Problematic Mac OS 9 Software Update Feature

As noted yesterday and previously on Macs Only!, the automatic software update feature of Mac OS 9 gets mixed marks. It is a really cool feature but it is unreliable. Sometimes it seems to work and other times it doesn't. Yesterday I decided to take care of some minor instabilities that have developed on my B&W G3 by doing a clean install of Mac OS 9 and then using the Software Update control panel to get back to the fully upgraded state. The first time I ran Software Update it identified just two upgrades, Automatic Software Update v1.1 and Open GL v 1.1.2. After installing them with the requisite restart, the new Software Update feature identified just one more upgrade, GameSprockets 1.7.3. That's it. So I manually installed Open Transpport 2.6, AppleShare Client 3.8.6 and Mac OS 9 Audio Update 1.1 and ran Software Update again. This time it identified Mac OS 9 Audio Update 1.2 and installed it. Software Update never identified QuickTime 4.1 but, of course, the QuickTime Updater did. If you are having trouble getting the updates, Apple has now posted them for manual download--select "Released in Last Month" in the third popup menu and click "Search" in the fourth step. AppleShare Client 3.8.6 came out last November.