Often I use my laptop tethered to an iPhone 4 and surf the internet through personal hotspot. How can I be sure that Software Update is not downloading huge updates using iPhone's 3G expensive data plan? And if it does, can I prevent it?
Thanks!
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8)
Go to System Preferences (under the apple) and Software Update is about the middle of the "Systems" line. On the bottom of the Pref panel for SW Update there are check boxes for checking automatically and downloading automatically. If you spend any significant amount of time attached via an expensive or slow connection, turn them both off.
I would turn off "download automatically" under any circumstances -- when you are trying to do something and it runs really slowly, it's pretty frustrating to realize that it's because your computer was downloading 500MB of printer driver updates for a printer that broke and you threw in the trash two years ago!
Software Update does not usually download updates unless you specifically tell it to do so. They do not get downloaded in the background. If you're ever not sure, you can just launch Software Update. It will do a scan to see what updates you may need, but it will not download them until you tell it to.
Done! Thanks a lot!
Is Software Update downloading in the background when tethered to an iPhone?
