Block macOS upgrade on Big Sur

[P24601]

Hi I have reason to block macOS upgrade on Big Sur 11.6 to Monterey 12.0.1

but '--ignore' are unavailable anymore..

Is there any alternative option for this problem?

[MatthewGC]

https://github.com/Theile/montereyblocker

you can also block it in software restrictions. The restrictions are exact matches so not 100% with clever users. 

[ckulesza]

Has anyone deployed this? I deployed bigsurblocker last year with the package the original author had but this one does not have the package and the old notes point to the bigsurblocker. 

thanks

[Tribruin]

If you have 11.6, you can also use the Restrictions profile and Software Deferrals. You can set the deferral to block the major update while still given users the ability to install minor update (like 11.6.1 that came out today.) 

[vinu_thankachan]

Specifically for 11.3 and onwards clients, use the following two keys 

enforcedSoftwareUpdateMajorOSDeferredInstallDelay

forceDelayedMajorSoftwareUpdates
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/devicemanagement/restrictions?changes=latest_minor

[MrRoboto]

On macOS Catalina or earlier you still can use the "software update --ignore" command. 

On macOS Big Sur you can use the new "com.apple.applicationaccess" preference keys to delay major OS updates for 90 days: set "forceDelayedMajorSoftwareUpdates" to true, set "enforcedSoftwareUpdateMajorOSDeferredInstallDelay" to 90.

On all versions of macOS you can create a Restricted Software entry in Jamf for "InstallAssistant". This prevents any user from running the Install macOS xxx application. However you can still call the startOSinstall command via Terminal.

[emptypony61]

I am sorry I am really new to Mac still. Is this a plist entry I have to build or a command I need to script. Can you give me a little background on how to implement. I am already blocking "Install Monterey.app" but would like to still do big sur updates.