How To Disable Automatic Updates in macOS Big Sur [Tutorial]
4How To Disable Automatic Updates in macOS Big Sur [Tutorial]
These days enabling automatic updates has become the norm on practically every operating system. This has its benefits - you don’t have to manually download updates to apps and all critical security patches are downloaded automatically to your phone or computer.
Enabling automatic updates on a smartphone doesn’t really bother most people. Sometimes apps may start crashing after updates but by and large, apps continue to work as expected after updates. You’re also unlikely to be using a bunch of apps at the same time. However, that’s not true on a Mac or a PC.
At any point we’ve got at least eight apps open. Enabling automatic updates is convenient but not the best idea because apps have to be closed before installation can begin. That prompt tends to interrupt our workflow and we’d rather not deal with it in the middle of the work day.
If you’re a system administrator concerned about data usage or network bandwidth, you can prevent software updates from downloading automatically from Apple.
Keeping your software up to date is essential to maintaining the security of your Mac. Updates also offer new features and can improve stability, performance, and compatibility. And when updates download automatically, it's faster and more convenient to install them when you're ready.
If you're a system administrator and need to prevent automatic download of software updates, such as to limit data usage or conserve network bandwidth, you can use any of these solutions.
This tutorial will apply for MacBook Pro, Air, Mini's running the macOS operating system. This tutorial was performed on a macOS Big Sur system.