HACKER Q&A
📣 bythckr

Why is my mobile constantly updating?


I haven't read "Mobile 101", so I am sure that most of my issues are due to not fully understanding how the tech works. But I have to ask:

How do I tell my mobile to not update itself when I connect to the wifi at the airport gate just before boarding a plane?

I have iphone & Nexus and the fact that anytime, it finds a wifi the device just starts updating the apps is a hassle, as many time it has happened that I try to open an app and its stuck as its trying to update.

Due to my job, I am traveling 20-25 days a month. I travel across countries and due to high roaming charges, I have local sims and some place data is expensive and I have to ration. I use mobile data for email & IMs. My priority in connecting to wifi is to backup. Then once I am back home, I want to do the updates.

The closest I found is Samsung devices that has the option to mark wifi connections as metered.

Maybe its sheer bad luck that couple of times when I am trying to open an app, it's stuck trying to finish updating. Once it was whatsapp and I was about to get into an airport cab but found I could not open the app to get my hotel address. So, had to walk into the airport to re-connect to the wifi and complete the update.

Just yesterday, I bought 1gb for 28 days and how it was all over when I connected my iphone to the hotspot and iphone decided it was the time to download the update I have been postponing for a while. Even though "Automatic Updates" is turned off.

I am not having this issue from my mac book pro. I cannot figure out what I am missing. Shouldn't a "smart" device have a maintenance mode during which all updates & patching happens?

Am I the only one with these issues? How do you manage your devices?


  👤 qwerty456127 Accepted Answer ✓
Just use something like DroidWall and only allow the apps you actually need (like the browser and the messenger). Block some system processes and the OS won't even know it's on-line (so the connection indicator would show no Internet despite the browser working just fine), let alone update anything.