What is softwareupdated on a Mac?

softwareupdated is the part of macOS that checks for software updates and downloads them. It is a normal process, it belongs to macOS, and it is supposed to be there. When it shows high CPU or network use, it is almost always working on an update, and it settles down by itself once the update is downloaded or the check finishes.

Seeing it near the top of a busy list is not a sign of malware, and you do not need to end it. What you may want to know is why it is busy now, and whether your Mac is slow because of it.

What softwareupdated does

Every Mac asks Apple from time to time whether a new version of macOS, or an update to a built-in app, is available. softwareupdated is the process that makes that request, keeps track of the answer, and downloads what you have agreed to (or what automatic updates are set to fetch). Foreman describes it in one line: “Checks for and downloads macOS updates.”

You may see two copies of softwareupdated in a list of processes. That is normal: recent versions of macOS run one from the Software Update app and one from a separate update framework, and both run under macOS’s own update account, _softwareupdate, not under yours.

You can see the result of their work in System Settings > General > Software Update. If a new version is listed there, softwareupdated is the reason you know about it.

Why it gets busy

A few ordinary situations make softwareupdated, or its download helper, show real activity.

• A new update has just appeared. The Mac finds it, downloads several gigabytes if it is a big one, and then spends time getting it ready to install. Network use is high while it downloads, and processor and disk use are high while it prepares.
• You clicked Update Now, or turned on automatic downloads. The work starts straight away instead of waiting for a quiet moment.
• You have just installed an update. After a restart, macOS often does more housekeeping in the background for a while. If your Mac feels slow after an update, why is my Mac slow after a macOS update covers the whole picture, because softwareupdated is only one of the processes that may be involved.
• The Mac woke up after a long sleep. It may be catching up on a check it missed.

None of these needs action. They are all finite: the download finishes, the preparation finishes, and the process goes quiet again.

How long should it take

There is no single answer, because it depends on the size of the update and your connection. A point release is much smaller than a new major version of macOS. A useful rule is to look at the network figure for the process. If it is still moving data, the download is still going, and the right thing to do is wait. If network use has dropped to nothing but processor use stays high, the Mac is probably preparing the update, which takes a while longer.

If it has been busy for many hours with no sign of progress, that is the point to look at the update itself. Open System Settings > General > Software Update and see what it says. A stuck or failed download shows up there, often with a message, and checking again from that screen is the normal first step.

You can also ask for the list of waiting updates from Terminal. It only reads, installs nothing, and is the one softwareupdate command that does not need an administrator password:

softwareupdate --list

That prints what Apple is offering your Mac. It is a quick way to confirm there is something to download.

Can you stop it

You can end softwareupdated, but you rarely need to, and the effect is small. It runs under a system account, so ending it needs an administrator password, and macOS starts it again when it is next needed. All you do by ending it is interrupt the work, which picks up again later.

If the aim is to stop the Mac downloading updates at a bad moment, say in the middle of a video call, the better option is to change when updates happen. Software Update in System Settings has automatic update options (the info button beside them), and one of them is “Download new updates when available”. Turn that off and the Mac tells you about updates instead of fetching them by itself. That keeps the Mac in your hands without fighting a system process.

If the download is hurting a task you need done right now, waiting an hour is usually cheaper than anything else. Why your Mac stutters while you edit video or play games explains how background work competes with what you are doing, and what you can do about it.

Seeing it in Foreman

Foreman is a Task Manager for macOS. In its Processes page, softwareupdated is not left under its raw name. It appears as “Software Update”, with the real name beside it in grey, so you can recognise it, and two copies share one row with a count. You can read its processor, memory and network figures, and tell whether it is downloading (network) or preparing (processor). Foreman shows no disk figures for processes run by root or a system account, so to see how hard the disk is working, use the Disk graph on the Performance page.

The All Processes page shows the same process with its PID, user and parent, for the times you want the detail. The User column reads _softwareupdate, a system account. That is why Foreman asks for your administrator password before ending it, and why it does not offer Efficiency Mode for it: macOS only lets an administrator slow down processes owned by root or a system account.

If you want to know what else is working while an update runs, sort the Processes page by CPU or by Network and look at the top of the list. The same view helps when you are trying to work out how to find out what is running in the background on your Mac.

Foreman costs $12 once and is free for 24 hours, on up to 3 Macs, so you can try it during a single update.

The short version

softwareupdated checks for and downloads macOS updates. It is busy because an update is arriving or being prepared, and it quiets down when that is done. Wait for it, check System Settings > General > Software Update if it seems stuck, and leave the process alone. Ending it does not make the update go away. It only makes the Mac start the work again. To see what else is busy while an update runs, Foreman lists it by its plain name beside everything else.