Blocking Catalina

Off-Topic
#1

Although I have upgrade one of my computers to Catalina for the purposes of testing my software, I can confirm that it is a general disaster and I will avoid it on all my other computers. Another example of Apple moving one step forward followed by two steps backward.

I share below a simple terminal command that blocks software update from even suggesting a Catalina upgrade.

sudo softwareupdate --ignore “macOS Catalina”

After executing this command and restarting the computer, when I go to Software Update, it now reports:

Your Mac is up to date — macOS Mojave 10.14.6

I can now rest easy.

#2

So, would no longer list this downgrade in “System Preferences/Software update”?

#3

That is correct. MacOS Catalina is no longer listed as an option. Software update reports that your software is up to date. But you must restart your computer after executing

sudo softwareupdate --ignore “macOS Catalina”

in the terminal.

#4

[quote=458071:@Robert Birge]Although I have upgrade one of my computers to Catalina for the purposes of testing my software, I can confirm that it is a general disaster and I will avoid it on all my other computers. Another example of Apple moving one step forward followed by two steps backward.

I share below a simple terminal command that blocks software update from even suggesting a Catalina upgrade.

sudo softwareupdate --ignore “macOS Catalina”

After executing this command and restarting the computer, when I go to Software Update, it now reports:

Your Mac is up to date — macOS Mojave 10.14.6

I can now rest easy.[/quote]

I agree with you, I will not update any of my Macs and I advised all my clients not to, if they do not resolve next year I will continue to buy used Macs to run in Sierra or High Sierra only !

If they wanted to force me to change they will not succeed and will still lose sales !

#5

I should add that one can restore the software update to its previous behavior by executing

sudo softwareupdate --reset-ignored

which will reset the above mentioned Catalina restriction as well as any others you may have requested. As much as I hate what apple did with Catalina, at least they provide us with some control over their foolish decisions. But they certainly should have made Catalina a special case upgrade that checked with all users before they upgraded.

#6

To be sure - this command DOES NOT back out Catalina and revert to previous OS - correct ?

Ron

#7

[quote=464654:@Ron Bower]To be sure - this command DOES NOT back out Catalina and revert to previous OS - correct ?
[/quote]

Correct. It merely hides the annoying “Upgrade to Catalina” in System Preferences > Software Update.

#8

while that seems to stop Catalina from appearing in the Software Updates, how does one remove the (1) that appears on the dock above the sys pref icon?

#9

I couldn’t agree more about the fiasco that is this OS release. I haven’t had one that has caused me so much agony and wasted effort since they switched AppleScript to all 4 byte utf16 under the hood without telling anyone. Ugh ugh ugh. Thought I might be slipping into a little depression there for a while judged by how much I haven’t been enjoying my work lately, but I realize it’s not neurochemical it’s just frustration having to fix so many things that weren’t broken the week before.

#10

Yep, I don’t even follow Mac that closely, and I could tell it was a mess from the many comments i’ve read. Will avoid it and stick to Mojave for now on my 2018 iMac.