macOS 27 update still showing despite 90-day Defer Update policySolved

I came across the Apple Support article If your organization’s Mac computers are unable to upgrade to macOS Tahoe 26. It mentions a specific behavior with macOS Sequoia 15.7.5 and later when different deferral periods are configured for major and minor operating system updates. Apple recommends using a single deferral period for all operating system updates on these Sequoia versions. 

Since the affected devices are running macOS 15.7.9, could this be related to how separate major and minor deferral periods are being handled on Sequoia? 

It might be worth checking whether applying the minor update deferral changes the behavior. 

I checked the Apple guidance and tested this by configuring the minor update deferral and removing the major update deferral. 

After applying the updated policy, macOS 27 was no longer shown under Software Update on the affected devices. 

So far, this behavior seems to be specific to the macOS 15.7.x devices. The same deferral configuration works as expected in our macOS 26 test environment.

Hi @maevee, 

Thanks for sharing the details and the troubleshooting steps you’ve already tried. 

The behavior you’re seeing appears to be related to macOS Sequoia and the way separate deferral periods for major and minor operating system updates are handled. 

Apple has documented that macOS Sequoia 15.7.5 and later uses a single deferral period for all operating system updates, rather than separate deferral periods for major and minor updates. 

In our testing, macOS 27 is being handled as a minor update on the affected macOS 15.7.x devices. Because of this, a deferral configured only for major updates does not suppress the update as expected. 

The fact that configuring the minor update deferral suppresses macOS 27 on the affected devices further supports this behavior. 

So, this appears to be an OS-side behavior on macOS Sequoia when separate major and minor deferral periods are configured. For macOS 15.7.x devices, we recommend using a single deferral period for operating system updates, in line with Apple’s guidance. 

Regards,
Anderson Abraham
Hexnode UEM