In system preferences I click on software update. But when I click it starts checking for software updates and never connects (keeps spinning). This issue has just shown up very recently. I have never had a problem before finding or doing an update

Greetings Etudekeyboard,

Thanks for visiting the Apple Support Communities! It seems you're unable to check for a software update on your Mac.

Test updating macOS while your Mac is started in safe mode. Additionally, you can test updating using a different macOS user account:

• How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support
• Set up users, guests, and groups on Mac - Apple Support

Kind regards.

Apple seems to be having some sort of server issue as I encountered this problem last week even with a clean install of macOS. I've also seen several other posts on these forums with other users having this issue as well for different model Macs and operating systems. One user reported success after booting into Safe Mode which allowed the Software Update System Preferences complete checking for new updates and allowed the user to install the updates.

I have no idea whether anyone has reported the issue to Apple. I know that I have not done so because at the time I thought it was an issue with the Mac I was repairing or our network/MDM configurations. Even if I realized Apple had a server issue, I still would not have tried contacting Apple because I have found it difficult getting through to them to alert them to issues. Apple always thinks the user is at fault and doing something wrong, so I no longer make the attempt to alert Apple. I leave that to others.

• Backup your system
• Shutdown all apps
• Unplug non-essential USB devices
• Uninstall any redundant apps, all antivirus and cleanup apps
• If you can, connect to your router via Ethernet
• Try again

Hi Etudekeyboard,

Thanks for following up and confirming safe mode helped to resolve the issue!

Reach back out to Apple Support Communities if assistance is needed in the future.

Cheers.

Seems like the checking for updates may now be working again. I'm not getting the endless spinning wheels anymore in Software Update like I had last week.