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On my iPhone, the Software Update section in Settings used to have a "Download Update" button. With iOS 11 it is replaced by an "Install update button", which means its downloading updates automatically.

Sometimes I get a message saying “Update will be installed after 10pm if connected to power”.

In order to get rid of the update data file, I used Settings -> Storage to delete the update. After few days the update was downloaded again and asked me to install.

Software listing

My internet connection is a 4G hotspot with limited, expensive data. Every time an unnecessary update is downloaded it is a loss of money..

I have tried the Mikoto jailbreak tweak, but it doesn't work for this. enter image description here

How do i get this tvOS Profile?

How can I stop iOS from automatically downloading updates?

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  • I would be interested to see a real answer to this, but I suspect the answer is that without jail breaking you’re SOL. Apple decides what your phone does and you cannot.
    – Wildcard
    Mar 5, 2019 at 6:23
  • Block auto downloads has been requested from day one, but Apple continues forcing downloads on us. For the corporate world, you can use an MDM to control downloads.
    – historystamp
    Mar 5, 2019 at 21:31
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    Possible duplicate of How to prevent iPad from keeping pushing iOS 11 to me? Versions might bring some difference. Then the direction of dupes should be reversed.
    – anki
    Sep 15, 2019 at 23:33
  • One thing that I haven't seen get brought up, the updates take up a really large amount of space (10 GB or more) and weirdly enough, it will auto-download them (even though the actual update requires you to be connected to wifi). It literally takes up more space on my phone than anything else, and takes up almost all of the extra space available. I would very much prefer to just update via iTunes or something similar, because if this happened somewhere when I needed the phone to take a video or something, I'd just be out of luck.
    – jrh
    Oct 7, 2020 at 2:45

4 Answers 4

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iOS 12 actually sped-up iOS devices all around! I highly recommend you upgrade.

However, if you really don’t want to upgrade for personal reasons, you can install the tvOS provisioning profile for tvOS pre-releases on your iOS device. This should block iOS updates as your phone will be configured to fetch tvOS upgrades, but tvOS updates are not compatible with iOS devices.

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If you've already turned off Updates in iTunes & App Store and deleted the update in Manage Storage, then your final option is to totally block the update domains

in your hotspot. This will block all software updates to any device connected to the hotspot. [1]

However, a variety of reliable sources (NY Times, USA Today, WSJ, Associated Press) would recommend updating to iOS 12. Many of them cite speeding up older devices as the primary reason.

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  • Please look at updated question
    – user318524
    Mar 8, 2019 at 8:53
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    @user318524 You updated question seems to indicate you have changed the hosts database - which was not what Nosaj544 advised you to do. He advised you to block the update domains in the hotstop - you seem to have jailbroken the phone and changed the hosts filere there instead. Is that correct?
    – jksoegaard
    Mar 8, 2019 at 10:33
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How can I stop iOS from automatically downloading updates?

iOS/iPadOS 13.6 has introduced the ability for users to turn off automatic download of updates. To configure automatic download or installation of iOS/iPadOS updates on your iPhone or iPad, go to Settings app → General → Software Update → Customize Automatic Updates and toggle the switches as desired.

The linked Apple Support document discusses the same:

Customize Automatic Updates

ios13-iphone-xs-settings-general-software-update-customize-auto-updates

With iOS 13.6, or iPadOS, you can choose not to download software updates automatically. Go to Settings > General > Software Update > Customize Automatic Updates, then turn off Download iOS updates.

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  • Unfortunately on iOS 13.6.1 these switches appear to have no effect for me, even with both of them off iOS still autodownloads updates.
    – jrh
    Oct 7, 2020 at 3:56
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I too have a limit on my data and their updates aren't exactly small in size but are currently about 2.5 GB in file size which is quite expensive if you are on restricted data.

For years I had to manually keep on deleting these updates so that I didn't accidentally install the update and to get rid of those relentless notifications, but good news I have finally a solution that works for me.

What you need to do essentially is fill up the space on your device enough so that the IOS Update physically cannot download. It will present you with a message stating that "The update cannot be installed because it requires at least #### amount of availiable storage during installation."

This will then solve your problems.

Your choice as to how you fill up the space. You may want to download a lot of Netflix movies to your device.

For me the quickest way may seem obsurd but it's the quickest.

I set my iPad facing a window and simply just hit record and leave it for an hour or so. At least I get some nice wildlife shots as my window sits facing a park. This usually fills up the space and if I ever need space I simply go in to my gallery and delete the video. You can even do incremental videos so you only have to delete one for however much space you need rather than having a single file taking up the entire space on the device hard drive.

This may seem tedious but is the only way to get Apple of your back from forcing their stupid updates on its users.

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