Software update takes AGES to check for updates

[matthewHUB]

Hi guys. I have a REV A MBA running 10.5.8. Since i got the machine, it takes forever to show available software. After clicking "software update" from the apple menu it sometimes takes 6 minutes to check if there's anything new. Is this normal?

M

 

[Eraserhead]

6 minutes seems more than a little long, it usually takes about 30 seconds on my MacBook.

 

[angelwatt]

What type of connection do you have? Does it happen every time? For how long has it been happening? Mine can take up to about a minute to complete.

 

[vohdoun]

Not only is mine slow at checking but it's slow as hell downloading.

This is the thing that puzzles me. It's widespread. It's happening with all 3 computers. My connection isn't throttled, nor does it have DNS issues.

I downloaded the latest security update through software update. It took 22 minutes. Downloading it through Safari took less than 2 minutes. What I can't work out is both Safari/any web browser and Software Update uses port 80. So how can it be crippled when web browsing is not... or any other downloading.

I tried another firmware on my router, it made no difference. I tried factory reseting the router, it made no difference. I'm really stumped and it's also because of this why all 3 machines take a while checking for updates. This is all running via Ethernet.

 

[matthewHUB]

No it doesn't happen every time. but it's never checked in less than a minute. ONce it's downloading the speed is fine. But sometimes it just hangs with the bar half way along.

 

[angelwatt]

No it doesn't happen every time. but it's never checked in less than a minute. ONce it's downloading the speed is fine. But sometimes it just hangs with the bar half way along.

It's possible you may be hitting it at peak times where many people are hitting their servers. There has been a bit of updates lately. I'm also unsure how much it looks at your machine and if certain configurations take longer to negotiate. I'm not sure of all the details of what it does server and client side.

 

[Beechside]

I'll flag a similar/same problem. Updated two machines to Lion yesterday (10.7.1 from the App Store) Software update now takes 21 minutes on the Mac Pro but 1 minute on the MBP. I've tried it several times at different times of the day. Used to be a minute or so on both machines. Software Update does run to completion but it hangs when the progress bar is about 80% of the way across and spends 20 mins there.

There is a problem somewhere...

Pete

 

[John T]

The loading of Software Update is dependent on your internet download speed.

 

[somnbulance]

Noticed this after updating to lion, used to take 3 or 4 min now takes 8 to 10 min, worse case 15min. Network speed has stayed the same and at varied times during the week.

Not complaining but it just seems kinda strange.

 

[Daveoc64]

The loading of Software Update is dependent on your internet download speed.

While that's obviously going to be true to some extent, my MacBook always takes about a minute to check on Mac OS X 10.6

I have a 30mbps down/3mbps up internet connection - that is clearly not the problem.

 

[sccottt]

The loading of Software Update is dependent on your internet download speed.

Nah.

I opened Activity Monitor while Software Update is taking it's sweet time checking for updates, and there was almost no network activity. It was, however, using up a lot of CPU%.

Complete speculation here, but I feel like it must be scouring your computer for info on what versions of system software you've got. I don't understand why that should take so long, but that makes more sense to me than the lag coming from network speed.

After all, how much data would really need to be sent or received here? We're just talking about checking for updates, not the actual download of any updates. Should be as insignificant a network load as checking for new email.