“Invalid Message – The message could not be parsed.” with Jamf Cloud

Invalid Message – The message could not be parsed. is an odd error message for a jamf recon when you’re using Jamf Cloud, because if you Google that error message, there are only two results: FYI – Invalid Message – The message could not be parsed. Devices not updating inventory (Invalid Message – The message… Continue reading “Invalid Message – The message could not be parsed.” with Jamf Cloud

Why don’t Mac admins use MDM for Apple software updates?

Context People who administer Mac deployments at a large-ish scale (hundreds to tens of thousands—i.e., large enough that you have to automate things and can’t physically touch every machine to change settings or install updates) generally want to be able to patch software and macOS while giving a decent user experience. I think you’ll find… Continue reading Why don’t Mac admins use MDM for Apple software updates?

Copying the Rosetta 2 installer for offline installations

I honestly don’t know why this gets asked about as often as it does, but I’ve seen several instances in which Mac admins want to know how to get the Rosetta 2 installer .pkg to be installed offline. The installer is about 6.2 MB, so I don’t think bandwidth is the issue, but maybe it… Continue reading Copying the Rosetta 2 installer for offline installations

Chrome mid-update versions and Munki

Most of the time, if you want to patch Chrome using Munki, you just use add Chrome as a managed update or managed install to the relevant manifests in your Munki repo, and then have the AutoPkg Chrome.munki recipe import the new version of Chrome into your Munki repo from time to time (daily, weekly,… Continue reading Chrome mid-update versions and Munki

Using a nopkg to “nudge” in Munki for Silicon Macs

Context This is really just a proof-of-concept, but as of this writing both Nudge and Munki use the softwareupdate binary to try to download updates to see what’s available. With the Silicon chip Macs, Apple has now made it so that softwareupdate will prompt you for a password for downloading pending updates, even if you’re… Continue reading Using a nopkg to “nudge” in Munki for Silicon Macs

Conflict 409 Error: Duplicate alternate MAC address for Jamf API call

Acknowledgements Major shoutout to Ben Toms from the MacAdmins Slack for pointing out what the issue is. The exact error message If you have a script that doesn’t return the actual response but just gives you an error code, you may get an error code of 409. If you Google something like 409 conflict jamf… Continue reading Conflict 409 Error: Duplicate alternate MAC address for Jamf API call

Adobe Package Downloader error on Big Sur

If you get a The installation cannot continue as the installer file may be damaged. Download the installer file again. error when trying to run the Adobe Package Downloader.app on Big Sur, the quickest workaround (as of the writing of this blog post) is to copy the Adobe Package Downloader.app (or, more precisely, the .dmg… Continue reading Adobe Package Downloader error on Big Sur

Updating Zoom manually if you’re using the Zoom IT installer

What’s the issue? Many Mac admins use the Zoom IT installer to keep Zoom up to date, because it can actually be installed in the background. But if you (as a Mac admin) install the Zoom IT version and don’t immediately update to the latest Zoom version, your users will encounter a Your Zoom application… Continue reading Updating Zoom manually if you’re using the Zoom IT installer

“An error occurred during personalization” when updating to macOS 11.2

Update Since I wrote this, Apple has already released macOS 11.2.1, so maybe this is no longer an issue? Not 100% sure. So see below if you are experiencing this issue. What’s the error? You may see this error when trying to download the update to macOS 11.2 if you’re on macOS 11.1. Software Update… Continue reading “An error occurred during personalization” when updating to macOS 11.2