How to disable sparkle.framework updates for specific app?

Question

I need to disable auto updates for one of the apps installed on my Mac (OS X 10.11.4). The developer keeps releasing new versions but I want to stay at a specific version that works just as I need.

• This is not a store app, I downloaded it from the developer's site.
• I know this app uses the Sparkle.framework for autoupdating.
• The application does not offer any options/preferences to control automatic updates. They just happen.

Every couple of days the application updates itself and I have to manually downgrade to the version I want to keep.

Is there anything I can do so the application doesn't update automatically? I'm confortable with the command line and with editing low level configuration, but I am not familiar with the sparkle update process.

Answer 1

While the steps given in the answer of @mac605 are correct, editing the info.plist would void the signature which might render the app unusable on recent versions of macOS.

A cleaner solution is to put these keys in the defaults domain of that application as it would do if it had a switch in the UI to control the update behaviour. This can be done with

defaults write <bundle identifier> SUEnableAutomaticChecks -bool false

You can find the <bundle identifier> of the application in question in the key CFBundleIdentifier in it's info.plist

For other Keys to control Sparkle's behaviour see it's documentation.

Answer 2

You can try steps listed below - it worked in case of All2MP3 app, that was taken by rogue developer and changed into malware deployment platform.

1. Make backup of your original old app version!

2. Right click on the app and choose Show Package Contents.

3. Open info.plist file in your preferred text editor (I use TextWrangler)

4. Search for SUEnableAutomaticCheck

5. In the line below change YES to NO

6. Save file. Your app should stop updating automatically.

Answer 3

The string SUEnableAutomaticChecks no longer exists in the current plist files. There is something to change in the command line. I didn't try, maybe locking the folder where updates are downloaded could work.