Want to Update Your Smartphone’s Operating System, Apps? Make It Automatic

Your phone might even balk and not complete the update. If that happens, you’ll get a notification on your locked screen, and you can try again with a Wi-Fi connection.

For Androids. Unlike Apple, which controls both the devices and the system software they use, Google makes its Android OS available to other manufacturers, and each company can customize. Your Android phone may have slightly different steps than this, but the good news is that most newer Android smartphones will update their operating systems automatically in the background.

To check on yours, swipe down from the top edge of your screen to display the quick menu. Tap Settings, which has a gear ⚙ icon | Software update on a Samsung Galaxy phone. Other options you might find in Settings: About phone | Software update or System | System update.

You might see an update waiting to be applied, which you can opt to install immediately. Both Apple and Android generally wait until the middle of the night, when you’re less likely to be using your device and it’s charging, to push through an update.

A tip: Make sure you’re allowing your phones to back up automatically to preserve your data in case something goes wrong during an update or at any other time.

Android users have 15 gigabytes (GB) available free across Google Drive cloud service, Gmail and Google Photos. In comparison, iPhone and iPad users get 5GB of free storage on iCloud. Additional space is available via subscription. Or you can choose to back up the contents of your phone manually to a hard drive you have at home. Set a regular calendar reminder so you won’t forget.

How to allow apps to update automatically

Your smartphone probably has close to 100 mobile applications, the pieces of software that we call apps, already loaded when you bought it plus ones you’ve added for fun and convenience. They need to be kept up to date for the same reasons as your phone’s operating system.

For an iPhone or iPad. Check to see that you have App Updates enabled by tapping Settings | App Store and scrolling down to the Automatic Downloads section. Under that heading, you should see the toggle switch for App Updates in green. If it’s gray, tap it once to turn it on.

If you have an iPhone and an iPad or other Apple device, you may want to share the apps among all your devices. If so, you can tap to turn on the Apps switch.

For Androids. While iPhone users generally have to download their apps from the Apple App Store — it’s possible but not as easy to go elsewhere — Android smartphone users have more options, such as the Galaxy Store for Samsung device apps or the Amazon App Store for Amazon’s Android Fire tablet operating system.

Well-known app stores decrease the odds of downloading malicious software. These instructions are for the Google Play Store, where nearly 2.7 million apps were available in June.

Open your Play Store app, already installed on Android devices that support Google Play. At the top right of your screen, tap your profile icon, generally a circle, perhaps with your photo if you’ve uploaded it.

Tap Settings | Network Preferences | Auto-update apps. You then can choose to allow updates Over any network, cellular or Wi-Fi; Over Wi-Fi only; or Don’t auto-update apps. Chances are good your default is Over Wi-Fi only, the best option if you’re paying for a limited amount of data on your phone plan. 

To check manually on apps that need updating, under that profile icon choose Manage apps & device. Apps that need updating are under Updates available. Then you can tap Update.

- Linda Dono contributed to this story