Ignoring the macOS Catalina Upgrade

Each new macOS update brings numerous new features and security updates. While we advocate upgrading your fleet to the latest macOS update available, we understand there can sometimes be application compatibility issues that may arise with new upgrades that sometimes don’t manifest in beta testing. If you're still working through compatibility issues and testing, you may wish to temporarily ignore or block the update to prevent accidental updates until your testing completes. While Apple provides the “OS Update Delay” restriction to help with these scenarios, we noticed the delay didn’t take effect on Catalina. The following provides a quick and easy alternate method for blocking the update using the VMware Intelligent Hub for macOS.

How to Ignore the Update

macOS delivers the Catalina upgrade through the Software Update mechanism within macOS (even if users select the upgrade in the macOS App Store). As such, you can leverage the built-in softwareupdate command to force macOS Mojave devices to ignore the available upgrade in the Software Update preference pane. To deliver this command to eligible devices which have the VMware Intelligent Hub for macOS installed, perform the following:

1. In the Workspace ONE UEM console, navigate to Add > Profile > macOS > Device.

2. Configure the General settings, and select an assignment group with pre-Catalina devices.

3. Select the Custom Attributes payload, and click Configure.

4. Configure the Custom Attibute settings:

Attribute Name - Enter a name, such as Ignored_Updates for the attribute
Script/Command - Paste the following script into the text box

#!/bin/sh

ignored=$(/usr/sbin/softwareupdate --ignore "macOS Catalina" | tr -d "\n" | cut -f2 -d'"')

echo $ignored

Report Every - Set the schedule to 8 hours (using a time-based schedule forces the first-run of the script immediately when the profile lands on the device)

5. Click Save & Publish, then Publish.

End-User Experience

Let’s take a quick look at the end-user experience of ignoring the update. While the system ignores the update, the App Store still displays an option for the user to get Catalina.

If a user were to attempt to update to Catalina from the App Store, they will be redirected to the Software Update System Preferences.

And since the Catalina update has been ignored, Software Update will alert the user that the update is not available and instead display the latest update available to the device prior to Catalina (depending on whether device is configured to reach out to Apple or an internal SUS).

Reset the Ignored Update

When your organization is ready to deploy macOS Catalina, you can re-deploy the Custom Attribute to reset the ignore list. By resetting the ignore list, devices show the available update in the Software Update preference pane. Additionally, if you've also configured the Software Update payload, the Intelligent Hub for macOS rechecks for new updates and begins the software update notifications to your users on the schedule you've set. To reset the ignore list and allow the Catalina Upgrade, perform the following: