I'm using MacBook M1 Air, I tried updating the VS Code editor but it didn't do it. VS Code says I have to drag VS Code from Downloads into Applications on macOS. After completing this drag-and-drop process, VS Code starts running the update.
The question is: Why can apps in the Applications section take actions to update but not apps in the Downloads section? Is Apple going to prevent any updates for apps that are in the Downloads section?
Apple is not specifically preventing app updates as such for apps in the Downloads folder.
macOS does however have extra security precautions in place when you're running applications from the Downloads folder. One of those is "App Translocation".
"App Translocation" targets apps that haven't been moved after downloading, and makes so that when the app is executed, it will effectively be run from a read-only path that is randomly generated. This is to prevent evildoers from abusing legitimate software, that passes validation checks, and making that software load in their malicious code.
"App Translocation" does not happen after you move the app to the Applications folder for example. You can also prevent it from happening by removing the quarantine attribute from the app, by running a command like this in the Terminal:
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine ~/Downloads/Visual\ Studio\ Code.app
However, for most users I would recommend moving Visual Studio Code to the Applications folder instead of trying to override security precautions.
