After a macOS update
Notifications during a macOS update, checks afterwards, and how macOS updates differ from Outbound app updates.
Outbound can notify you about blocked connections while it detects a macOS installer running.
While macOS installs an update
Section titled “While macOS installs an update”When macOS is installing an update, connections that Outbound blocks can fail in ways that look like the update’s fault. Outbound knows an install is running, and while it does, a connection denied because its request could not be answered can post a notification, under the “Connections blocked during a macOS update” switch in Notifications. The preference key behind it, for outboundctl, is notify-os-update. Denials from a rule or your own answer do not trigger this notification.
The detection is deliberately careful: the update checker and cleanup services that run on an idle Mac are not an install. Only a process from the software-update installer framework counts, and the answer is cached for 30 seconds.
App updates and rule snapshots
Section titled “App updates and rule snapshots”Automatic rule snapshots track changes to the Outbound app build number, not changes to the macOS version. A macOS update alone does not trigger that snapshot mechanism. See Updating Outbound for the snapshot triggers and restore path.
Before you update macOS
Section titled “Before you update macOS”The compatibility page’s advice, worth repeating here:
- Back up your Mac and export your firewall rules (Settings › General › Backup, or
outboundctl backup). - Read the firewall vendor’s release notes for the exact macOS build.
- Keep the recovery steps somewhere you can read them offline.
- If a filter prevents connectivity, turn it off under System Settings › Network › Filters (Network › VPN & Filters on macOS 27 and later), or ask your MDM administrator.
Outbound 1.4.2 runs on macOS 14 Sonoma or later. On a macOS release newer than 27.2, Outbound warns you and asks you to update it before you rely on filtering. The compatibility page lists what changes on each version.
What to check after the update
Section titled “What to check after the update”- The health report: the filter should say On, and the agent Running.
- Settings › Permissions: check which permissions macOS currently reports as enabled and follow any displayed recovery action.
- Your apps: if something cannot connect, work through Something not working?.
- If macOS is newer than this build’s tested version, Outbound says so and advises updating Outbound before relying on filtering. See VPNs, Private Relay and other filters for the exact wording.