How to Stop “Upgrade to MacOS High Sierra” Notifications Completely on a Mac
If you’re tired of the “Upgrade to macOS High Sierra” notifications nagging your Mac to install a system software update that you perhaps have made a conscious decision to avoid, then you will likely appreciate this tip to completely stop the upgrade macOS notifications.
As you likely know by now, there is no way to really dismiss the “Upgrade to macOS High Sierra” alert, there’s either an “Install” button which immediately attempts to install the update, or a “Details” button which launches into the App Store and also nudges you to install. There’s not a “Never” or “Ignore” option in the notification, which leads some users to believe there is no choice but to install the software updates presented. But that’s not the case, you can ignore the update and also get rid of the notifications bugging you to update.
Note this tip is specifically aimed at users who are not yet upgraded to macOS High Sierra and who specifically do not want to update to macOS High Sierra for whatever reason. This works on earlier versions of MacOS system software, including Sierra and El Capitan, and will likely work the same moving forward too.
This trick can be useful even if you have gone about preventing the macOS High Sierra automatic download from appearing on the computer, because even after blocking the installer from downloading to a Mac, some users still may see the “Upgrade to macOS High Sierra” notifications pop-up.
How to Permanently Disable “Upgrade to macOS High Sierra” Notifications on a Mac
This involves modifying a system level file. You should backup your Mac before proceeding. If you are not comfortable modifying system items and do not understand related risks, do not proceed.
- Go to the Finder in Mac OS and pull down the “Go” menu and choose “Go To Folder”, then enter the following path and choose Go:
- In the /Library/Bundles/ directory, look for “OSXNotification.bundle”, now you can either move it or delete it but we’re going to focus on moving it so that this can be easily undone
- Hold down the COMMAND key on the keyboard while clicking, dragging and dropping the “OSXNotification.bundle” file into a new location, like the user ~/Documents folder (for example, drag and drop it into the Documents folder within the Finder sidebar
- Because “OSXNotification.bundle” is a system file, you must authenticate with an admin user account to move this file, so login when requested
- When the file has successfully moved, close out of the /Library/Bundles/ folder and reboot the Mac for changes to take effect
/Library/Bundles/
Once the Mac has restarted, you will never see another “Upgrade to macOS High Sierra” notification again, as long as that .bundle file remains outside of the /Library/Bundles/ folder.
And yes, note the file to move is called “OSXNotification.bundle”, not “macOSNotification.bundle”. macOS, Mac OS, Mac OS X, tomato, to-maht-o. Same same, but different.
Completely Stopping “Upgrade to macOS High Sierra” Notifications via Command Line
If you prefer the command line, you can use the following syntax to disable the Upgrade notifications by moving the bundle file to the user Documents folder. Because the command line requires precise syntax for expected results, using this approach is generally only recommended for more advanced users:
sudo mv /Library/Bundles/OSXNotification.bundle ~/Documents/
Hit return and authenticate with sudo as usual, and then you can restart the Mac at any point to have the change take effect.
This approach is the exact same as outlined from the Finder, except it is handled through the command line, but the effect is the same in that it will completely stop those “Upgrade to macOS High Sierra” notifications entirely from appearing on the Mac.
How do I reverse this and get the “Upgrade to macOS High Sierra” Notifications back again?
If you ever want to reverse this so that you can be experience repeated “Upgrade to macOS High Sierra” notifications, then simply drag the “OSXNotification.bundle” file back into /Library/Bundles/ again, and then restart the Mac. Upon rebooting, the notifications to update macOS will return again.
You can also reverse the process via command line as follows, assuming the OSXNotification.bundle” file is in the ~/Documents folder.
sudo mv ~/Documents/OSXNotification.bundle /Library/Bundles/
Hit return and authenticate as usual for the change to reverse.
This obviously a somewhat dramatic approach, but if you’re avoiding High Sierra for some reason or another then it can be a valid method to stop the update haranguing, whether on your own Macs, a relatives, or other Macs under sysadmin control or otherwise being managed.
By the way, another much software and indirect approach is to place the computer into permanent Do Not Disturb mode to stop all notifications and alerts in Mac OS, but that will extend beyond just the system software updates and also stop all other alerts and notifications.
This tip was found via @viss on Twitter (you can follow @osxdaily on twitter too!), and appears to have been discussed recently from eclecticLight as well. Thanks to both of them for the trick idea!
I think they have patched things at Apple to supersede this tip. It no longer works for me.
Didn’t work, sadly. Have just switched off Notifications. I think I can cope . . .
These giants are controlling our behaviours, our needs and our life from a distance.
Under a deadline pressure, I yielded and had to buy a new Mac laptop PLUS the latest version of Office, bc senior advisors from both giants claimed that my Maverick on a late 2010 Mac is not compatible with my Office 2011; both are not anymore supported…
So because of the conflict between their software (and because of their business strategy of complicity?) I cannot use my Maverick laptop anymore. It would not even turn on, so I could not delete Office 2011 and continue enjoying it. Moreover, it is difficult to motivate Apple Genius to help me start on safe mode.
Apple has already admitted it has forced loyal users to download an update which task was to shorten the battery life, but there is no ostracism for those practice, we keep buying Apple…
When I try the terminal approach, I get the error message, “No such file or directory.” And yet, I am still getting the nag box at least once a day.
https://imgur.com/a/GY8UF
Mind explaining where either the “Go to Folder” menu item is, or where I can find the “Bundles” folder? High Sierra, 10.13.3, none of what you say is there is there.
I can’t say if the menu has changed from Yosemite (my present system), but I have it on that menu below “recent folders” and above “connect to server”. The keyboard shortcut should be shift-command-G
Thank the Lord!! I was going insane. This was my 5th attempt trying to stop this wretched pop up.
In my case only the icon is removed too. The notification is still there.
This only removes the icon from the notification. The spam nag notifications are still there. Does anyone have a working solution?
This didn’t work for me. I removed the file in question easily enough, but even after a reboot I’m still getting the nag. GRRRRRR.
Wow, this seems pretty extreme. You can go to the Updates tab of the App Store application, right-click on the High Sierra update banner, and choose “Hide This Update”, and the notifications will stop.
No they don’t stop unfortunately. All that does is remove the banner from the App Store, it doesn’t stop the OS from prompting you to update.
In fact nothing seems to… I removed the Bundles file and still get prompted. Massively annoying.
The Goto command says there is no file «OSXNotification.bundle» on my Mac. I am on 10.10.5 Yosemite. But I get these annoying reminder anyways. What to do?
I am not finding a Bundles folder in 10.12.6 and 10.11.6.
I’m in 10.12.6…
I’m sure there are other ways but what I did was go to Finder > Preferences if your Macintosh HD (or whatever you call it) isn’t displayed as an icon on the desktop. Then tick to show ‘Hard Disks’. Then click on the ‘Macintosh HD’ (or whatever yours is called). Then click on Library, then you’ll see Bundles and OSXNotification.bundle
This seems I’ll advised. Because you will also not get notified of important security updates!
I have Yosmite, and it is heavily modified with many options removed. For example I completely removed the indexer, and all the index files. I removed a lot of apps that I will never use (iMessage, gamecenter, etc). I eliminated “mac turds”.
Anyway, I do not want to upgrade simply because I do not want to undo all the mods. All that being said, I only have macOS so I can use Microsoft Office. I use Linux on my macbook most of the time.
Somehow I managed to disable the nags. I guess ai just got lucky.
Tried it on several Macs running 10.11.6 and 10.12.6 and works perfectly. Thanks! No way will i downgrade to 10.13, or its “Server” version
I tried this and it did not work for me. I’m still getting the notification except without the High Sierra icon. If I turn notifications to do not disturb, it goes away, but of course I lose all notifications.
I am currently on Sierra 10.12.6
BTW, I’ve tried the various methods to prevent download of the HS installer and none of them work for me either. I’ll comment on the other thread with details.
I wish there was a way to do this for iOS. I don’t want iOS 11 and it’s tiring having to tap on Details, then on Remind me later each time the install prompt comes up.
Same here. It also downloads it automatically all the time, 1.53GB that I have to remove from Settings>General>Storage & iCloud Usage>Manage Storage
The only way to block an iOS update from ever showing up is to install an Apple TV beta profile onto the iPhone. I know, that sounds weird, but it works. The beta profile changes where the updates come from, but since tvOS can’t install onto an iPhone, it just stops the updates from showing up entirely. Anyone can do it, but you gotta sign up for the Apple TV beta program, download the tvOS beta profile to a computer, then send it to yourself to install on the iPhone or iPad… I have done this and it does work, but again you have to get the tvOS beta profile… some are available online but I would not trust any profile from anywhere but Apple… too much funny business out there.
Oh well there is one other way to block iOS updates… blocking the IP addresses of all Apple servers on the router. But that’s going to prevent all network devices from getting any updates… so that is not so good.
thanks, I was waiting for that.
What the hell is happening at Apple! Why should there customers have to jump through hoops like this just to avoid an upgrade?
My 2011 Mac was gradually experiencing more issues each time I upgraded OSX – I down graded to Yosemite and all of the issues disappeared! It’s making me question whether Apple are deliberately introducing incompatibilities to incentive upgrading hardware :(
Running El Capitan…. no /Library/Bundles/…
I’m in El Capitan 10.11.6 and have /Library/Bundles/ and the file, moved it and no longer see the aggressive update nudge so it worked as advertised.
The key thing is to go to /Library/Bundles/ (the system folder) and NOT ~/Library/Bundles/ (the user folder), I suspect that is where some users find error.
Did the same on Sierra 10.12.6. What versions are everyone on?
I’m on 10.11.6 El Capitan too, and I have that folder.
Oh my goodness, you have saved me!
My 2011 MacBook Pro is on the fritz in so many ways, the last thing it needs is a new OS now.
Great tip, thanks!
I cannot find “Bundles” directory under /Library.
Do you know options to find the directory/file in my Mac? My current OS is Yosemite.
Make sure you’re at /Library and not ~/Library – in other words it’s the system Library folder, not the User Library folder.
Hi,
I am at /Library but I can’t find “Bundles” under /Library. ¿?
Or you could just download 10.13 and not install it.
Once downloaded, App Store will no longer bug you about it. And you won’t risk screwing something up in your computer.
Actually, mine kept ‘asking’ me to install it. Daily. Finally took this route and hoping it will leave me alone.
Actually (We’re in Mojave time already) MacOS keeps nagging AFTER MacOS 10.14 (Mojave) is fully downloaded. Not only that – it nags at the same persistence to ALL users on the Mac – even my “parental control” children’s accounts (who cannot install anything) and my Wife’s account which is not an administrator account – so again – she can’t install even If she wants to.
I appreciate Apple’s growing disrespect of User’s will and wishes, and I really see how Apple becomes yet another “Microsoft” step by step – knowing better than me what’s good for me. This is no longer the computer “for the rest of us”.
This “trick”, being really a hack to revert Apple system behaviour – serves as a proof to what I stated. MacOS now fights the user actively, disrupts their workflow, without a reason or even a chance to get what they want.
Bye bye /Library/Bundles/OSXNotification.bundle… Here goes my Mac again.