If your iPhone or iPad is automatically updating apps without your permission, there’s a way to turn it off so it doesn’t happen again, and here’s how.
A feature introduced in iOS 7 allows your iPhone or iPad to automatically download and install app updates, meaning you don’t have to go to the App Store app and manually download an any updates you receive, which may be daily. the day depending on how many applications you have.
However, this is a feature that not all users will like as many users control exactly what they download. As such, automatic app updates aren’t exactly a great feature and can eat up your monthly data allowance if you’re not careful.
By default, automatic app updates are enabled, so you’ll have to venture into the settings to turn them off, but it’s not hard to do. Here’s how to disable automatic app updates on your iPhone or iPad running iOS 9.
Disable automatic app updates
Turning off automatic app updates can be a little hard to find in settings, but follow these quick steps and you’ll be done in no time.
- Open the app.
- Tap on App stores and iTunes.
- In the section titled , you will see an element called .
- Tap the toggle switch to turn it off and it will turn from gray to green. If it’s grayed out, the settings have already been changed and you don’t need to do anything else.
From now on, app updates will no longer be automatically downloaded and installed on your iPhone or iPad, but you will need to open the App Store each time and check for app updates. However, this is preferable for many users, myself included, who want to control which app updates they download and when they download them.
If you want to enable automatic app updates, you can at least set whether you want to enable automatic app updates when using a data connection. Just below the section, there is an element called .
Turning this option on will allow the App Store (as well as other iOS services) to download updates and other content over a data connection when your iPhone isn’t connected on Wi-Fi. Turning the feature off will limit the App Store to only downloading updates when you’re connected to WiFi.
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Should I use this feature?
Automatic app updates may be useful for some and not useful for others, but it depends on your situation.
Unfortunately, you can’t choose specific apps to receive automatic updates while other apps remain manual. This is one of the biggest criticisms of this feature. You need to disable automatic app updates for all your apps, or you need to manually install updates for all of them. If you’re looking for that control, you won’t find it in iOS 9.
Second, if you’re the type who always waits to install an update just to make sure it’s not a broken update containing a critical bug, you’ll probably want to disable automatic app updates.
While most updates fix bugs and improve performance over previous versions, some app updates sometimes have hiccups and can wreak havoc on your iPhone or iPad, making more users are wary of installing updates until they know it’s okay to install.