Just an anecdote to the contrary... running up-to-date Ventura on my M1 MBA, got a pop-up about upgrading to Sonoma a couple days ago, clicked X and it didn't install (or even download). Working correctly.
So everything's normal for me. If this were happening to everyone it would be widespread and huge news.
So assuming it's some kind of possibly-obscure bug, if it's only a handful of people?
It's been popping up for me daily or so for about the last week. Hitting "X" makes it go away without installing. Still on Ventura on my 2019 27" Intel iMac. (Maybe Intel/Apple Silicon is the bug? Already updated 2023 MBP to Sonoma, can't easily test.)
1. Automatic updates set to "on" (because automatic updates only installs point releases, not major revisions).
2. "Updates are going to be installed tonight. Install now?", or words to that affect. That's the usual message for point release/bug fix releases. Oddly, when I click "Details", there is no point release and just the Sonoma upgrade. This seems to be a bug, IMO. The "upgrade to $LATEST!" should be a different dialog with different wording.
3. System Settings still shows "software update available", with the red "1" badge, when Sonoma is the only update. This seems to be a bug as well.
IMO, some state-dependent $THING got hosed, and now things are just a little off on my machine. this manifests as an unwanted OS upgrade for some, and just general "that's not...the way it used to work" others like myself but no forced upgrade.
It's not only a handful of people. There are already a handful of people verifying the issue in these very comments here, in addition to the people who have verified it in various other linked forums.
I got the same pop up a couple of days ago and I dismissed it by clicking on the “x” on the top left. I immediately went to Settings to confirm that my update settings were not changed to automatic updates (they weren’t).
Now I’m worried that this may pop up again and perhaps download and install the upgrade sneakily. I’m going through online posts and comments here to see how I can prevent it.
I noticed a few people on forums posting that this happened to them a few days ago. That suggests to me it's more than a handful of people because I've never seen anyone post this before.
Apple as far as I know has always respected your update settings, so at this point I don't think it's intentional. But obviously this shouldn't be happening.
I run Sonoma on my Official Macs, but I also have a Hackintosh on Ventura that has not upgraded.
Curious if this is because of the various different settings under Software Update, Automatic Updates?
It has an option to Install macOS updates automatically.
Another option could be about "Security Responses and system files". Maybe delayed a security patch for Ventura for a long time, so macOS decides to install Sonoma with the last update?
yes I got the popup after months of not getting it 2 days ago as well. clicked X and no forced update for now. must be a bug that manifests in some conditions.
This whole thing definitely looks highly anecdotal, rather rare, and basically 100% certain to be a bug. No way is Apple quietly forcing Sonoma upgrades on purpose; this wasn't intentional. Apple Support's responses to some affected users appear to confirm this.
Comments
Just an anecdote to the contrary... running up-to-date Ventura on my M1 MBA, got a pop-up about upgrading to Sonoma a couple days ago, clicked X and it didn't install (or even download). Working correctly.
So everything's normal for me. If this were happening to everyone it would be widespread and huge news.
So assuming it's some kind of possibly-obscure bug, if it's only a handful of people?
It's been popping up for me daily or so for about the last week. Hitting "X" makes it go away without installing. Still on Ventura on my 2019 27" Intel iMac. (Maybe Intel/Apple Silicon is the bug? Already updated 2023 MBP to Sonoma, can't easily test.)
1. Automatic updates set to "on" (because automatic updates only installs point releases, not major revisions).
2. "Updates are going to be installed tonight. Install now?", or words to that affect. That's the usual message for point release/bug fix releases. Oddly, when I click "Details", there is no point release and just the Sonoma upgrade. This seems to be a bug, IMO. The "upgrade to $LATEST!" should be a different dialog with different wording.
3. System Settings still shows "software update available", with the red "1" badge, when Sonoma is the only update. This seems to be a bug as well.
IMO, some state-dependent $THING got hosed, and now things are just a little off on my machine. this manifests as an unwanted OS upgrade for some, and just general "that's not...the way it used to work" others like myself but no forced upgrade.
It's not only a handful of people. There are already a handful of people verifying the issue in these very comments here, in addition to the people who have verified it in various other linked forums.
I got the same pop up a couple of days ago and I dismissed it by clicking on the “x” on the top left. I immediately went to Settings to confirm that my update settings were not changed to automatic updates (they weren’t).
Now I’m worried that this may pop up again and perhaps download and install the upgrade sneakily. I’m going through online posts and comments here to see how I can prevent it.
I noticed a few people on forums posting that this happened to them a few days ago. That suggests to me it's more than a handful of people because I've never seen anyone post this before.
Apple as far as I know has always respected your update settings, so at this point I don't think it's intentional. But obviously this shouldn't be happening.
I run Sonoma on my Official Macs, but I also have a Hackintosh on Ventura that has not upgraded.
Curious if this is because of the various different settings under Software Update, Automatic Updates?
It has an option to Install macOS updates automatically.
Another option could be about "Security Responses and system files". Maybe delayed a security patch for Ventura for a long time, so macOS decides to install Sonoma with the last update?
yes I got the popup after months of not getting it 2 days ago as well. clicked X and no forced update for now. must be a bug that manifests in some conditions.
It happened to me.
This whole thing definitely looks highly anecdotal, rather rare, and basically 100% certain to be a bug. No way is Apple quietly forcing Sonoma upgrades on purpose; this wasn't intentional. Apple Support's responses to some affected users appear to confirm this.