Can I set up applications to automatically update, but not OSX?

[Howard Brazee]

I want all of my applications to automatically update, with the App Store updating what it knows about. But I have an application that I need, which may or may not be ready for Catalina, so I can't let OSX update to Catalina until that application is ready.

Is there a setting that will do this?

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello,

There isn't any way to set the App Store to only update some apps. It's either all or none. Any that were purchased/installed outside of the App Store can be set to automatic or manual, depending on the app.

Any that aren't fully 64-bit won't be compatible as you know, and it's up to the vendor to make them compatible going forward. If they aren't 32-bit now, even if they are updated to another 32-bit version, they still won't run. So, since you have been checking which apps won't be compatible, don't install Catalina until all the apps you use/need are compatible.

macOS will prompt you when Catalina is available. Major macOS version upgrades aren't the same as updates, so Catalina will require you to approve the install. It won't install automatically, even if you have all of the checkboxes checked in the App Store preference pane.

Hope that helps,

C

 

[Howard Brazee]

I want to not *automatically* upgrade to Catalina until this app gets updated. It would be nice if everything else upgraded though.

I'm curious what will happen when I try to run obsolete programs with Catalina. Will they open enough to tell me to upgrade them?

 

[Lufbrarunner]

in 'System Preferences' > "Software Update' > 'Advanced' you can select what is automatically updated.

 

[Howard Brazee]

Thanks!

 

[EdSinger]

I think 'Install macOS updates' means tweeks and corrections to bugs etc., which auments the suffix of the OS version Number.
So I am now on 10.14.6 but never needed to ask to move on from 10.14.5 as Cory explained
As far as I am aware moving up from 10.14 to 10.15 will never take place automatically, but you will always receive a dialog starting with a colourful advertisement-like invitation to upgrade. How else could you back-up your system in case of a problem arising from the upgrade? Such as half your apps failing to work because they have not been updated to 64 bit?
This 64 bit update is very onerous for app developers and I have lost my most valued software tool because its owners refuse to take the trouble to fix it for 64 bit. Instead they announce that they will henceforth support only Windows version. How's that for an own-goal?

 

[Howard Brazee]

This morning I thought that had failed. My Mac had a blank screen (as did my wife's), and took maybe an hour to boot up. But when I went to this forum, I see that 10.4.6 is the version I had before. I wonder what was upgrading for so long on our iMacs.