Google chrome disable autoupdate

Question

How to disable autoupdate on Mac OS X without removing any files or changing permissions?

Answer 1

Google has shared knowledge how to disable it correctly. You don't need to remove or mangle any files you have on your system.

You should set check interval to zero like this:

defaults write com.google.Keystone.Agent checkInterval 0

After you done you can update google products from command line or Finder by running CheckForUpdatesNow.command command which can be found in one of following locations:

• /Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate/GoogleSoftwareUpdate.bundle/Contents/Resources/
• ~/Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate/GoogleSoftwareUpdate.bundle/Contents/Resources/

Answer 2

The "official" Google-given method given is this, but it doesn't always work. The updater sometimes, on some systems, finds a way to reset itself and update anyway.

In Terminal:

defaults write com.google.Keystone.Agent checkInterval 0

The most foolproof method is to deny Chrome the permissions it needs to install the update software and run it. Empty these directories:

/Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate/
~/Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate/

Then change the permissions on both folders named GoogleSoftwareUpdate so that there's no owner and no read/write/execute permissions.

In terminal:

cd /Library/Google/
sudo chown nobody:nogroup GoogleSoftwareUpdate
sudo chmod 000 GoogleSoftwareUpdate
cd ~/Library/Google/
sudo chown nobody:nogroup GoogleSoftwareUpdate
sudo chmod 000 GoogleSoftwareUpdate

If you want to be double-certain, then do the same for the folder Google one level up.

cd /Library/
sudo chown nobody:nogroup Google
sudo chmod 000 Google
cd ~/Library/
sudo chown nobody:nogroup Google
sudo chmod 000 Google

I did this immediately after installing the Chrome version I need for my machine, and it worked perfectly. Now when I check About Google Chrome it gives me the error "Update failed (error: 10)" It's still trying to update, but it can't do it any more.