This is clearly bug in "automatic updates are turned off" feature, and the fix should be made there.
Tell HN: An app is silently installing itself on my iPhone every day
121–130 of 202 posts
Re: Tell HN: An app is silently installing itself on my iPhone every day
#122If you can take a sysdiagnose I’m sure it will have the answer in it. If you want to send me one (note: may contain sensitive information) feel free to contact me or any other person you trust who is familiar with iOS stuff?
Re: Tell HN: An app is silently installing itself on my iPhone every day
#123[dead]
Re: Tell HN: An app is silently installing itself on my iPhone every day
#124Re: Tell HN: An app is silently installing itself on my iPhone every day
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
This setting does not exist on iOS 26.4.1
It should: - https://old.reddit.com/r/iPadOS/comments/1prkpaq/can_i_turn_... - https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd....
I just checked that I could see it in the Settings App search bar, but it does not show up under the actual App Store settings page, might be an implementation bug related to user region.
Edit 1: this was on iPadOS 26.3.1 (a) (23D771330a)
Re: Tell HN: An app is silently installing itself on my iPhone every day
#126I wonder if U2, or Bono, has taken a significant stake in Headspace recently (kidding).
It was so fucking funny. I wonder what the engineer thought, who had to issue the SQL query which added Bono to literally everyone's collection. Like, I'm not surprised that management was so out of touch, but I'd expect the engineers to have a bit of common sense...
I feel like that's the kind of thing it's easy to not recognise as a terrible idea until after it's done, because so much of what makes it a bad idea is a consequence of the rest of the system.
Imagine if everything else surrounding the Apple ecosystem worked better. Imagine if people who don't actively use Apple Music never experienced Apple Music starting to play music by itself. Imagine if people who do use Apple Music never had an album play without being actively interacted with. Imagine if the album cover wasn't low-key softcore gay porn. Imagine if you could "uninstall" an album you own, like how you can uninstall an app you own and never ever see it again unless you actively go out of your way to search for it on the App Store.
Would it still have been a violation of consent? Sure, yeah it would. But almost everything people complain about is related to how it starts to play when they don't want to (an issue with iOS/macOS and Apple Music that would be annoying regardless), or how the album cover sometimes unintentionally pops up on your screen (such as when you hit the play/pause button on Mac when macOS doesn't think that there's any active paused media, so macOS opens Apple Music), or how there is no way for them to get rid of the album once they own it. These things are pretty large problems regardless of Songs of Innocence.
I can sort of understand an engineer thinking that surely there can't be any major downsides to just giving away a digital good. And if the rest of iOS, macOS's, Apple Music and the album itself didn't have all these issues, it wouldn't have been much of an issue. Again, it would've been a consent violation, but developers at tech companies aren't exactly known for valuing consent anyway and everyone would've certainly forgot it by now.
Re: Tell HN: An app is silently installing itself on my iPhone every day
#127Now you understand how it feels to be reminded that the device you "bought" from Apple isn't actually yours as they still have control over it, and if they decide to do something you don't want, you're powerless to stop them.
Re: Tell HN: An app is silently installing itself on my iPhone every day
#128Do you have Settings > Apps > App Store > (Automatic Downloads) App Downloads turned on? I noticed apps appearing on my Home Screen I’d never heard of before. Turns out with that setting and Family Purchase sharing turned on, every time my wife installed a new app, it installed on my phone too. That may not be your exact scenario, but I wonder if turning off that Automatic App Downloads setting (if enabled) changes a…
App Downloads and App Updates are both turned off. I don't have anyone else's devices on my account, just me. Thank you for the suggestions though!
Even with auto downloads turned off, does it show up in your app library or as a purchased app?
You can still have a app library with apps that "should be" downloaded, what happens if its removed from that list?
Re: Tell HN: An app is silently installing itself on my iPhone every day
#129Possible this is tied to your carrier?
I don’t think carriers have the ability to install apps on iOS. I’ve always thought it’s weird that they can do that on android.
They absolutely do. Some countries mandate some apps that cannot be removed. While Apple doesn't allow carriers to install mandatory bloatware apps, it allows country-specific "national security" apps and background processes that don't have app icons. It's been this way almost forever in pretty much every country that just about every mobile device, it's just Apple has been a bit better for users.
https://www.wired.com/story/apple-russia-iphone-apps-law/
https://9to5mac.com/2025/12/03/after-apple-refusal-indian-go...
Re: Tell HN: An app is silently installing itself on my iPhone every day
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
It was so fucking funny. I wonder what the engineer thought, who had to issue the SQL query which added Bono to literally everyone's collection. Like, I'm not surprised that management was so out of touch, but I'd expect the engineers to have a bit of common sense...
I feel like that's the kind of thing it's easy to not recognise as a terrible idea until after it's done, because so much of what makes it a bad idea is a consequence of the rest of the system. Imagine if everything else surrounding the Apple ecosystem worked better. Imagine if people who don't actively use Apple Music never experienced Apple Music starting to play music by itself. Imagine if people who do use Apple…
> Imagine if people who don't actively use Apple Music never experienced Apple Music starting to play music by itself.
Nice dream. My wireless headphones act like in the manual when paired with my phone, but the buttons on them always start apple music when paired with my laptop instead of muting or controlling noise canceling.