How to enable or disable automatic software updates on Mac

Keeping your software up to date is essential in maintaining the security of your Mac. With the Automatic Updates feature, mac can automatically keep the computer up to date with the latest updates, enhancements 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. Follow the steps described below to disable automatic logging out of users. See this guide on how to enable or disable automatic login on macOS: Fix username greyed out for automatic login.

If your primary concern is on data usage or network bandwidth, you can prevent software updates from downloading automatically from Apple, thereby conserving network bandwidth. There are the following ways to have this set on your MacBook.

Method 1: Enable Automatic Updates via the Software Update preferences:

The option is found in the System Preferences window as shown below 
- Click on Software Update 

This will open the software update window as shown below. Wow, there is even an upgrade available to me!
– Click on the Advanced menu as shown below and
– Check the button close to “Automatically keep my Mac up to date”.

And select the all the automatic updates options available.

Disable Automatic Updates via the Software Update preferences: These steps are similar to the steps needed for enabling “automatic updates”.
– In this step, you will have to uncheck the option “Automatically keep my Mac up to date”.
– You will be prompted to click on the option to “Turn Off automatic Updates” as shown below

Method 2 – Use a Terminal command: System administrators can enter this command in Terminal to prevent automatic downloads.

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate AutomaticDownload -boolean FALSE

Method 3 – Use a configuration profile: The following method can be used to disable automatic updates in Mac as well.

System administrators can prevent automatic downloads by using a configuration profile with the AutomaticDownload key set to False in the com.apple.SoftwareUpdate domain.

I hope you found this blog post helpful. If you have any questions, please let me know in the comment session. I welcome you to follow me on Twitter and Facebook.