iPhone automatic App Updates not working

Hi there - It is likely that you are often in Low Power Mode. Apple admittedly does not do a great job of making this clear within Settings, but Low Power Mode turns off automatic app updates (along with other automatic/background updates, such as fetching new Mail messages or updating your Photo library. People are similarly often confused when their "every 15 minutes" mail Fetch schedule does not work, and they have to manually refresh Mail, but they are in Low Power Mode.)

To restart automatic app updates: Try turning off Low Power Mode in your Settings or Control Center. Also ensure that you do not have any automations enabled which are automatically turning on Low Power Mode (either in the Shortcuts app or within one of your Focus Modes). Once this change has been made, see if Automatic updates restart.

Of course, the other settings you listed (turning on automatic updates, and defining whether over cellular or WiFi) must also be set correctly.

Please update this thread if this solution works for you. Even if this solution does not work for you, perhaps it will help others in the future who come across this post.

I think I have found the solution.

There was an application that for some reason could not update (picturethis).

There were 60-70 applications in the list waiting for an update, but clicking on update all always started only 5-6 updates, and the other updates always stopped. Another update all, again 5-6 updated.

I also saw that there were always some apps that updated today, yesterday, or previous days that actually updated automatically.

Even if I managed to manually update all of them, that one app always stayed in the list, unable to update.

After I deleted that app, everything was updated to update all at once.

Then I put that one app back and everything works as it should.

I hope this information helps others.

Not certain this will help but…..

under settings then App Store ….

download over cellular is on

app downloads set to always allow. Many if not most apps are greater than 200MB

i am uncertain here but perhaps when the auto update comes across an app greater than 200 MB the entire process stops. That is to say that it will not look to the next app to update even if it is less than 200 MB

Maybe 'Offload Unused Apps' is activated?

Apple introduced the Offload Unused Apps feature with iOS 11 to help users with limited iPhone storage. With this feature, apps are deleted, but not removed from your Home screen. It simply shows a cloud icon next to the name, indicating that it has been removed. You manually have to download the apps that were erased by this feature. It should be turned off by default, but... you know.

To turn off this feature:

1. Head to Settings
2. Swipe down and tap on iTunes & App Store
3. Swipe down if needed and look for Offload Unused Apps
4. Turn this feature off if you’d like to keep all of your apps permanently

You don't seem to have understood, or I misunderstood.

Since I did the above, it has been updating the apps on its own.

I didn't need to press update all at the end, just to check if it stops again after updating 5-6 apps, as it did before.

The problem was caused by a "stuck" app that could not update. After I deleted it, everything worked again. I suspect others will have an app like this, even if not the same as mine.

I’ve been looking in to this issue with a very well known MDM provider, in my role as a systems engineer supporting schools.

A large local authority in the UK was getting frustrated because their MDM reported app updates were available, but the iPads were not installing them when commanded.

The issue was, and still is that even though a new version of a particular app has been made available on the App Store, the app developer has to apply a tag to the previous versions to tell the devices that it “needs-update” and that’s typically a staged process across the globe.

What this means in the context of this thread is that automatic updates will not happen until the app developer applies a “needs-update” flag to their app in your region, but you can manually check for updates in the App Store to shortcut that process which makes it appear as though your iPhone or iPad is ignoring available updates.

The reality is that automatic updates rely on the app developer, not the device OS. Apple could certainly make this more obvious, but I don’t think they can do anything about it without overwhelming servers when every single iPhone and iPad in the world decides to update Instagram at the same time!!

This is becoming a fascinating experience in dealing with large-scale tech support as a consumer.

One rep told me this is a known problem. See chat below.

After the chat, a 3rd tier engineer remoted into my phone and walked me through some troubleshooting steps that I'll share;

1. Make sure "Update Apps Automatically" is enabled. Well duh.
2. Remove VPN apps. My Google Fi VPN is disabled, but he still insisted this could be a root cause. This is an unlikely cause, as my iPads don't have VPN apps/settings.
3. Update the iOS. Of course 17.3 came out last week so I'll try this on one device.
4. Sign out/in from your Apple ID.
5. Close all open apps.
6. Restart device.
7. Lastly, he stated that apps could take up to 6 weeks to update automatically, once a new version is released to the App Store by the developer. I don't believe this to be true. He states that App developers choose the timeframes for app updates. While I could see small developers using long app update intervals, large companies push updates weekly or faster in order to fix crucial bugs. The largest software companies in the world aren't all going to wait 6 weeks between app updates. In one sense, this goes against Agile development principles. This also doesn't explain why this used to work, as many have reported here. Everyone suddenly agreed to wait 6 weeks? Okay.

Apple I think this is solely on you to address.

Well I was never informed by an Apple employee on this here.

I just attempted it, I turned off this “offload unused apps” in the setting which you provided a great walkthrough.

Do you know if this applies for the general system update as well since I have to reload and see for updates while it’s not automatic?

I have automatic download turned on, but the list of manual updates is very often present. If the oldest waiting app on the list of manual updates is around 7 days, then yes, this is related to the functionality of the App Store for developers: deployment in phases, which takes seven days. The first day limits the number of installs or updates to 10%. More details about the feature on this page:

Release a version update in phases - Update your app - App Store Connect - Help - Apple Developer

Yes still going on with the same issue here as all of you.

Sadly I even had a whole 2 hour chat with an Apple employee.

I was appalled to have a 2 hour chat of pointless nonsense I’ve already done.

They just telll you the same as the forum is written.

They say you have to turn off “security responses & systems files.

• does not work I’ve tried and it failed.
• i questioned why do I need to turn off my security response ?

the employee also pushed around telling me to turn the phone off and restart then last but not least telling me to update manually ?

So now I’m here with y’all on this forum trying to figure it out.

[Edited by Moderator]

Dr. Bamboozle wrote:

Lastly, he stated that apps could take up to 6 weeks. to update automatically, once a new version is released to the App Store by the developer. I don't believe this to be true.

Believe it or not, this is the only honest answer you've got that could have saved a lot useless troubleshooting.

It's nearly impossible for Apple to handle all the required bandwidth necessary to auto update all the apps inside all the devices around the world instantly.

Even Google is using the same tactic with the Google Play Store, because the volume of data and bandwidth required is even bigger in their case.

I don't think it's root cause of the issue. The real issue is that iOS doesn't even refresh automatically list of apps that CAN be updated so it DOESN'T EVEN INFORM me that an update CAN be done. I have to refresh it manually to even know that an update is available. Even if the developer has not enforced an update using the "needs-update" tag, EITHER way, the app should appear as available for update on the App Store and it does not until I do it manually. Besides, that's why I use the "Automatic Updates" option to ALWAYS have the LATEST versions of the apps and I don't care if the developer has set the update as required or optional. If Apple understands "automatic updates" as updating ONLY developer-required updates, and I'm left waiting up to 6 weeks (!!!) for all other updates, then it's not an automatic update process for me and Apple should add an "Always force update to the newest version of the app" option to App Store. Currently, it works tragically.

What? Of course there is, it’s called ‘update all’ and it appears right above the list of apps that need updating…

I have been having this issue all year of 2023. For whatever reason, my apps will not automatically update. I have to turn my automatic app update setting off just so I can get a notification to manually update the app. This has been an issue for a long time. I’m surprised apple hasn’t resolved it yet.

In fact, every single time I ask other iPhone users about this issue, they are usually unaware of it until I suggest they check if their apps are updated via the app store. Sure enough, almost 100% of the time there are dozens of apps which need updated.

I have also been facing this issue for long time and it is unacceptable in my opinion fora premium and expensive device like iPad. Can Apple staff please respond with an answer and hopefully a solution?

furthermore, to make things worse, there is not even an option to update all apps at once, and one has to manually click update for each of the apps needing update.