The App Store screen (Figure C) contains several options for automatic macOS and app updates. Figure C Image: Brandon Vigliarolo/TechRepublic.
Keeping your Mac up to date is an excellent idea if you want to get all the bug fixes and performance improvements Apple has added to the latest macOS release.
However, we're sure that you may want to tell Mac OS X to stop bugging you about an update or other that you do not wish to apply because you've heard about a possible bug that could affect your Mac model.
As you most probably know, this happens because, by default, the App Store downloads all newly found updates in the background, and it automatically displays Notification Center alerts designed to remind you about the found updates whenever they are downloaded and ready to install.
This means that the reason behind the macOS 'Updates Available' notifications appearing is the fact that they get downloaded and your Mac is asking you for permission to install them.
The problem here is that, in its great wisdom, Apple provides you with only three options to choose from on the 'Updates Ready to Install' alerts besides the 'Install' button: 'Try in an Hour, 'Try Tonight,' and 'Remind Me Tomorrow.'
Granted, they've also been kind enough to add a 'Turn On Auto Update' option, but unfortunately, that is not very helpful if you want to be able to decide on your own which updates you want to apply.
'Updates Available' notification on OS X El Capitan
What can you do if you want to skip the update it just found altogether? How can you completely disable software update notification in macOS? Can you actually stop the annoying Mac OS X update alerts?
The short answer is that there are two ways to disable software update notifications in OS X, but only one of them will still allow you to be in control of what updates are installed on your Mac.
Method 1 - Turn off automatic update download
This is the easiest way to remove the macOS update alerts and the only one that is permanent.
To disable the automatic download of all found updates in the background, you have to open the System Preferences application on your Mac, go to the App Store preference pane and uncheck the 'Download newly available updates in the background' option.
After doing this, you will no longer be notified when the downloaded updates are ready to install.
Method 2 - Auto install all updates
Yes, if you are so fed up about all the nagging and update delaying, you can choose to allow your Mac to install all updates it finds and downloads on its own, without pestering you with constant alerts and requests for permission when it wants to install the latest update for Mac OS X or for a random app you have installed ages ago on your Mac and haven't launched since.
To do this, launch System Preferences, click on the App Store preference pane and check the 'Install app updates' and 'Install macOS updates' options.
Once you do that, your Mac will never bother you again with 'Updates Available' announcements and you'll be able to go on about your day undisturbed.
The App Store preference pane
Leave us a comment below if you encountered any problems while following the procedures described above or if you want to share other ways to get rid macOS update notifications with the rest of the readers.
See publish configuration for information on how to configure your local or CI environment for automated deployments.
Code signing is required on macOS
macOS application must be signed in order for auto updating to work.
Auto-updatable Targets¶
All these targets are default, custom configuration is not required.
Squirrel.Windows is not supported
Simplified auto-update is supported on Windows if you use the default NSIS target, but is not supported for Squirrel.Windows.You can easily migrate to NSIS.
Differences between electron-updater and built-in autoUpdater¶
Quick Setup Guide¶
Note
Examples¶
Example in TypeScript using system notifications
Debugging¶
You don’t need to listen all events to understand what’s wrong. Just set
logger .electron-log is recommended (it is an additional dependency that you can install if needed).
Note that in order to develop/test UI/UX of updating without packaging the application you need to have a file named
dev-app-update.yml in the root of your project, which matches your publish setting from electron-builder config (but in yaml format). But it is not recommended, better to test auto-update for installed application (especially on Windows). Minio is recommended as a local server for testing updates.
Compatibility¶
Generated metadata files format changes from time to time, but compatibility preserved up to version 1. If you start a new project, recommended to set
electronUpdaterCompatibility to current latest format version (>= 2.16 ).
Option
electronUpdaterCompatibility set the electron-updater compatibility semver range. Can be specified per platform.
e.g.
>= 2.16 , >=1.0.0 . Defaults to >=2.15
Staged Rollouts¶
Staged rollouts allow you to distribute the latest version of your app to a subset of users that you can increase over time, similar to rollouts on platforms like Google Play.
Staged rollouts are controlled by manually editing your
latest.yml / latest-mac.yml (channel update info file).
Update will be shipped to 10% of userbase.
If you want to pull a staged release because it hasn’t gone well, you must increment the version number higher than your broken release.Because some of your users will be on the broken 1.0.1, releasing a new 1.0.1 would result in them staying on a broken version.
File Generated and Uploaded in Addition¶latest.yml (or latest-mac.yml for macOS, or latest-linux.yml for Linux) will be generated and uploaded for all providers except bintray (because not required, bintray doesn’t use latest.yml ).
Private GitHub Update Repo¶
You can use a private repository for updates with electron-updater by setting the
GH_TOKEN environment variable (on user machine) and private option.If GH_TOKEN is set, electron-updater will use the GitHub API for updates allowing private repositories to work.
Warning
Malware mac free. Private GitHub provider only for very special cases — not intended and not suitable for all users.
Note
The GitHub API currently has a rate limit of 5000 requests per user per hour. An update check uses up to 3 requests per check.
Events¶
The
autoUpdater object emits the following events:
Event:
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