Catalina updated itself to 10.15.1 while sleeping?

[Vlad Soare]

Hello,

This morning I opened the lid of my Macbook and, to my complete amazement, was greeted by a prompt to enter my password to enable TouchId, then another prompt to say whether I wanted to enable Siri, then a notification that my Mac had beed upgraded to macOS 10.15.1.
I thought maybe the automatic updates (which I always deactivate on all of my devices) had gotten covertly turned on during the upgrade from Mojave to Catalina, so I opened the system preferences to check. But no, they were off.
The creepiest thing is that it did that while sleeping! Yesterday, after using the computer, I just closed the lid like I always do. Today I opened the lid and the update was already done. 😧

What's this? Can (and will) Apple forcefully update our Macs whenever they feel like it? This is downright scary.
Has any of you experienced this?

Thank you.

 

[FNH15]

Hello,

This morning I opened the lid of my Macbook and, to my complete amazement, was greeted by a prompt to enter my password to enable TouchId, then another prompt to say whether I wanted to enable Siri, then a notification that my Mac had beed upgraded to macOS 10.15.1.
I thought maybe the automatic updates (which I always deactivate on all of my devices) had gotten covertly turned on during the upgrade from Mojave to Catalina, so I opened the system preferences to check. But no, they were off.
The creepiest thing is that it did that while sleeping! Yesterday, after using the computer, I just closed the lid like I always do. Today I opened the lid and the update was already done. 😧

What's this? Can (and will) Apple forcefully update our Macs whenever they feel like it? This is downright scary.
Has any of you experienced this?

Thank you.

Are you sure you didn’t click “install later” on the upgrade prompt? Common mistake, it seems...

 

[Vlad Soare]

I'm not 100% sure I didn't click that by mistake, but even so, shouldn't it happen while I use the computer? Should't I get a notification that the computer will restart in 59...58...57...56... seconds? Every update involves a restart, then half an hour spent with a black screen, a white apple and a progress bar filling up very slowly. It's not something that can go unnoticed.
How did it happen behind my back, with the lid closed? I closed the lid yesterday, and today when I opened it the update was complete.

 

[twintin]

I'm not 100% sure I didn't click that by mistake, but even so, shouldn't it happen while I use the computer?

One of the installation options is ”Install at night” I think. Perhaps that what you pressed ?

 

[Vlad Soare]

Could be. I can't remember. I'm sure I meant to click 'remind me tomorrow', but I guess I may have missed that and hit something else.
But again, even if I did that, shouldn't the computer be up and running at the time? How did it update itself while sleeping?

 

[twintin]

Could be. I can't remember. I'm sure I meant to click 'remind me tomorrow', but I guess I may have missed that and hit something else.

Common mistake.

But again, even if I did that, shouldn't the computer be up and running at the time? How did it update itself while sleeping?

If it is in standby/sleep mode it is technically “running” and will wake up and do its thing. If it is powered off I don’t think it can do any update at all.

 

[Vlad Soare]

I see. I thought sleep mode was basically just keeping the RAM alive so you can continue where you left off, nothing more. I didn't expect the computer to be fully 'conscious' and able to do proper work.
Thanks.

 

[ezekielelin]

There is a feature called Power Nap which allows Macs to "wake up" in the background and perform tasks. This allows it to back up to time machine or fetch new emails if it's asleep. It also allows software updates to happen when you're not using the computer, as you've discovered here.

 

[Vlad Soare]

Indeed, I see this option in System Preferences. On my computer it's set to off on battery, but it's on on power adapter. And come to think of it, the computer had been connected to A/C power that night.
OK then, problem solved. 😁
Thanks.

 

[mmomega]

There's also the automatically install anything and everything options.