How do I disable VS Code of updating itself?

Question

I updated my VS Code at the morning and now at night it shows a badge on setting icon for install updates. As it seems VS Code update files arrives every second to second and it makes me to install updates (it makes you to close editor and when you want to open it, take a long time to install the new updates and then opens the updated version).

I know that being up to date is cool but forcing you to update twice a day is not cool for me, so is there any way to disable vs code from updating?

Emlen

Answer 1

Have you tried updating JSON User settings to "update.mode": "none"

Navigation steps:

File > Preferences > Settings or [ Ctrl + Shift + , ]

References:

https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/supporting/FAQ

Following block of text is from the FAQ VS Code

How do I opt out of VS Code auto-updates?

By default, VS Code is set up to auto-update for macOS and Windows users when we release new updates. If you do not want to get automatic updates, you can set the update.channel setting from default to none.

To modify the update channel, go to File > Preferences > Settings and add the update.channel setting with the value "none".

"update.mode": "none"

Ehf

For some reason, this update was killing my machine. Just wanted to add that this change has to go into the User Settings, not the Workspace settings. – Disc

This answer should be updated to explicitly call out User settings. It does not work in the Workspace settings. – Phasis

This is the correct answer. However I am using v 1.31 and it has a proper UI for settings. You click User Settings > Application > Update and change to manual. Honestly I don't know the difference between manual and none. The description is rather vague. – Tobitobiah

In Mac, it's Code > Preferences > Settings. – Sandler

The change doesn't seem to stick if done in a VS code window with a remote session active. Need to ensure that no remote connection exists and the change to the setting requires a restart. Then it will finally stick. It really sucks when an update occurs unexpectedly because the transfer of the new version to the remote computer when using the remote explorer extension is terribly slow. – Auburta

@Auburta This also caught me off guard and was exactly the same thing I experienced. I had to switch the settings before having a remote session enabled. Thanks! – Lonnie

Answer 2

I had this problem for a long time and solved as in the steps in the screenshot. I set it to manual and it works:

The none option works so no clear difference between the two options.

Bolyard

Answer 3

go to File > Preferences > Settings (macOS: Code > Preferences > Settings), search for update mode and change the setting to none

Gourmandise

Answer 4

There are options.

• You can set "update.mode": "none" in settings.json.
• If starting VS Code from commandline, you can use the --disable-updates argument flag.

If you installed on Linux using a package manager, see Disabling VSCode autoupdate on linux machines.

Abbreviate

Answer 5

My case even when I set the update mode as none it was still trying to update itself in the background , then relaized that it was updating the version in the background so quick that before even I switch the setting it's updating it, So I disconnected from the internet , Installed vscode again then did update mode as none , finally that worked.

Susuable

I had the same problem. I searched the package contents (macOS) for "update.mode". I found this in emrun.py (line 232): user_pref("app.update.mode", 0); I changed the 0 to 1 before opening the app, and that switched it from default to none in the Update Mode Settings. That seemed to work for me. – Resemblance

Answer 6

In MacOS Navigation steps:

Code > Settings > Settings OR shortcut key is Cmd with ,

Go to

User > Application > Update > Mode

Then Check your preference for update VSCode

Anatomist

It worked specifically for VSCode running on macOS (Sonoma). I did't find settings in the File section of VSCode, rather found under Code > Settings > Settings > User > Application > Update > Mode. Please refer to the screenshot attached. – Anatomist