Is your phone still auto-updating apps using mobile data without even asking for your permission? That sucks. Are you also fed up with the message, “you used 90% of your day’s data” flashing on your screen in the middle of the day even though you have not used that much of the internet? Do you know where all of your data goes? Do you know your phone’s settings can be the cause of the issue? This article comes to your rescue to save this data wastage and help you control the data usage.
Table of Contents
Drawbacks of auto-updating the apps
It is simple. Our phones contain lots of apps. The makers of the apps release the latest updates, bug fixes, and features from time to time. These updates often make the app work more smoothly and efficiently. These updates are downloaded using the internet, obviously. The major apps have their default settings “enabled” to auto-update using your mobile data for new version that might fix the bugs or addition of new features.
This apparently is the cause of exhaustion of your mobile data without you spending it somewhere else. Not just this, it also drains out the battery of your phone as the software of your phone is running continuously in the background.
Lastly, there can be changes that you are not going to like and don’t want in the first place. There can be a really bad replacement to your favourite features, or the bug fixes might be causing more bugs. But before you know, your smartphone will act smart and download the update for you before even asking, leaving you there missing the old version of the app.
Disabling the Automatic App updates on Android
To save all the drama, let us just regulate the settings of our phones to suit our needs. You can turn off all updates, or limit updates to Wi-Fi downloads only. You can also enable updates for only specific apps.
To turn updates on or off, follow these steps:
- Open Google Play.
- Click on the hamburger icon (three horizontal lines) on the top-left.
- Select Settings.
- Select Auto-update apps.
- To disable automatic app updates, select Do not auto-update apps.
- If you want to instead auto-update apps only when you’re connected to a Wi-Fi network, tap Auto-update apps over Wi-Fi only in the same pop-up.
Moreover, Android gives you a choice to manually select the apps that you want to update automatically.
- To turn on auto-update for any app, go to the app page in the Google Play app.
- Tap the three vertical dots in the top right.
- Tap on Auto-update.
Therefore, using this feature, you can choose to auto update apps of your choice.
Disabling the Automatic App updates on iOS
There is a catch in disabling the auto-updates on iOS which makes it different and less flexible than Android. You cannot choose to auto-update only certain apps. You will either have to select all the apps to auto-update or none of the apps. There is no middle ground. Moving on, let us learn how to do it.
If you want to stop all automatic updates, the steps are simple:
- Go to Settings > iTunes & App Store.
- To disable all automatic app updates, turn off the green switch next to Updates.
- If you want to automatically update apps, but only when you are connected to a Wi-Fi network, leave updates on and turn off Use Mobile Data instead.
That was it. Thank you for reading the article. I hope you become the master of your phone's settings and regulate it in a way that suits best to your needs. Articles that might interest you: Telegram: the ultimate WhatsApp alternative? 8 most secure messaging apps in 2022? Most popular messaging apps of 2021