Introducing automatic macOS updates 

Starting Tuesday, 09 December 2025, macOS updates will be installed automatically on all Mac computers enrolled on the College wired network, staff Wi-Fi or staff VPN.

Before this change, you received a notification when updates were available and you installed the updates at your own discretion.

Under the new process, updates have an installation deadline date and time. If updates are not installed by the deadline, they will be applied automatically, and your Mac will restart.

How does it work? 

IT Services will automatically deploy tested macOS updates to your computer.

Once an update has been deployed, you will see a ‘Managed Update’ notification such as the below.

macOS managed updates notification

The deadline date and time is shown in the notification. This deadline will normally be seven days after the deployment of the update.

Once the notification has been sent, you have the flexibility to manually install the update at any time before the deadline has been reached.

If the update has not been installed by the deadline time, it will be applied then and your Mac will automatically restart.

Automatic restarts 

Automatic restarts, after the deadline time has passed, are scheduled to occur outside of regular working hours. However, if your Mac is off at that time, the restart will occur the next time the computer is switched on.

To avoid unexpected automatic restarts, install updates and restart before the deadline or leave your Mac powered on during the deadline day. 

More help 

For more details about what to expect, once an update has been deployed to your computer, please see the ‘macOS updates’ section of our operating system updates webpage. 

Should you encounter any problems or need more information please contact the IT Service Desk.