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So, macOS Sequioia 15.4 arbitrarily turned on automatic installation of operating system and security updates. These are things that are enabled by default on a new install—which I think is understandable. However, I had previously deliberately disabled automatic updates, and Apple decided to override my explicit actions.
Oh, and it's April Fool's Day, so thanks for that, Apple.
I don't have automatic software updates enabled because I've had Apple's operating system updates effectively brick my machine. I do a lot of music/audio work, and there's basically no telling when Apple is going to do something that will make the drivers for your music/audio hardware unusable. In fact, Apple warns you it's going to do it: most DAWs with third-party interfaces regularly see notices about how they're using a legacy system extension that will not be supported in future versions of macOS.
@geoffduncan (I still haven't made the jump from 14, and the "Update to Sequoia!" ads in the upper right corner are becoming nigh constant.)
@kiplet
I still have a machine on 10.12 because…audio drivers.
@geoffduncan Not cool. At all.
Of course, my aging system is still on Monterey, so there's that. Similar to what you noted about audio/DAW/plugin versions not supported. Hoping to be able to upgrade to a Mac Studio, but haven't saved enough yet...
@muz4now
I have a weirder case in that I have to keep some old systems around and operational for data recovery purposes. Someone gets a bright idea and wants to remaster their album from 25 years ago? Good luck opening that project on a modern rig. Sometimes they have stems…sometimes they don't.
@geoffduncan Yes, that's a very wide and wild case. I imagine you have a computer room full of prior systems. (Since I do I.T. in my day job, my mind goes straight to power and cooling requirements...)
@muz4now
Nah: most of them are asleep or (if they're still relatively new) actually turned off. I do roughly two recovery-type jobs a month: most are pretty simple (reading things from Zip disks, SyQuests, floppies, DAT—lately CD-R and Blu-Ray, ha), sometimes it's file conversion, pulling data out of old systems,etc. Occasionally things get more involved. On a few occasions I've had to Frankentein-together old ProTools rigs in order to open/recover recordings—and yes, that has included NuBus-based ProTools.
Anyway: it's not something I do as a real data recovery business. Sometimes people ask if I can help, and sometimes I can.
@geoffduncan
Thanks for the heads up, just did the update on my new box last night and assumed it would leave my settings alone. This is moving into Windows Update territory, very disappointing.
@GuitarSith
I mean, I understand it from the perspective that Apple considers itself a consumer electronics company. Autoupdate is the correct setting for most people on most devices.
However, to folks like me, it lands like this:
"Hi. Here at Apple we have a long, proud history of changing our operating systems in ways that immediately break third-party hardware and software products you rely on professionally, and consistently choose not communicate those changes to the Apple community in a timely, accessible manner—or, indeed, to communicate them at all. You understand that, and you intentionally jumped through laughably arduous hoops to disable automatic software updates so you'd be able to fully control the software update process and timing. You feel that's important, since you also understand reverting to a previous version of an Apple operating system in the event of a problem is difficult-to-impossible.
"We have decided to think different and have chosen to deliberately throw away your explicit, intentional settings and substituted our own that can destroy your professional life at any moment. We put up a dialog about it that you probably clicked through because you couldn't read the tiny, inaccessible text. Be f*ing grateful."
@geoffduncan Thanks for the warning on this. I just updated after seeing your post, and was presented with the following screenshot at the end of the update process. At least they told us about the change, but I could see how this screen would easily be clicked right past— that's exactly what I've done in the past when I updated. I probably would have hurriedly just clicked Continue had I not seen your post. This is a troubling trend from Apple after they kept re-enabling Apple Intelligence.
@geoffduncan Trying to manage software for music is why I went DAWless. It's too much work when I just need an instrument to play.