Bizarre Software Update Dusfunction

Eric Murphy

Registered
I own four Macs: a 2009 Mac Pro, a 2010 iMac, a 2011 MacBook Air, and a 2012 Mac Mini. On every single one of them, Software Update through the Mac App Store is pretty broken. Many times I'll just never receive notifications of an update. Sometimes I'll receive notifications from Notification Center, but then when I click for details, the Mac App Store app will report that no updates are available.

But then when I use the softwareupdate CLI tool, it will locate, download, and install the available updates.

I'm thinking this may have something to do with my iTunes account, because it affects all four computers (and I don't know what else would link all of them together). I've noticed that I pretty reliably get updates for applications purchased through the App store, but rarely to never get them for system updates (like e.g. Java, OS X, etc.).

Any hypotheses?
 
Go to System Preferences (The gear icon in the dock) and select Software Update. This will update your installed Apple system and apps.
 
The App Store is used for iOS applications, not for updating Mac OS. You could allow Mac OS to update automatically, or go to the Apple update site to get the update patch files. I use these sites to get Mac OS update files:
http://support.apple.com/downloads/
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222

I'm talking about the Mac App Store, not the App Store in iOS. The Mac App Store absolutely will do system software updates under normal circumstances, and in fact I've done it exactly that way on numerous occasions. I've set OS X to update automatically, which is why i get notifications in the Notification Center. The problem is that those updates simply do not get either installed or updated, and in fact a check from the GUI returns a "no updates available," even though I can locate, download, and install the updates from the command line.
 
Go to System Preferences (The gear icon in the dock) and select Software Update. This will update your installed Apple system and apps.

Except that it doesn't, and that's the problem. In the Software Update preference pane "Automatically check for updates" and "Download newly available updates in the background" AND "Install system data files and security updates" are all checked. The problem is, when I go to the Mac App Store (which is the ONLY way to install system updates other than from the command line in Mountain Lion), I get a message that no updates are available even though I just got a notification through Notification Center that they are available. And again, I can download and install them from the command line just fine. But not through the Mac App Store.
 
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