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How to Turn on Automatic Software Updates on Your iPhone or iPad

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If you don't want your iPhone or iPad to bug you about Apple's frequent software updates but want your software to stay up to date, there's an option on the iPhone or the iPad to enable automatic software updates. Apple first enabled this change in iOS 12.

ios12automaticupdates
With this feature turned on, when a new version of iOS is released, your iPhone or iPad will be updated automatically

  1. Open the Settings app,
  2. Choose "General."
  3. Select "Software Update." ios12softwareupdate
  4. Tap on "Automatic Updates."
  5. Toggle the option from off to on. automaticsoftwareupdates

Automatic updates are turned off by default, so the default behavior of software updates hasn't changed. Unless this is turned on, your iOS device will wait for you to manually tap the install button when an update is released, though it will continue to download new updates in the background.

To turn off automatic updates, follow the same steps, toggling the update from on to off.

Related Forum: iOS 12

Top Rated Comments

TMRJIJ Avatar
TMRJIJ
100 months ago
TLDR; Go to Software Update > Turn on Automatic Updates.

These tutorials are getting better..*facepalm*
Tutorial too confusing.... Got my phone stuck on the roof.....
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
-BigMac- Avatar
-BigMac-
100 months ago
TLDR; Go to Software Update > Turn on Automatic Updates.

These tutorials are getting better..*facepalm*
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Kaibelf Avatar
Kaibelf
100 months ago
I want to turn it OFF: when I'm at my parents on vacation, I don't have Internet. So I bring my access Point which includes a 3G card. Overnight, as soon as our devices (2 iPads + 2 iPhones) see the WiFi, they start downloading several GB's of updates - and I reach my data cap in less than a week.

gees thanks! How difficult is it to be able to turn off updates depending on network ?
Or, just turn it off when you are experiencing your incredibly narrow use case instead of over complicating it for everyone else?
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
A
alllexx
100 months ago
I can’t agree more. All these ‘howto’s’ MR is posting seems to be an effort to simply add content, much of which is useless to anyone with half a brain.
I love them because my parents and some friends are really, really bad with technology so these articles break it down for them farther than I do.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
B
bergert
100 months ago
I want to turn it OFF: when I'm at my parents on vacation, I don't have Internet. So I bring my access Point which includes a 3G card. Overnight, as soon as our devices (2 iPads + 2 iPhones) see the WiFi, they start downloading several GB's of updates - and I reach my data cap in less than a week.

gees thanks! How difficult is it to be able to turn off updates depending on network ?
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jclo Avatar
jclo
100 months ago
I can’t agree more. All these ‘howto’s’ MR is posting seems to be an effort to simply add content, much of which is useless to anyone with half a brain.
Oftentimes with simpler how tos like these, the point is to serve as a reminder that a feature exists in the first place rather than as a walkthrough on how to do it. This is the case with automatic software updates. You might not even realize it's a thing, just because there's so much else going on in the beta.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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