perform updates overnight?

Similar questions