App Store Needed Feature: Auto-Update by App

Software
1

I would love to see Apple implement a feature to allow users to turn off auto-updating on a per-app basis. There’s a mission-critical (for me) iPad app that has pushed an update in the past that broke something for certain users. I wasn’t bitten by that one, but know some users who were. Because of that, I have all auto-updates turned off on my iPad.

The trend of more and more subscription-based apps makes the need for this more universal. If I have an app that announces plans to go to a subscription model, I’d like the opportunity to turn off auto-updates for that particular app, but not be stuck with dozens of updates when I peek at the App Store once a week.

Is there any reason this wouldn’t work or doesn’t make sense for Apple? They already allow us to leave all updates set to “manual,” so it can’t be a security issue. Is it a hard technical problem to solve or are there business reasons it’s not used that I’m not considering?

2

Pure speculation on my side; i would think Apple considers a per app auto download switch making it too complicated for the average user. If one were only to set the download option for each app, that would be a pain. So there should be a global override as well which would function as we have it now. Messy in my opinion (if not also inviting more confusion)

I am like you; i have auto downloads turned off. I need to know what is installed in particular a new OS as that might have ripples in my dev cycle. I am not sure if you’d be able to catch apps going subscription - some (many?) do not announce these changes.

1 Like
3

Yeah, I thought of that. It wouldn’t have helped with Fantastical, for instance. Maybe a “frequency of updates” setting that allows for “Check for updates once a week?” That would give the most involved users (like MPU listeners) an opportunity to catch a big change on a major app.