How to stop update notifications for Pages, Keynote, Numbers, etc.

How do I get the App Store to stop pestering about updating Pages, Keynote, Numbers, etc. From what I understand, these programs have had a lot of functionality dumbed down or outright removed and I have no intention of ever upgrading to them yet there seems to be no provision to make the App Store stop indicating that they need to be updated.


Thanks

-J

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.5)

Posted on Oct 28, 2013 1:13 PM

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18 replies

Jul 6, 2017 12:38 AM in response to ButOfCourse

I have the same probelm in OS X El Capitan. At least once a day when I open Pages, Keynote or Numbers, the app keeps notifying me to update OS X to get the latest version of the app.


Given the doughnuts at Apple don't seem to care enough to update OS X El Capitan to stop the irritating alerts, your only option is to turn off "Automatically check for updates" in System Preferences -> App Store. This stops the alerts.


It isn't advisable you do this; by turning this option off, you will no longer receive any notification when updates are available, and will prevent automatic installation of security updates. You'll need to check for updates regularly by opening the App Store and going to the Updates tab. It is, however, the only solution I can find.


Thank you Apple, once again, for annoying us with pathetic engineering decisions. The only thing you're good at these days. Being pathetic.

Nov 18, 2013 4:45 PM in response to ButOfCourse

I would love to be able to turn off these notifications too for the same reason. The updated iWorks is horrible. I already uninstalled the new Pages and went back to Pages 4.3. And will eventually uninstall the new Keynote and Numbers and go back to the older versions as well. I never wanted to buy another Microsoft product again, but crap like the new iWorks from Apple might force me back to Office...

Nov 19, 2013 1:36 AM in response to possum1957

Thank you Hackintosh but I don't think we are talking about Mavericks. It was the subsequent update that caused the damage. I solved Pages by putting it in the trash, emptying the trash and restoring the old from my back-up, but even so it has apeared once since after a shut down. Numbers worked similarly but after shutdown when it reappeared it seemed immovable. I then noticed that going to information there was a box to tick in order to avoid the new format. So far it seems to have worked, but don't hold your breath. The constant offer of an update only pours oil on trobled water, not helped by the fact that I will now be rejecting every update one of which may be what I need. For the time being Apple seems to have lost its way. Let's hope it soons finds it again.

Dec 24, 2013 4:39 PM in response to alaskaliving

Indeed, but I think the real question is how to stop App Store from posting a notification to the Desktop that these updates are available. It does this at least every 24 hours and these particular apps seem to resist being "hidden" by using the right click approcah and selecting "Hide updates". There are serious drawbacks to these latest updates, especially for those of us with existing, extensive, Keynote presentations for classroom use, so I have no interest in installing it, but I am really tired of these stupid notifications that I cannot turn off without disabling notifications of system upgrades that may be far more important. Just one more stupid annoyance that Apple should have thought of.

Dec 24, 2013 8:33 PM in response to watcoh

I suppose you already went to System Preferences and deselected the relevant items in the App Store item. This doesn't help with the badges in App store icon in the Dock, but at least you get some control back before it "upgrades" for you. As we know, once the newer Pages is installed, there is no choice to open documents in the old one. I could live with that option. I found the autosuggestion spell check to be handy, and I doubt we are going to get that in the old program. I'd use the new one for simple tasks, like letters, and the old one for the more flexible and complicated uses I need for most documents.


Apple defaulting to their way once the new one is installed a problem. You'd think we'd have a clear choice to keep the old Pages we bought, the way it was without having to jerry rig around the upgrade. One more button would do the trick. Mac users used to have lots of choices before System 10 especially. I hope I won't have to move onto another word processor. I already have a decade's worth of obsolete ClarisWork and AppleWork docs I can now only open with Text Wrangler. If old Pages becomes useless, I'll be pretty unhappy. I wouldn't mind to pay for an old- Pages like upgrade that doesn't have to operate on all platforms. Not all apps are being squeezed into being universal. Call it Letters and and keep Pages for the integration. I'll buy it.

Dec 25, 2013 6:52 AM in response to NRoitman

Yes, I tried everything I could think of. The real problem is that Apple, for some reason, decided that in the App Store updates it would not allow me to "Hide" the updates of Pages and Keynote just by using the right click, in the way it does for other components. Why, I have no idea, but it simply reinforces the growing impression that Apple, rather than providing its traditional simple and intuitive platform and applications, and then letting the user have the maximum flexibility to use them, is now trying to shoehorn us into a "one size fits all" culture. The demise of Final Cut, iMovie, and now the iWork suite into dumbed down apps that handcuff the user is whittling away the Mac advantage over Windows day by day. Someone had better get into Tim Cook's ear fast, or Apple eill become little more than a mobile phone company.

Jan 14, 2014 9:48 AM in response to James Merwin

Yes of course. But the problem with that approach is that it turns off all update notifications, even important ones such as security updates. In my opinion, upgrading my perfectly functional Pages program rates about a zero on the importance scale while getting the latest OS update is a 10. To not have the ability to selectively say "I don't want this update, don't remind me again.", which is done in many other software packages and isn't rocket science to implement, is just simply poor design. With all of the brain power over at Apple I can't help but wonder what was said in the meeting where this functionality was discussed...was some exec like "we're going to keep updates in the list because we want people to use what we want people to use and we're going to keep prodding them until they capitulate, even for non-essential items."

Apr 4, 2014 3:19 PM in response to ButOfCourse

There is an easy fix for iWorks 09. Remove Pages (Keynote, Numbers) from the iWorks folder. You then simply alter the Application name - For example I changed my PAGES 4.3 app TO pages4.app. I trashed the older versions of Keynote & Numbers as I'm happy with Version 5.X, but I assume you could do the same for them. I then trashed the iWorks Folder. Of course, you should download version 5.X and park it if you prefer Version 4.3 like I do. Did that 6 months ago and so far no annoying updates.

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How to stop update notifications for Pages, Keynote, Numbers, etc.

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