Suppress Yosemite App Store Notification via command???

[ooshnoo]

We have the Yosemite installer blocked but are now looking for a way to block the entire notification all together, as users are still clicking on it and downloading it only to find out it's blocked.

Anyone know how to suppress the upgrade notification????

[ImAMacGuy]

+1

[mm2270]

I only recently began looking into this a little, more out of curiosity than any real need. We already made very public announcements that Yosemite isn't yet supported and that users cannot upgrade on their own (on managed devices) So if someone still wants to waste their time downloading a 5+ GB installer, only to find out we actually meant what we said, that's there business.

Anyway, it appears that at least on Mavericks, this information gets stored inside the com.apple.noticeboard.plist in /Library/Preferences/
Looking there, there is a dictionary entry called "com.apple.noticeboard.notification.yosemite.1.0" with two entries (on mine at least) a "dismissalCount" with an integer value, and a "lastDismissedDate" The last one seems to be when I last clicked away the Notification Center message. its stored in an actual plist date format type, so, while I haven't tested it yet, I would imagine if I scripted a change to that date entry to something far into the future, like a year from now, it may not show me Yosemite notifications again for a while.

Unfortunately, looking on a 10.8.x system, it doesn't appear the same information is in that plist. The com.apple.noticeboard.plist file is there, but it pretty much blank, so on 10.8.x its probably coming from somewhere else. Nothing like consistency.

In a pinch, you might have some luck changing the value on your own plist in Xcode, then packaging up the plist and pushing it out. That's a bit of a hack. but it might work. Well, at least for 10.9 Macs. I still don't know where that comes from on Mountain Lion. If I find anything useful, I'll post back.

[FritzsCorner · Accepted solution]

I opened a case with Apple for this very thing. It doesn't look like we can specifically block just the Yosemite notifications but there were other ways of disabling although none were ideal solutions for my environment.

Below is the feedback I got from Apple. (They reference 10.8 but was assured it was the same for 10.9)

Before proceeding, I would like to verify my understanding of the issue. Please confirm or correct the following:

1. Prevent users from receiving notifications, from the App Store, that Yosemite update is available.

If the above is correct, there is not a systematic way to disable a single notification from Mavericks client. Here are several options that will accomplish your request in different ways:

1.
First way in System Preferences, select the Apple Store app, and then deselect the “Download newly available updates in the background”. This should stop the notifications for the available updates to showing up for these users. 2.
Second way to disable the "Notification Center" temporarily is to hold down the “Option” key and click on the “Notification” icon up in the right corner of the Toolbar next to the “Spotlight” icon. This will stay off for the rest of the day and will be turned back on automatically the next day. 3.
Third way is to click on the icon for the Notification Center and you will see you can manually switch the “Show Alerts and Banners” from OFF to ON. [This is on a single user usage methodology]. 4. Fourth way is you can permanently disable the Notification Center in it’s entirety by using a Terminal Command.

sudo defaults write /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.notificationcenterui KeepAlive -bool false

After inputing that Terminal command you will be required to input an administrator password to continue withe the request to disable the “Notification Center”. Next, you need to type in the Terminal the following command:

Killall NotificationCenter

Logout and log back in and you will see the “Notification Center” icon is gone.

[This is a system wide user methodology]

To re-enable this feature temporarily, click on the “Finder” then pressing Command+Shift+G followed by typing the following path in the “go to folder” path”

/System/Library/CoreServices

Press “Return” key , find the “Notification Center” application and Double click it and the “Notification Center” will be running in the MenuBar as long as the user is logged in. Once logged out the feature is no longer available.

1. To re-enable permanently, use the following command in Terminal:

sudo defaults write /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.notificationcenterui KeepAlive -bool true

All that was altered was changing the “false” to a “true”. To make sure the “Notification Center” feature appears upon logging into the OS X 10.8 client:

1. Open “System Preferences”

2. Click on “Users and Groups”

3. Click on the Gold lock, input Admin password

4. Chose user and then click on “Login Items”

5. Click on (+) symbol and press Command+Shift+G

6. In the “Go to the folder” type in the following: /System/Library/CoreServices

7. Click the “Go” button

8. Select the “Notification Center” icon and click the “Add” button

9. Observe that the “Notification Center" is now in the list. This will cause the “Notification Center” to launch upon logging in to OS X 10.8 Operating System.

[ooshnoo]

Thanks Fritz
My coworker opened a case w/Apple also. Should he be given a different response I shall post it.

[#6]

Since you can still (in Mavericks at least) ctrl- or right-click on an update, including Yosemite, in the App Store and choose Hide Update, I used Composer to monitor file changes and found that capturing and packaging the following:

external image link

..seems to prevent Yosemite from appearing in the MAS, which should then stop it from showing as an available update in Notifications. The change stuck across a restart as well as when logging into different users (installed as FEU) and it reverted when I uninstalled these settings (packaged as a DMG). Yosemite was not listed when choosing either App Store or Software Update from the Apple menu, although it could still be found under Purchases, Featured etc.

I don't know yet whether doing this will affect any other updates, or otherwise screw up any AppleID settings etc, but it might be a start...

[ooshnoo]

Thanks Pete. Just ran composer and those files did not show up as being modified, yet when I navigated to them in the Finder they had been changed.

Gonna package them and try it.

[FritzsCorner]

Nice find pete_c! I will have to give that a shot as well.

[#9]

FYI - opened App Store on a freshly-imaged 10.9.5 laptop which showed Yosemite as available, along with a few other updates; pushed my test package out, opened the App Store again, voila, no Yosemite but the other apps showed and installed as normally.

Still needs further testing, YMMV, etc etc.

[#10]

@ooshnoo I noticed that the files inside LocalStorage took awhile to appear.

[grahamfw]

@pete_c That's a great find!

Anyone noticed the actual lines in the files that one might be able to "defaults" out to the plist and maybe the sql table and column/row that needs to be changed? This really shouldn't be this difficult...

If I can figure it out, I'll post it.

[elliotjordan]

@pete_c Does this method also block the notifications that appear on Macs that are more than one major OS X version behind?

An example:

[dstranathan]

@elliotjordan][/url That one really bothers me.

"Hey kids! Get your shiny new (but probably broken) version of OS X here!"

Wish we could take it out back and shoot it.

[jstine]

Does anyone know how to do this for El Capitan?

[FritzsCorner]

@jstine

Check out this thread: https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/discussion.html?id=17615

The method in my response has been working perfectly so far.