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Microsoft used to just do a system notification you could easily disable. Now they launch the Microsoft AutoUpdate program process once per day.

This interrupts whatever you are doing to put the focus on the auto update app – watching a show? Streaming on Twitch? Sorry, it is now time to let you know... we didn't find any update for Office, but don't worry we checked!

Microsoft AutoUpdate dock icon. (Note that badges are not enabled in System Preferences > Notifications, so this red "1" appears to be drawn in the app icon itself.)

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Today of course I had an update, but usually, it says no updates found.

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This is mind-numbingly frustrating and I have unchecked the 'Automatically Download and Install' checkbox.

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Is there a way to prevent this short of deleting the auto update app entirely?

pkamb
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Mike Riess
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  • This indicates you disable the notifications for the application in question. However, there also might be a glitch, as explained here. So what is your current notification set to exactly? – Ramhound Apr 22 '20 at 00:03
  • Have you tried Winaero Tweaker, I am not a Mac user, but in Windows you can shut off Automatic Updates. https://www.winaero.com And if you want to see the registry tweak for it, you can press the link at the top of Winaero Tweaker page. It will bring you directly to the the web page. – vssher Apr 22 '20 at 00:46
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    This "MAU" process used to work on my old Mac, but now just launches and freezes every day. I used a launchd editor to disable the agents/daemons related to all of the MS (and Adobe!) updates, but I won't be surprised if the apps (Word, etc.) re-enable MAU anyway. But it's worked for a couple days for me. Just search for launchd editors, I think I used LaunchControl, but Lingon(X) is out there too. – jimtut Apr 22 '20 at 13:43
  • @Ramhound -- that's guidance for the old notification updates; this is a bit different unfortunately where the app launches on its own once per day.

    I think it was a bug. It updated itself and it stopped (had been doing it for a few weeks). Crossing my fingers.

     – Mike Riess Apr 23 '20 at 14:26

6 Answers6

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I've been annoyed by the Microsoft AutoUpdater long too. Too many times it intrusively interrupted my work. So I decided to disable it and below was how I did it:

  1. Open Terminal

  2. Disable it:

    # disable the service
launchctl disable gui/$(id -u)/com.microsoft.update.agent

    check that the service is disabled
    

    launchctl print-disabled gui/$(id -u) | grep microsoft

    Alternatively if you wish not to disable the auto update but change the interval to launch the checking:

    # check current config content
plutil -p /Library/LaunchAgents/com.microsoft.update.agent.plist

    backup
    

    cp -a /Library/LaunchAgents/com.microsoft.update.agent.plist /somewhere/to/backup/
    

    update the interval, e.g. 43200 seconds (i.e. 12 hours)
    

    sudo plutil -replace StartInterval -integer 43200 /Library/LaunchAgents/com.microsoft.update.agent.plist
Lacek
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    Thanks @Lacek, you rock! – amin May 22 '21 at 01:27
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    You can also edit the plist with Xcode (located at /Library/LaunchAgents/com.microsoft.update.agent.plist). Disable it by setting the "Disabled" value to "YES" or you can prevent it from starting automatically by setting "RunAtLoad" value to "NO". – Jeremy May 23 '21 at 09:25
  • Super helpful regarding the interval change, thanks so much – SoluableNonagon Jan 05 '22 at 16:47
  • @Jeremy But before doing this you have to change file and directory permissions – Roman Mar 23 '22 at 13:40
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    Thank you. I have found the interval on my local machine is 7200, two hours! WTF is Microsoft thinking? – Yongwei Wu May 29 '22 at 10:42
  • Disabling the service made the MAU app unable to look for new updates here (updates are temporarily unavailable message). I had to enable it again (launchctl enable gui/$(id -u)/com.microsoft.update.agent) and disable it again after the update (every other setting didn't work). – Joan Aug 01 '22 at 14:15
  • Awesome!! ~~~~~~ – Caleb Stanford Apr 11 '23 at 17:40
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    Works. But after every update, it is reseted back to 7200. – sechstein May 16 '23 at 08:48
  • The launchctl command gave me the error illegal variable name, so I changed the permissions, opened the plist file in Xcode, edited it, then changed the permissions back. But this had no effect -- auto-update kept running as before. The solution posted by Robert V.S. Redick did work though. – arlomedia Mar 23 '24 at 06:30
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Based on Lacek's suggestion, here is my solution to turn off Microsoft Auto Update, but retain the ability to run it manually:

# check current config
plutil -p /Library/LaunchAgents/com.microsoft.update.agent.plist

apply new values


sudo plutil -replace Disabled -integer 1 /Library/LaunchAgents/com.microsoft.update.agent.plist
sudo plutil -replace RunAtLoad -integer 0 /Library/LaunchAgents/com.microsoft.update.agent.plist
sudo plutil -replace StartInterval -integer 10368000 /Library/LaunchAgents/com.microsoft.update.agent.plist


check new config


plutil -p /Library/LaunchAgents/com.microsoft.update.agent.plist
cipnt
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    This answer looks like a reasonable solution, but it didn't work on my M1 Mac running macOS Monterey. Microsoft Autoupdate was launched a few hours later and on the next day. – Matt Oct 29 '21 at 16:46
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    @Matt try to restart MacOS after applying the new values, that worked for me. – cprcrack Jan 20 '22 at 18:42
  • You can manually check after Lacek's solution is applied by starting any Office app and doing Help -> Check for Updates. – e40 May 28 '22 at 00:18
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    Update: apparently this only works until the auto-updater itself is updated via the auto-updater, so it will need re-running after that. – cprcrack May 03 '23 at 11:20
  • Indeed, this seems to be reset to default values once you manually run a full update of Office apps, so you will have to search for this answer again when you do that. – cipnt May 04 '23 at 16:10
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The only methods I know (applicable to Oct 2020, Office 365, version 16.42, build 2010 11 01):

  1. Open an Office app > Help menu > Check for updates > click around and disable/uncheck autoupdate. If your security settings has this disabled and you have access to modify programs, try #2.
  2. While Microsoft Update (what ever the latest name is) is still open, right click on the program icon in the tray. Options > Show in Finder. Close the update dialog. Delete or move the program. You can always reinstall. If you try #1 again, you will get an error which means it worked.
ldmtwo
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    Neither of these answer the question. Auto update is off already, there are no other options in Word etc and deleting the App means that access to updates when required is disabled. – Chris Pink Jul 14 '21 at 08:11
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The microsoft autupdater app resides in a folder called MAU2.0, which is located in library>application support > microsoft. I've pulled the whole mau2.0 folder and placed it elsewhere. The app does not run at startup any more. Hopefully when I need to update, I can drop it back in the appropriate folder and run autoupdater.

Robert V.S. Redick
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  • I ended up with a similar solution: I zipped the Microsoft Autoupdate app, then trashed the original app. I then put an alias to the zipped app into my Application folder. It no longer runs automatically, but if I ever want to use it, I can easily find it from the alias and unzip it. – arlomedia Mar 23 '24 at 06:33
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This answer worked for me! I had to navigate to /Library/Application Support/Microsoft and delete everything from it!

https://www.guidingtech.com/what-is-microsoft-autoupdate-mac-how-to-delete/

George Mylonas
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    Your answer could be improved with additional supporting information. Please [edit] to add further details, such as citations or documentation, so that others can confirm that your answer is correct. You can find more information on how to write good answers in the help center. – Community Nov 02 '22 at 17:46
  • From finder or desktop, press the shortcut "Cmd+Shift+G", paste the text "/Library/Application Support/Microsoft" without quotes.

    There is a folder named MAU2.0 and inside it, there is a file named, Microsoft AutoUpdate. Instead of deleting, I added an underscore at the start of the filename and this stopped the auto-updates for me.

     – rhythmo Mar 04 '23 at 14:35
  • This potentially blocks the path for any future updates, even manually. It's definitely not recommended deleting application components without understanding the full implications it might have. Setting com.microsoft.update.agent.plist to Dissabled as per the above solutions seems to be the best way – cipnt May 04 '23 at 16:06
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For the ones who prefer cli, these can be an option:

sudo rm -rf "/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/MAU2.0/Microsoft AutoUpdate.app"
sudo rm -rf "/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.microsoft.autoupdate.helper.plist"
sudo rm -rf "/Library/LaunchAgents/com.microsoft.update.agent.plist"
sudo rm -rf "/Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/com.microsoft.autoupdate.helper"
Mehmet Kaplan
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    Your answer could be improved with additional supporting information. Please [edit] to add further details, such as citations or documentation, so that others can confirm that your answer is correct. You can find more information on how to write good answers in the help center. – Community May 17 '23 at 12:29
  • Another option, apparently (not tested): launchctl unload -w /Library/LaunchAgents/com.microsoft.update.agent.plist” – Sridhar Sarnobat Mar 14 '24 at 16:48