The Silent Downloader
To keep your software current, macOS is designed to frequently connect to the Apple App Store in the background. It automatically checks for updates to the operating system and any applications you purchased through the store. By default, it will often automatically download these updates in the background, preparing them for installation. While this ensures you always have the latest security patches, it can severely degrade your internet performance if you are on a slow connection, quickly consume a limited data cap if you are tethered to a mobile hotspot, and utilize processing power when you need your Mac’s full resources for a heavy task.
Disabling Background Checks
To preserve your bandwidth and stop macOS from automatically connecting to the App Store to check for and download updates in the background, you must adjust the Software Update preferences.
Click the Apple logo in the top-left corner of your screen and select System Settings (or System Preferences on older macOS versions). In the left-hand navigation sidebar, click on General, then click on Software Update in the main panel. You will see an option labelled “Automatic updates.” Click the small ‘i’ (Information) icon next to it to reveal advanced options. A new dialogue box will appear. To completely stop the background connection, uncheck the box for Check for updates. If you want the system to notify you but not consume data, leave that checked but uncheck Download new updates when available. Click Done. You will now need to manually open this preference pane to check for Apple software updates.