Update-check interval

[Artem Sh]

Hi,
I’m new to Munki. I set up a test configuration with Munki 7.0.5.5446 (no changes to the default preferences) and Azure Storage Middleware 2.0.0.20 to host the repository in Azure Blob Storage.

Everything works fine except the automatic update checks. Munki 7 documentation says the update check runs every hour, but in my environment it seems to run approximately every 4 hours. I repeated the clean setup a few times and the result is the same. The Mac was online, not sleeping, and was not rebooted during the tests.

The applications are added to managed_updates and have RestartAction=None, unattended_install=true, and no blocking processes specified. The previous version is already installed.

There are no errors in the logs.

Could you please suggest what can be done to force an hourly check?
Also, what is the best way to troubleshoot why the update check interval is longer than expected?

[Alan]

So in your Munki logs, you're seeing timestamped logs every 4 hours instead of every hour? 

Can you share the actual logs, so we can see what's going on?

Can you include the contents of the /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.googlecode.munki.managedsoftwareupdate-check.plist file and confirm the com.googlecode.munki.managedsoftwareupdate-check launch daemon is running?

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[Gregory Neagle]

I’ll also ask: is this machine mostly _asleep_?

Sent from my iPhone

On Mar 4, 2026, at 7:18 AM, Alan <alan...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Artem]

I tried to keep the test client from sleeping, but to be honest, it locked and enabled the screen saver a few times, each time for about a minute.
Could that be enough to cause the update-check daemon to reset its interval timer?  

середа, 4 березня 2026 р. о 17:23:54 UTC+2 Gregory Neagle пише:

[Artem]

It’s not exactly 4 hours, but the interval is roughly that.
I’ll add a few more managed updates to generate fresh logs, and I’ll share them along with the other details.

середа, 4 березня 2026 р. о 17:18:43 UTC+2 alan...@gmail.com пише:

[Gregory Neagle]

Here’s my Mac:

$ grep "### Beginning managed software check ###" /Library/Managed\ Installs/Logs/ManagedSoftwareUpdate.log

2026-03-04 00:00:29.744-08:00 ### Beginning managed software check ###

2026-03-04 01:00:47.167-08:00 ### Beginning managed software check ###

2026-03-04 02:01:05.339-08:00 ### Beginning managed software check ###

2026-03-04 03:01:24.670-08:00 ### Beginning managed software check ###

2026-03-04 04:01:44.144-08:00 ### Beginning managed software check ###

2026-03-04 05:02:03.954-08:00 ### Beginning managed software check ###

2026-03-04 06:02:23.819-08:00 ### Beginning managed software check ###

2026-03-04 07:02:43.816-08:00 ### Beginning managed software check ###

2026-03-04 08:03:01.217-08:00 ### Beginning managed software check ###

2026-03-04 09:03:19.149-08:00 ### Beginning managed software check ###

It was actually (visually) asleep, but lid open and connected to a power source prior to 2026-03-04 08:03:01, and yet you can see it ran roughly hourly. I suspect this is why:

Display was off, but the machine itself was actually awake, and therefore the launchd job continued to run hourly.

Here’s another Mac, asleep, connected to a power source, and lid closed:

grep "### Beginning managed software check ###" /Library/Managed\ Installs/Logs/ManagedSoftwareUpdate.log.0

2026-02-24 07:14:38.319-08:00 ### Beginning managed software check ###

2026-02-25 00:14:58.316-08:00 ### Beginning managed software check ###

2026-02-27 08:56:57.419-08:00 ### Beginning managed software check ###

2026-03-01 23:14:11.125-08:00 ### Beginning managed software check ###

2026-03-02 08:17:47.657-08:00 ### Beginning managed software check ###

2026-03-03 16:21:11.625-08:00 ### Beginning managed software check ###

2026-03-03 18:46:00.224-08:00 ### Beginning managed software check ###

In this state, managedsoftwareupdate still runs on occasion, but not often. This is probably related to “Power Nap”/DarkWake.

managedsoftwareupdate’s automatic background runs are handled by launchd. The job is defined here: /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.googlecode.munki.managedsoftwareupdate-check.plist:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">

<plist version="1.0">

<dict>

<key>AssociatedBundleIdentifiers</key>

<array>

<string>com.googlecode.munki.ManagedSoftwareCenter</string>

</array>

<key>Label</key>

<string>com.googlecode.munki.managedsoftwareupdate-check</string>

<key>ProgramArguments</key>

<array>

<string>/usr/local/munki/managedsoftwareupdate</string>

<string>--auto</string>

</array>

<key>StartInterval</key>

<integer>3600</integer>

</dict>

</plist>

How launchd runs jobs with a StartInterval defined when the machine is asleep is controlled _by launchd_. The man page at `man launchd.plist` claims the jobs won’t run at all during sleep:

     StartInterval <integer>

     This optional key causes the job to be started every N seconds. If the system is asleep

     during the time of the next scheduled interval firing, that interval will be missed due to

     shortcomings in kqueue(3).  If the job is running during an interval firing, that interval

     firing will likewise be missed.

But macOS has a feature named “Power Nap” (also sometimes referred to as “DarkWake”) where the Mac can wake up “partially” (no display, for example) while sleeping to perform background tasks. I’d imagine in some cases that allows managedsoftwareupdate to run even while the machine is nominally “asleep”.

Overall, though, this is all in control of _launchd_ and macOS.

-Greg

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[Artem]

Hi Greg,

Thank you very much for the detailed answer!
Changing the Power Nap settings did the trick - now the update check runs exactly every hour. The behavior I experienced previously was clearly due to macOS power settings, and Munki is working as expected.

I really appreciate your quick reply and support.

Best regards,
Artem

середа, 4 березня 2026 р. о 19:32:03 UTC+2 Gregory Neagle пише: