MacOS upgrade using Mass Action not prompting users to install

[GranJ]

Hello.  I'm fairly new to Jamf Pro and need a little guidance.  I sent a Mass Action MacOS update to 12.5 to the smart group All Managed clients.  I followed the workflow for Download Mac and allow to install later with a deferment of 3 times.  So far no one is seeing any message come up that the software update needs to be installed.  It's been over 12 hours and I would have thought they would see something by now.  I'm not sure if I missed something and I've gone back over several times to see if I did it right.  I can see the looking at the computers that the policy for 12.5 is in the scope for each mac with the trigger set to "check-in".  I had a few users run sudos for policy and recon but nothing comes up to prompt them to install.  

I have no idea what the user experience is supposed to look like so if anyone knows please enlighten me.

[sdagley]

@GranJ Unfortunately with all versions of macOS prior to 12.4 (and the jury is still out on that release) the MDM triggered update command has not been very reliable. The force update install command does seem to be more reliable, but it's far from 100%. 

[GranJ]

Thanks can you tell me what the user experience is when doing the forced update install command?

[sdagley]

@GranJ If/When the forced update command works the Mac will download the installer then reboot with no prompts to the user ahead of time. I wouldn't recommend using it unless you give your users some advance warning (like telling them to leave their Macs on and connected to power on a specific date as you'll be forcing updates).

BTW, if your Macs are all on macOS Big Sur or later you might want to look at Nudge (https://github.com/macadmins/nudge)  to "encourage" your users to install updates themselves. See the Jamf Pro Guide in the Nudge Wiki (https://github.com/macadmins/nudge/wiki/Jamf-Pro-Guide) for details on how to manage it from Jamf Pro.

[demaioj]

Definitely +1 to Nudge. It's been a great experience for us.

[GranJ]

@sdagley Thanks and I'll look into Nudge today.  Appreciate your help!

[bcrockett]

Has anyone used Nudge to deploy macOS 13 yet? If so how did it go?