In a recent article, we looked at how you get software updates on your Mac. You get updates in three ways. If you bought apps from the Mac App Store, that app provides updates. If you bought apps directly from developers, they apps generally use their own update system; occasionally you may need to download an update from a developer’s website. And for macOS updates and security updates, it’s the Software Update preference pane that manages these updates.
Some people prefer to update their apps and Macs manually: they check the Mac App Store or the Software Update preference pane to see when updates are available, or they react when their Macs present notifications. Others prefer to let all this occur automatically. In the latter case, you may not even notice many of the updates: they can happen in the background, though you do need to restart your Mac for major operating system and security updates. And your Mac can automatically, and silently, install “system data files and security updates” in the background without telling you.
There’s no easy way to find what has been updated, especially if updates have been made automatically in the background. You can check the Mac App Store’s Updates section to see which apps have been updated, but it only shows the most recent updates; and there’s no log for system updates. In this article, I’ll tell you how you can see a list of everything that’s been updated, automatically or manually, on your Mac via the Mac App Store and Software Update.
Read the rest of the article on The Mac Security Blog.