How to disable Microsoft AutoUpdate on macOS? [duplicate]

Question

The Microsoft Autoupdate app pop-up is launching very frequently on my Mac and it's very annoying. There's no option to turn it off in the menu. I've searched up the web and this forum, but the only solution they suggest is to plainly remove the app from the computer. I don't want to use this method because I want to be able to sometimes manually look for updates using this tool.

Answer 1

Go to: /Library/LaunchAgents/ then look for a file called com.microsoft.update.agent.plist

Edit (more info at the bottom on how to edit a plist file) the file and replace the text with:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Disabled</key>
    <true/>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.microsoft.update.agent</string>
    <key>MachServices</key>
    <dict>
        <key>com.microsoft.update.xpc</key>
        <true/>
    </dict>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/MAU2.0/Microsoft AutoUpdate.app/Contents/MacOS/Microsoft Update Assistant.app/Contents/MacOS/Microsoft Update Assistant</string>
        <string>--launchByAgent</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <false/>
    <key>StartInterval</key>
    <integer>7200</integer>
</dict>
</plist>

You can if you want also make the AutoUpdate run at the interval of your choice by setting the desired number of seconds under:

<key>StartInterval</key>
<integer>7200</integer>

If you choose to do that you need to leave the agent enabled:

<key>Disabled</key>
<false/>

How to edit the plist file: I use VSCode with the extension called Binary Plist to decode the plist to xml then encode it back to binary on save. You might also want to first make a copy of the plist file into a non-restricted folder (your desktop for example) otherwise VSCode will throw you an error on save due to restrictions on the original LaunchAgent folder. After your changes have been saved, you can simply replace the original file with your copy (macOS will ask you to enter your admin password).