I downloaded and updated 10.10.5 via Software Update and the App Store. It's slightly less that 1 Gb, including the iTunes updater.

Question: there used to be a way to capture the download so that you could apply it to other Macs without having to download it again, and I have a monthly limit on my broadband.

I've forgotten how you do that?

Thanks.

The Software Update issue used to be* that once the Installer was downloaded and allowed to run, it would be auto deleted. The trick, then. was to stop the installation after the download, copy the installer to another location, and finish the installation. So if you proceeded with the installation, you may have lost part of all of the installer. Even so, you might want to check /Library/Updates to see what’s left there.

A better way is to download from Apple Support - Downloads, although items may appear there later then in Software Update. To me that’s not a problem, as I’d rather wait a few days to see how an update plays out, in case there are problems. And while you now can squirrel away your Installers (they will appear in the folder you’ve designated for browser downloads), note that they still leave an ‘impression’ on /Library/Updates.

Finally, I’d recommend to download Combo Updaters when available. These contain all relevant content from previous updaters of your version of Mac OS X, and running them can repair certain problems that otherwise might require re-installation of the OS.


*) I’m not sure that’s still the case, and unfortunately the various versions of Mac OS X haven’t been all that consistent in this respect.

I used the Combo Update and the update was smooth.

normally I'd do this because I was dealing with multiple macs. (sometimes over 100) Back when the place had a single ISDN grade link, trying to get a lab of computers to pull down big updates was a huge problem. Apple Remote Desktop has been pretty unreliable for me in the past also, but I still tried to download the updates and then push them to groups of computers. Not being able to snag it before the installer deletes it is annoying. Apple's updates used to have a "download and keep" option.

Now they hide it in /var/ folders and they can be very tricky to find. So it can save serious time, but can also be a big pain.

BUT... Apple added "caching server" to their server, and I must say that is one slick cat. Any computer on my network here that goes to download an update from Apple gets told "hey there's a caching server on the same WAN ip address as you, see if you can reach them!"

My server says "oh hey I don't have that, but hang on and I'll download it for you" and it downloads the update, and streams it to the computer. The update is saved by the caching server.

Now the next computer to do that is also sent to my caching server, but this time it already has it, and an upload that might have downloaded a 1.5MB/sec now gets streamed directly at 40-60MB/sec.

And this all happens totally automatically. Just have to turn on the service. But it only works for software updates, not app store downloads or non-apple stuff.

I used the delta update via App Store with no issues.