Adobe Creative Suite 6 and Adobe Creative Cloud include an automatic update mechanism that is part of the Adobe Application Manager and Adobe Creative Cloud desktop application (respectively). By default, this update mechanism uses an Internet connection to check Adobe servers for available updates to installed CS6 or Creative Cloud applications. In certain circumstances, system administrators want to disable these connections. You can disable these connections at the time of deployment using features in the Creative Cloud Packager.

Inevitably, if the computer does it automatically it will pick an inconvenient time. If your Mac is running macOS 10.14 Mojave or newer, do this: Click on the Apple menu and select System Preferences; Click on Software Update; Adjust your settings to mirror those shown in the image below. Most importantly uncheck the box labeled Install macOS.

This document explains how to disable the connections after deployment, or when using other deployment methods.

To disable access to updates for all users on a given machine, administrators can create an admin preference file. (This file disables access to updates both from the Help > Updates menu, as well as automatic update checks.) Create a plain-text file named AdobeUpdaterAdminPrefs.dat with the following contents:

Put the file in the following location:

Note: It also prevents administrators from checking for updates and installing updates through that update check. This is easily dealt with by simply renaming the AdobeUpdaterAdminPrefs.dat file, running the update check and installation with the Adobe Application Manager, then restoring the file to its original name.

Alternatively, with the system-wide update disablement in place, administrators can install updates by downloading them from the Adobe product updates page.

Note: This method disables onyl the automatic update check and notification. Users can still manually initiate checks for and installations of, updates through the Updates command on the Help menu in any Adobe Creative Suite 6 or Creative Cloud application. If it's necessary to prevent users from calling update checks and installations, use the system-wide method described above.

Disabling updates based on user accounts varies based on whether the action is taking place at the time of installation, or post-installation and post-product usage. In both cases, create a plain-text file named AdobeUpdaterPrefs.dat with contents that vary based on the situation as follows:

At time of installation

In both of the above cases, put the file in the following location, overwriting the existing file in the later case:

How To Turn Off Automatic App Updates On Mac High Sierra