Smart Group workaround to determine which clients have software updates available in Jamf

As Graham Pugh and others have reported, running softwareupdate --list can cause the softwareupdated daemon to hang, also when softwareupdate is run as part of updating inventory in Jamf Pro. Pugh discovered that you can read the number of available updates using the following command: defaults read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate.plist RecommendedUpdates To be able to send notifications … Continue reading Smart Group workaround to determine which clients have software updates available in Jamf →

Simple update reminder for Jamf

On recent versions of macOS, reminding the user to update using Apple's Software Update dialog in System Preferences is often preferable to other update strategies. There are several ways to do it. One well-known solution is Nudge, which works well, but may be a bit too comprehensive for some. If you, like me, prefer simple … Continue reading Simple update reminder for Jamf →

Scripting CIS security recommendations

The nonprofit organization Center for Internet Security (CIS) regularly releases security recommendations for operating systems and software. Their CIS Apple macOS 10.13 Benchmark is for High Sierra, but most of the recommendations are relevant to Mojave as well. They categorize their recommendations into three categories, recognizing that some will negatively impact usability and perhaps aren't … Continue reading Scripting CIS security recommendations →

Using Jamf and MacDeployStick together to preinstall software

Ever since the macadmin community realized imaging was dead back in 2017, there has been an ongoing search for the most effective scripted installation methods. Using an MDM solution and DEP enrollment in combination, it is possible to achieve a setup similar to and even better than what was possible with imaging. One possible drawback … Continue reading Using Jamf and MacDeployStick together to preinstall software →

Mitigating issues with Microsoft OneDrive on Mac

Note: Microsoft has, as of 2026, largely fixed the issues described in this blog post.Some Microsoft applications have historically shown stability and reliability issues on macOS. OneDrive, for instance has the following issues on macOS: It does not allow files that contain unsupported characters or leading and trailing spaces to be synced. If a folder … Continue reading Mitigating issues with Microsoft OneDrive on Mac →