PSA: Automatic Software Update Enables Itself with MacOS Tahoe 26.4 & iOS 26.4
If you’re the type of Mac, iPhone, or iPad user who likes to update their operating systems manually, you will want to pay attention to your devices after you have installed the latest iOS 26.4, iPadOS 26.4, and MacOS Tahoe 26.4 software updates, because installing those updates will enable automatic updates for system software.
If you’re just breezing through the post-update screens as many users do, this is easy to overlook, and while there is a discrete option to choose “Only Download Automatically” as you go through the setup screens, it’s small font and out of the way, making it likely that many users will miss the option entirely.
Some users may like to have automatic updates and automatic downloads enabled on their Mac, iPhone, or iPad, for the convenience and hands-off approach, but many advanced users prefer to manually download and install updates at their own fruition. If you’re in that latter camp, use the instructions below for Mac, iPhone, and iPad, to disable the automatic download and automatic system software update features.
How to Disable Automatic Updates for iOS & iPadOS
- Open the “Settings” app on iPhone or iPad, then go to “General”
- Go to “Software Update”, then tap on “Automatic Updates”
- Toggle the settings OFF for “Automatically Install” and “Automatically Download”
How to Disable Automatic Update on MacOS
- From the Apple menu, go to “System Settings”
- Open “General” and then go to “Software Update”
- Click the tiny (i) button next to “Automatic Updates”
- Toggle the switch for “Install macOS updates” to OFF, and toggle off the automatic download feature too if desired
While this might be undesirable for some users, it’s not completely unheard of. Apple has enabled this automatically on several occasions in the past with various system software versions, so that we’re seeing this again is just something to be aware of.
There’s undeniable convenience to having iOS, MacOS, and iPadOS automatically update themselves, and there’s a benefit to always having the latest security patches installed on your system automatically, but there’s also plenty of valid reasons why this is undesirable behavior. Whether you’re on bandwidth constraints, prefer to update on your own schedule, prefer to manually update, or simply prefer to manage all downloads and installs on your own, you’ll want to pay attention, and make any needed adjustments to your settings after installing the latest system software versions.
Do you like automatic updates and automatic downloads for iOS, MacOS, and iPadOS? Do you keep these features enabled, or do you turn them off and prefer to manage updates manually? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments.
I prefer to update at my leisure. I sometimes wait a while to make sure no bugs were introduced.
macOS 24 took awhile to install on the Mac and iPad compared to other versions.
I just changed the setting to download only, no installs.
So far I quite like the new version.
Re Dr Ian Turnbull’s comment, I’m in Canada, it always require my digits before updating as well.
I live in the UK. Although all of my Settings on all iOS Devices & iMac include Automatic Update etc; NEVER have I had an automatic anything. It ALWAYS requires me to input my digits. I suspect that this is a UK requirement??
I live in the UK. Although all of my Settings on all iOS Devices & iMac include Automatic Update etc; NEVER have I had an automatic anything. It ALWAYS requires me to input my digits. I suspect that this is a UK requirement??
I typically like to wait a week or so and watch for any signs of bugs before updating to a new version of any OS. So I am not supportive of Apple pushing these updates onto my devices automatically. I see the reasoning behind it, but I also know it’s not like Windows where if a update is bad you can just uninstall it. Once you got it on a Apple device your stuck with it.
That is generally my update strategy as well. I got burned some years ago with installing an update same day that had problems,, it was even later pulled, but it basically took an entire work day to recover from. Unacceptable. Now I backup before every update and always wait a little while, let everyone else beta test the updates.
If I recall correctly, this happened at least once before recently, only without any indication of the change being made. At least the change was made visible this time. Still, annoying. :-P
26.4 is NOT a very straightforward update. I set up both my iPhone and iPad to update and after an hour I returned to find the iPad screen display version 26.4 had been installed. Things seemed a bit slow so I went to Settings, General, Software Update to find it was still downloading.
The iPad wasn’t much better. The Welcome screen said 26.4 had been installed but Settings, Software Update said it was still installing. Really odd behavior.
An hour later, everything seems to be working but after the conflicting notifications, I’m not sure about the final outcome.
Updating my iPhone, Mac, and iPad to 26.4 also took a while, it was stuck on “Preparing” for a really long time. Probably an hour for each device. I have a fast internet connection so download time is not the issue, I guess it is just a big update despite not much changed.
I do wish Apple gave detailed bug information so we could know what is improving. I personally don’t see any difference in iPhone keyboard yet, which mine is a mess.