How to Manage Android Apps Auto-Update

Auto update of apps can be really annoying regardless of what data plan you are using. Whether it an unlimited Wifi or some tight mobile data plan, it becomes annoying when Google Play Store starts updating of a dozen apps at the same time. 

If size of the update is too large and you are using a limited data plan, it might end up draining a huge amount of your data. Obviously nobody wants to spend all their data on this auto update of apps. In fact, even if your data plan is unlimited, auto update of more than once apps can make your internet slow for a long time.

If you are one of those guys who don’t like messing up with Settings of your phone or you are afraid to make any changes because you are not much technical and don’t know much about this smartphone stuff, you should be pleased to know that it is so easy to prevent apps from getting an update without your permission. This guide is for those who want more control over the auto update feature of apps.
The option to disable auto update of each app is right in the Google Play Store, hidden on the same screen where you install them from. Let’s find this hidden treasure.

Stop auto update for all apps

Follow these steps if you want to disable auto update for all the apps.
Open Google Play Store, slide from the left to open Navigation Menu, and go to “Settings”.




Find “Auto-Update Apps” and tap on it. It should be at the top of the option.



In the options you will see three different options. The first option is the default, which updates all the apps whenever they are available. Second option will disable auto update for all apps and you will have just receive a notification when update for an app is available, then you can update it by yourself. The last option will auto update apps only when you are connected to a Wifi network, to make sure updates don’t consume your data plan.

Disable auto update for specific apps

Sometimes you don’t want to disable auto update for all apps, but for some specific apps only. Consider a situation when you want to keep an old version of an app because the new update had ads or it doesn’t work correctly.
Another example would be the unnecessary apps that came pre-installed with your phone and you can’t uninstall them, auto updating these apps would be really useless and annoying as hell. Thankfully, Android never disappoints us. It can also prevent some specific apps from updating.
To do this, open Google Play Store, slide from the left to open Navigation Menu, and tap on “My Apps & Games”.

You will be presented a list of all the apps you have currently installed. Look for the app you want to disable auto update for. For example, in order to disable auto update for Google Chrome, tap on its name in the list.

The next screen will probably look familiar to you because this is where you install or update the app. Now tap on the option menu (three dots icon) in the top right corner of screen, and un-tick the “Auto-Update” box.





That’s it! This app will not get any update automatically. Instead Google Play Store will generate a notification when an update is available and you can then update it manually.

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