Forum Discussion
Disabling Microsoft AutoUpdate
I have a customer with a Mac mini M4 with multiple user accounts. Each user has access to Office 365 apps, Outlook, Word, Excel. I have disabled Automatic Updates in the AutoUpdate app. This has n...
Take this to prevent Microsoft AutoUpdate from Launching Automatically
These commands will stop MAU from launching on its own, but still allow users to manually check for updates via Help > Check for Updates in Office apps.
- Disable the Launch Agent
This prevents MAU from starting at login or periodically in the background:
sudo defaults write /Library/LaunchAgents/com.microsoft.update.agent.plist Disabled -bool YES
sudo defaults write /Library/LaunchAgents/com.microsoft.update.agent.plist RunAtLoad -bool NOIf the above doesn’t work due to plist structure, use PlistBuddy:
sudo /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Set Disabled YES" /Library/LaunchAgents/com.microsoft.update.agent.plist
sudo /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Set RunAtLoad NO" /Library/LaunchAgents/com.microsoft.update.agent.plist
- Suppress Background Launch When Opening Office Apps
This prevents MAU from launching when a user opens Word, Excel, etc.:
defaults write com.microsoft.autoupdate2 StartDaemonOnAppLaunch -bool FALSE
- Disable Feedback and Telemetry
Just in case you want to reduce background chatter:
defaults write com.microsoft.autoupdate2 MAUFeedbackEnabled -bool FALSE
defaults write com.microsoft.autoupdate2 SendAllTelemetryEnabled -bool FALSE