Ventura magically updated to Sonoma 😱

[bobjonesco]

Spent half a day downgrading my MBP M1 from Sonoma to Ventura last week (they don’t make it easy) and was happy for about 2 days until I had to reboot due to a black unresponsive screen.

Surprise surprise, booted straight up into Sonoma again 🤔

I only have ‘security updates’ enabled and not ‘MacOS updates’ so can anyone tell me what the f is going on?

Don’t really want to spend a couple of hours again to downgrade back.

 

[nihil0]

I have disabled automatic updates since forever and yet after many weeks of deferring and canceling the upgrade from Ventura to Sonoma it has installed by itself yesterday. I was working normally and suddenly a notification appeared in top left corner that new version of OS will install. I clicked on Later and after that new notification appeared that new OS will install in 60 seconds. I canceled this but after I rebooted the Mac after 2 days, it has installed it anyway. Why did this happen? I specifically postpone new OS version installations after I have verified that all software and hardware I use is compatible and they did me dirty. How can I ensure in the future this doesn't happen?

 

[MBAir2010]

never

I have disabled automatic updates since forever and yet after many weeks of deferring and canceling the upgrade from Ventura to Sonoma.
I clicked on Later .
How can I ensure in the future this doesn't happen?

Never click anything....even for next year.
as my MacBook Pro 2012 is begging.....really begging for Catalina!

just reinstall Ventura with a time machine back up and you should be set.

edit:
or maybe not, there is some incidents of this happened overnight here
stay tuned.....

 

[MBAir2010]

Spent half a day downgrading my MBP M1 from Sonoma to Ventura last week (they don’t make it easy) and was happy for about 2 days until I had to reboot due to a black unresponsive screen.

Surprise surprise, booted straight up into Sonoma again 🤔

I only have ‘security updates’ enabled and not ‘MacOS updates’ so can anyone tell me what the f is going on?

Don’t really want to spend a couple of hours again to downgrade back.

yup, seems to me is getting more over-zealous lately.
we can't type , some of our album art is missing now in Sonoma MUSIC and now this.
they seemed to fulfill our freedom-like computer needs with Monterey now they took that back.

 

[nihil0]

Exact same scenario (I had to reboot because of uninstalling the Soundflower but still). I remember I was waiting when moving from Big Sur to Ventura for at least 6 months because one of software I use was incompatible and altough the system was nagging me from time to time to update, it never did it by itself.

 

[bogdanw]

Restrict Software Update with a configuration profile
AutomaticallyInstallMacOSUpdates
AutomaticDownload
AutomaticCheckEnabled
all set to false, payload scope System
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/devicemanagement/softwareupdate
Apple Configurator https://apps.apple.com/app/id1037126344
iMazing Profile Editor https://apps.apple.com/app/id1487860882
ProfileCreator https://github.com/ProfileCreator/ProfileCreator

 

[kitKAC]

Spent half a day downgrading my MBP M1 from Sonoma to Ventura last week (they don’t make it easy) and was happy for about 2 days until I had to reboot due to a black unresponsive screen.

Surprise surprise, booted straight up into Sonoma again 🤔

I only have ‘security updates’ enabled and not ‘MacOS updates’ so can anyone tell me what the f is going on?

Don’t really want to spend a couple of hours again to downgrade back.

You'd wiped the machine and reinstalled Ventura? You didn't create a new Volume leaving the Sonoma install intact? How long did it take to reboot the machine?

 

[bobjonesco]

You'd wiped the machine and reinstalled Ventura? You didn't create a new Volume leaving the Sonoma install intact? How long did it take to reboot the machine?

Completely wiped the drive before installing Ventura clean from a USB. The reboot was probably a minute or 3.

 

[kitKAC]

Completely wiped the drive before installing Ventura clean from a USB. The reboot was probably a minute or 3.

A reboot time of 1 to 3 mins is far too short for an entire upgrade to take place, could you screenshot all the Volumes showing in Disk Utility please?

 

[lionel77]

When I restarted my MacBook Pro about an hour ago, it also upgraded to Sonoma without asking.

When it gave me the Apple Logo with "x minutes remaining", I first thought "that's weird, I don't remember reading about a new Ventura update", because I could not believe that it would actually install Sonoma. I'm generally very careful about not upgrading until a new major macOS version has been out for 6-9 months or so, but sure enough my Mac is now on macOS 14.2.1.

"Software Update -> Automatic Updates -> Install macOS updates" is checked on this Mac, but in the past, that has never caused a major macOS upgrade to be installed.

 

[MBAir2010]

Obviously something is up in Cupertino,

just be careful!

 

[Mike The Soundguy]

Spent half a day downgrading my MBP M1 from Sonoma to Ventura last week (they don’t make it easy) and was happy for about 2 days until I had to reboot due to a black unresponsive screen.

Surprise surprise, booted straight up into Sonoma again 🤔

I only have ‘security updates’ enabled and not ‘MacOS updates’ so can anyone tell me what the f is going on?

Don’t really want to spend a couple of hours again to downgrade back.

My mac went from Monterey to Sonoma and I had auto updates off and I constantly check that too . I wanted to wait to upgrade to Sonoma when I was ready . This was the weird to happen . I talk to apple they got on terminal with me and found auto update was ON . Even though it was UNCHECKED in system preferences . It was weird when I was working the other night in the corner I saw my mac was going to reboot . I was like wait what ??? Why ?? So I unchecked it fast and it stayed on . I kept working and then tried rebooting the mac after just to see what was that . Well that reboot was acting weird . I saw just the apple logo and nothing else . Then thew time bar saying 9 minutes etc then counted down . It reboots and I see the SONOMA screen . I logged into then what became updated to sonoma . Now to add I had updated to the latest Monterey and something went weird on it so apple and I reinstalled latest monterey and I think something went wrong in that last Monterey update . I was going to time machine back to Monterey after this Sonoma update but I'm going to try it . I did unplug my Time machine disk to preserve my Montery backup . I now have a new backup disc for Sonoma time machine . What a mess ! So far everything seems to be working ok . I run Audio recording programs etc . iMac Pro ...

 

[DFWHD]

Same here. Had to reboot yesterday morning and 25 mins later good bye Ventura and hello Sonoma. Royally pissed me of at first, but after spending yesterday with it, I'm okay for now. Nothing earth shattering or buggy so far on my 2018 i7/32 Mini and I actually like the widgets. But seriously, Apple shouldn't be forcing upgrades and if it is a bug, it needs to get fixed.

 

[bobbyt1984]

Running latest macOS Ventura and I remember getting some notification about Sonoma all of a sudden yesterday or possibly Friday. I remember I simply closed that notification and did not select upgrade later, tonight or anything like that. My software update preferences are all enabled except for "Install macOS updates" is disabled. I had to restart today and noticed it taking a lot longer and finally seeing the minutes progress instead of just the bar (did not see that progress number for like 2 auto reboots later as screen looked stuck). I was thinking at first oh another Ventura delta update but then I saw the Sonoma login Window! I double checked my software update preferences after and it was still the same with "Install macOS updates" DISABLED. We are getting Rickrolled into this update! Not good. If you have an Apple Silicon Mac you will need to enter your password first before Sonoma can be installed. DON'T do it unless you want to upgrade! On Intel Macs it just installs.

 

[MBAir2010]

im running Monterey now on external drives and will have to cross my fingers.
I do turn off everything except that iPhone I only use for an alarm clock now.

Monterey is better than Sonoma and as fast!

Mike The Soundguy:​

I talk to apple they got on terminal with me and found auto update was ON

do you remember the code?
if not no big deal

 

[hushblade]

I think there’s something less sinister going on. Because Automatic Updates is just that — updates, not upgrades.

Like before the erase, maybe an update or upgrade was downloaded and queued for Sonoma, and if it’s Intel, and NVRAM wasn’t cleared, then it wanted to see it through. Or, when the install initially happened, it went to Internet Recovery despite the USB drive being selected, and it installed Sonoma.

 

[MBAir2010]

I think there’s something less sinister going on. Because Automatic Updates is just that — updates, not upgrades.

Like before the erase, maybe an update or upgrade was downloaded and queued for Sonoma, and if it’s Intel, and NVRAM wasn’t cleared, then it wanted to see it through. Or, when the install initially happened, it went to Internet Recovery despite the USB drive being selected, and it installed Sonoma.

what previous operating system did Sonoma invade?

 

[BKDad]

Exact same thing happened here. I was using the very latest version of Ventura with all the security updates. I turned off the computer and walked away. Later, I came back and saw the screen was still on and that Sonoma was almost entirely installed. This was on a very late Intel iMac. Everything with regard to updates was set to NOT be automatic - even security updates. (I routinely use SilentKnight for security upgrades.)

Sonoma seems to be working OK on that iMac. We'll see, of course.

 

[BKDad]

One more thing...

Since I like to keep all the Macs in the house on the same version of macOS, I then upgraded this Mac Studio.

Oops. Now external audio peripherals don't work properly when plugged into the rear USB-A ports, which did hours before I "upgraded." I'm now using the a TB4 port on the rear with an adaptor cable. Grrrrr...

 

[fisherking]

One more thing...

Since I like to keep all the Macs in the house on the same version of macOS, I then upgraded this Mac Studio.

Oops. Now external audio peripherals don't work properly when plugged into the rear USB-A ports, which did hours before I "upgraded." I'm now using the a TB4 port on the rear with an adaptor cable. Grrrrr...

which mac? if it's intel, try resetting the SMC.

has anyone called apple to get help with this? just curious why anyone's mac is getting upgraded this way

 

[BKDad]

which mac? if it's intel, try resetting the SMC.

has anyone called apple to get help with this? just curious why anyone's mac is getting upgraded this way

Mac Studio M2. I did shut the computer down for a minute or so while moving stuff around in the back to change ports. That had no effect.

I did not call Apple. It was too late at that point. I'd been reluctant to upgrade from Ventura because of fear of the unknown, so I just went with it because I knew I'd upgrade at some point. If things otherwise are a problem, I'll try going back to Ventura.

 

[MircoT]

it "almost" happened to me too: yesterday I received the classic "update to Sonoma" notification, I clicked on the x of the notification, but at the same time the red badge on the preferences icon disappeared. I opened preferences and saw it was downloading Sonoma, I stopped it. I think I narrowly avoided the forced upgrade in Sonoma.
To be able to use Apple Pay, only security updates are enabled in the preferences:

that's a bad thing...
(I've restarted the MacStudio: still on Ventura )

 

[sabristow]

I have disabled automatic updates since forever and yet after many weeks of deferring and canceling the upgrade from Ventura to Sonoma it has installed by itself yesterday. I was working normally and suddenly a notification appeared in top left corner that new version of OS will install. I clicked on Later and after that new notification appeared that new OS will install in 60 seconds. I canceled this but after I rebooted the Mac after 2 days, it has installed it anyway. Why did this happen? I specifically postpone new OS version installations after I have verified that all software and hardware I use is compatible and they did me dirty. How can I ensure in the future this doesn't happen?

Currently we don't think you can, it has happened to us several times now after clean OS install and it corrupts our boot loader such that it will not boot because the os has been changed to sonoma from our original version. no solution found yet as of 2024

 

[sabristow]

Spent half a day downgrading my MBP M1 from Sonoma to Ventura last week (they don’t make it easy) and was happy for about 2 days until I had to reboot due to a black unresponsive screen.

Surprise surprise, booted straight up into Sonoma again 🤔

I only have ‘security updates’ enabled and not ‘MacOS updates’ so can anyone tell me what the f is going on?

Don’t really want to spend a couple of hours again to downgrade back.

we don't want all our system running sonoma that support tat versions either and ran into this issue. No solution found.

 

[MBAir2010]

I wonder how many people do not realize they are running Sonoma?
not the ones who regally post here, just the usually casually users.
seems to me that :apole: probably did this upgrade for them.
case in point most of the neighbors have no idea what OS they are on with their windows computers.