STOP! Your Android Apps Are Updating Automatically - Here’s How To Take Control NOW!
Are you tired of having your Android apps update without your consent? It’s time to take control and stop the automatic updates. In this article, we’ll show you how to take control of your Android apps and update them manually.
Why Do Android Apps Update Automatically?
The reason Android apps update automatically is to keep your device safe and secure. These updates typically fix bugs, vulnerabilities, and compatibility issues that could harm your device or compromise your privacy. Additionally, app developers may introduce new features or capabilities with these updates, improving the user experience.
How To Stop Automatic Updates
If you’re tired of apps updating without your permission, it’s simple to turn off the automatic updates.
- Open the Google Play Store.
- Tap on the three lines in the upper-left corner of the screen.
- Select “Settings” from the menu.
- Tap on “Auto-update apps.”
- Select “Don’t auto-update apps” or “Auto-update apps over Wi-Fi only” depending on your preference.
If you choose “Don’t auto-update apps,” you’ll get a notification whenever a new update is available for an app. You can then choose to update the app or not. If you choose “Auto-update apps over Wi-Fi only,” your apps will update automatically only when you’re on Wi-Fi.
You can also disable automatic updates for individual apps. To do so, follow these steps:
- Open the Google Play Store.
- Find the app you want to disable automatic updates for and tap on it.
- Tap on the three dots in the upper-right corner of the screen.
- Tap on “Auto-update.”
- Select “Don’t auto-update app” or “Auto-update app over Wi-Fi only.”
Why You Should Update Your Apps Manually
While the auto-update feature is useful, updating your apps manually can have its advantages. By updating your apps manually, you can choose which apps to update and when to do so. This can help you avoid updating apps that are not essential and would take up unnecessary space on your device.
Additionally, it’s important to read the update description before you update an app. The app developer may have introduced new features or made significant changes to the app that you may not want or need.
Updating your apps manually may take a little more time and effort, but it can improve your device’s performance and give you more control over your apps.
Conclusion
If you’re tired of apps updating without your permission, it’s time to take control of your Android device. By turning off the automatic updates and updating your apps manually, you can save space and avoid unnecessary updates. Remember, keeping your apps updated is crucial for your device’s safety and security, but it’s also essential to understand what updates you’re installing and why.
Whether you’re on a tight mobile data plan or just don’t like apps updating themselves without your permission, auto-updating apps on Android can be a real annoyance. Apps can push out updates at any time, and if they’re big content patches, it can mean bad news for those on sensitive data plans. Nobody likes to see that their data has been mostly used up by updating apps! Even if your data plan is fine, you might find it annoying that apps download updates as they please and want a bit more control over what updates when.
In either case, you’ll be pleased to know that it’s possible to stop Android apps from automatically updating themselves without your permission. Unfortunately, Google did a good job hiding away the option to turn off automatic updates. Let’s take a look at where these options are and how to reach them.
Stopping All Apps from Updating
If you want to stop all apps from automatically updating themselves, follow these steps.
First, go to the Google Play store. Beside the search bar on the left you’ll see an icon which consists of three lines, one on top of the other. Touch this, and then touch the “Settings” option.
You’ll have a selection of options. Press the one that says “Auto-Update Apps” – it should be right at the top of the Settings options.
Once done, you’re presented with a selection of different options for auto-updating apps. You can either have auto-updates run as normal, disable them, or have apps auto-update only when you’re on WiFi. The latter will be especially useful for people with a fragile phone data plan but a wholesome (if not infinite) data cap on their home Internet.
Now that you’ve disabled automatic updates for all apps, how do they update? When an app wants to download an update, it now has to ask you first. You’ll know when an app wants to update when a Google Play icon appears in your notification bar. Tap this notification to see what apps want updating, and manually approve each one (or all at once).
Stopping One App from Updating
That’s all well and good, but what if you want to stop only one app from auto-downloading? Perhaps you’re fine with certain important and critical apps updating themselves when they need to, but you’re not so keen on games or entertainment apps updating while you’re trying to do business-crucial activities. Thankfully, you can disable auto-updates for individual apps and allow other apps to auto-update when they want to.
To turn off a single app from auto-updating, first go to the Google Play store. Press the three bars at the top left, then select “My Apps & Games.”
You’ll be taken to a list of your apps. Find the app that you want to stop the auto-updates for. In this example we’ll be stopping Google Chrome from automatically updating itself, so we tap that app on the list.
This will bring you to the apps’ store page. When here, press the three dots at the top right of the app’s page and untick the box that says “Auto-Update.”
Now this specific app won’t automatically download updates, but every other app will download as you told it to.
Simon Batt is a Computer Science graduate with a passion for cybersecurity.
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