Apple taking auto download feature on macOS Sierra live today

AppleInsider

Starting today, Apple will push macOS Sierra to prospective upgraders on older versions of OS X, as well as downloads for point updates for users already on Sierra -- but won't install anything without explicit permission from the user.

Following a complete update, by default, macOS Sierra and OS X El Capitan will tell the user that the update is complete, and ask to install now, or defer installation.



Users can select that all updates, including OS updates, be performed automatically if desired. The settings are found in the App Store preferences pane.

Apple says that the update, and the handling of update files will be "smart." When user local drive space is running low, Apple claims that the update files will delete themselves, freeing up the multiple gigabytes of space required to retain the updaters.



AppleInsider is getting reports that Sierra is still downloading on incompatible Macs. The only way to prevent this is to disable the auto update feature entirely.



The rebranded macOS Sierra comes with new features, including integration with Apple's Siri virtual assistant. Other enhancements include a new file system built for modern computer equipment, rich Messages, Photos app buffs, Apple Pay for the web and auto unlock via Apple Watch, among numerous under the hood improvements.



The third macOS 10.12.1 beta was released for developers on Monday.

sockrolid

Two tiny nitpicks:
1. In App Store, the circular thumbnail for the update showed a mountain lion instead of the generic "X".
It reverted to the "X" thumbnail after installation.
2. The horizontal progress indicator froze at about 5%, but the installation completed as normal.

nolamacguy

the savages on MR are going nuts over this too, as usual. 

speaking of reports...what happened to the so called touch disease controversy? wasn't AI preparing a report on this after it finished compiling some sort of data from, uh, somewhere? or is that contro now dead?

lkrupp

nolamacguy said:

the savages on MR are going nuts over this too, as usual. 

speaking of reports...what happened to the so called touch disease controversy? wasn't AI preparing a report on this after it finished compiling some sort of data from, uh, somewhere? or is that contro now dead?

Yes, it’s dead along with the “hissing” iPhone 7s. Two failed “-gates” that never gained any traction because they were a trivial minority. I am on the Apple Discussion forums daily and both issues are barely mentioned anymore. Some threads are kept alive only by trolls lamenting the death of Steve Jobs and their tin foil hat theories of Apple’s declining build quality. You know, the usual pablum and crap from self-righteous morons.

boredumb

Will it bug me about installing it a couple of times a day, until I'm sure I'm ready?

jfc1138

boredumb said:

Will it bug me about installing it a couple of times a day, until I'm sure I'm ready?

Probably just turn off auto updates and it will keep quiet?

xixo

thanks for the warning - just turned it off.

xixo

lkrupp said:

. . .  Some threads are kept alive only by trolls lamenting the death of Steve Jobs and their tin foil hat theories of Apple’s declining build quality. You know, the usual pablum and crap from self-righteous morons.

check the mirror...

entropys

Pablum. I truly great word that isn't used enough.  I blame modern [poor] education.

SpamSandwich

Speaking for myself, I'm looking forward to Sierra getting some quick updates. Since installation my startup time has stretched from an average of a couple of minutes before I can start to do any actual work to at least ten minutes before I can hope to get anything done. It's gotten really, really sluggish and I cannot find a simple fix to the problem. Running a 2010 iMac.

MacPro

entropys said:

Pablum. I truly great word that isn't used enough.  I blame modern [poor] education.

Oh come on, that's just a bland and insipid thing to say.  

Vanilla

Hm, I kinda wish Apple had learned from the U2 album. People do not like automatic downloads. Crucially, not everyone lives in the US and-or has unlimited data! Worse, some people tether and use their extremely limited and costly mobile data for net access. Auto-downloading that amount of data when people aren't expecting it is irresponsible. I have a data cap, and I have low free hard drive space. My worry is how smart is the auto-delete system - if you are hovering near the threshold (and going below and then above it) is it possible that the large update files will be downloaded, and get auto-deleted, multiple times?

zinfella

Me too, a 2010 iMac, and it has slowed down booting considerably. Not only that, but I have a myriad of other issues that have cropped up with the 10.12. upgrade. Issues with 1Password launch, Contacts now has 6 identical entries for each contact, the Console is going bananas, etc, etc. (

macsrwe

Vanilla said:

Hm, I kinda wish Apple had learned from the U2 album. People do not like automatic downloads. Crucially, not everyone lives in the US and-or has unlimited data! Worse, some people tether and use their extremely limited and costly mobile data for net access. Auto-downloading that amount of data when people aren't expecting it is irresponsible. I have a data cap, and I have low free hard drive space. My worry is how smart is the auto-delete system - if you are hovering near the threshold (and going below and then above it) is it possible that the large update files will be downloaded, and get auto-deleted, multiple times?

Amen.  It must be nice to live in Silicon Valley, where everybody has gigabit fiber-to-the-Segway, but out here in ranch country, we have a lot of people on satellite and cellular plans with data caps of about 10G per month.  

So now Apple is going to eat up just under 5GB of this allotment *per computer* for a download nobody ever requested?  And if disk space gets tight, they're going to be "nice enough" to delete the download and then automatically download it again later?

I've already had complaints about this exact issue from clients who upgraded their PCs to Windows 10.  And now Apple jumps on the same train to pain.

I hope nobody in Cupertino will be surprised to get torn a new orifice by non-urban Apple users waving torches and pitchforks.  And trust me, these are people who are very, very handy with pitchforks.

zinfella

macsrwe said:

Vanilla said:

Hm, I kinda wish Apple had learned from the U2 album. People do not like automatic downloads. Crucially, not everyone lives in the US and-or has unlimited data! Worse, some people tether and use their extremely limited and costly mobile data for net access. Auto-downloading that amount of data when people aren't expecting it is irresponsible. I have a data cap, and I have low free hard drive space. My worry is how smart is the auto-delete system - if you are hovering near the threshold (and going below and then above it) is it possible that the large update files will be downloaded, and get auto-deleted, multiple times?

Amen.  It must be nice to live in Silicon Valley, where everybody has gigabit fiber-to-the-Segway, but out here in ranch country, we have a lot of people on satellite and cellular plans with data caps of about 10G per month.  

So now Apple is going to eat up just under 5GB of this allotment *per computer* for a download nobody ever requested?  And if disk space gets tight, they're going to be "nice enough" to delete the download and then automatically download it again later?

I've already had complaints about this exact issue from clients who upgraded their PCs to Windows 10.  And now Apple jumps on the same train to pain.

I hope nobody in Cupertino will be surprised to get torn a new orifice by non-urban Apple users waving torches and pitchforks.  And trust me, these are people who are very, very handy with pitchforks.

Why can't those folks that are concerned about auto-updates just go into System Preferences/App Store and uncheck the boxes that control it? I do notice that all of the boxes are labeled as yes or no to updates, not upgrades, but perhaps that distinction is seen as nit picking.