Sonoma installed itself

Ditto. I had automatic updates disabled. Was running Monterey 12.7.2 on a Mac that is set to restart automatically at 4:30 a.m. daily for backup purposes. When I checked the computer around 8 a.m. yesterday I was surprised to find it had upgraded automatically to Sonoma 14.2.1. This was before 14.3 was released later yesterday, BTW. I was holding back on upgrading that Mac for reasons similar to those many have posted in this thread. After I realized what had happened, I started researching and found this thread. Discovered I was not alone. Is this a bug, I wonder? I've now completely disabled all automatic checking/downloading/running of Software Update on every Mac I own, just as a precaution.

Now that Sonoma 14.3 is out, should we download this new version and keep it in the Applications folder to prevent Monterey from upgrading to Sonoma again? Or is the 14.2.1 download enough to prevent this forced upgrade?

I have just updated to Monterey 12.7.3 and would not like to live a forced upgrade again and lose some days to downgrade again to Monterey. Thanks!

PS: I was force-upgraded on Jan. 11th and I still haven't recovered yet. I restored from backup but had numerous corrupt files. Still working on restoring from iCloud. Luckily, I do know something about Apple. I don't just rely on Time Machine. I also rely on an entirely separate computer I can use if my primary computer goes out of commission for whatever reason.

Happened to me today, automatic upgrade disabled, I can't believe such error is present in a system. I need the old system, so I'm looking on options, how to downgrade.

As a bonus today my Windows 10 PC can't be updated anymore, because of Microsoft bug. These companies are becoming more and more horrible for people, who use their computer for work.

Same thing as a lot of others -

restarted my machine last night due to some glitchiness opening up the Apple TV app. Figured it needed a restart it had been compressing a very large folder overnight the night before.

Restarting took awhile but I assumed it was just a security update which I had turned on auto. But I had not turned OS updates on auto so I was surprised and annoyed when the log in screen looked different and new and I realized what happened.

Luckily I no longer use this machine for my work but I did just start using Protools which I know tends to take awhile to be compatible/usable on the new operating systems. I was not ready to upgrade anytime soon and now it’s taking awhile to wipe/reinstall/restore my computer back to Ventura. Still not sure it’s gonna be successful.

Here's something I just thought of: There was no dialog box popping up at any time asking me to acknowledge having read the Terms & Conditions and accepting them.

I wonder if there are any legal ramifications from that? There must be, since they bother to have it in a normal upgrade.

Ouch and now the the first time I have seen this happened while running macOS 13 Ventura

The plot thickens 😔 .

Metaphorically speaking

Happened to me yesterday. I was running Monterey, did a simple restart, and it automatically upgraded to Sonoma. Fortunately, I haven't encountered any problems since the upgrade, but still...

The same thing happened to me. Not everything works in Sonoma, so I have to return to Monterrey. Quite disgusting from Apple, I will lose 2+ days of work!

Yep. Happened to me today. I had to restart due to an app update and when It did, I had Sonoma. Never asked for it and have Automatic updates turned OFF.

This happened to me this morning. Very frustrating. I have to be careful with my work VPN software to make sure it's compatible. If it automatically updates, I can't do that.

I for one have only seen/heard of it in Monterey... hasn't happened to me in Monterey or any OS, but spend most of my time in Mojave.

I lost all my logic projects. I’m hurt 😔