How to Disable Auto-Updates in Google Play Store on Android

Recently I bought a new Android mobile phone with the latest Android version 4.4 (Kitkat). I soon noticed that it was consuming way too much of my WiFi internet bandwidth. Upon a little investigation, I found out that it was trying to automatically update all the installed apps through the Google Play Store. While this is a good security feature to keep your apps up-to-date and also brings to you the latest versions of the apps with improved features, but it can be a real drain on your costly 2G/3G/4G internet connections.

If you want to disable the automatic updates in the Google Play Store, then you can follow these simple instructions for your Android device:

  1. In your Android, touch on the All Apps icon. This would open a gallery of all the installed apps on your Android device. Touch on the Google Play Store app icon on this screen.
  2. When the Google Play Store opens up, you can touch the menu icon near the top-right corner and select Settings from the menu drop-down menu.Automatic Updates on Android
  3. On the settings screen, touch on Auto update apps under the General category.
  4. It will show three options for this setting – do not auto-update apps, auto update apps at any time and auto-update apps on WiFi only. You can save your 2G/3G/4G data charges by selecting to update apps only on WiFi. But if you do not have broadband WiFi internet then it is better to select Do not auto-update apps to completely disable automatic updating.Automatic Updates on Android

Disabling automatic updates in Android can save your data charges, however it may put you at the risk of using outdated apps that may be vulnerable to possible security problems. So you have to make a decision based on your own preferences – if WiFi internet is free or not so much costly, then you should enable automatic updates in Google Play Store.

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