MacOS – Remove macOS Big Sur “Upgrade Now” button in System Preferences

big surmacossoftware-update

I have red circle notification on my System Preferences icon to inform macOS Big Sur update is available. There is also an Upgrade Now button in Software Update:

They annoy me since I did not ask anything, and I don't want to do the upgrade before a few months.

Is there a way to remove them?

System preferences with (1) red notification

Software Update with Upgrade Now button

Best Answer

I too do not like seeing the red badges and use the following method to remove them in System Preferences and on its dock tile on the Dock.

In Terminal, run the following compound command:

defaults write com.apple.systempreferences AttentionPrefBundleIDs 0 ; killall Dock
  • Note however, this is not permanent and the command will need to be run again if you go back into Software Update in System Preferences, or the system automatically checks for updates.
  • Also, the killall Dock command will un-minimize all minimize windows, but the command needs to be executed for the red badges to not show after modifying the plist file.
  • I do not know of a way to permanently remove the red badges or the Upgrade Now button.
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