Automatic App Updates Not Working

Donna_63,

Can you try the following steps and let us know if you are able to download those updates without inputting your password?

Open up Settings and tap Screen Time. From there, scroll down and tap Content & Privacy Restrictions. Next, check "iTunes & App Store Purchases" to see if it is set to ask for your password. If it is, try disabling that feature temporarily and seeing if you can update your apps now without the password. If that feature is greyed out (meaning it is disabled), go ahead and toggle "Content & Privacy Restrictions" to on, then tap "iTunes & App Store Purchases" and disable the password requirement feature.

We hope this does the trick for you.

@Nathan430 - THANK YOU!! Ditto to what @Donna_63 said!

I recall watching a YouTube video by “a couple Experts” suggest turning some items like this off with a previous iOS update to conserve battery or Privacy. Guess even experts make mistakes.

Many thanks for your assistance - auto updates should now happen. 👍

Hey Donna_63,

We're glad to hear that you were able to get that resolved. Thanks for letting us know. We're happy to have helped.

Have a great week. 

I’ve the same issue as OP (iPhone 12 pro) and even WITH the most recent iOS update (emergency 16.4.1a) and all settings exactly as shared in reply, I too have 25+ “auto updates” waiting in the cue that were to be automatically updated yet weren’t.

What is the missing piece??!!

Hello Donna_63,

Thanks for connecting with us here in Apple Support Communities. The first thing we'd recommend is that you update your iPhone to the latest iOS release as this may help to address the issue you're facing. You can do this by going to Settings > General > Software Update.

You'll also want to check if the app downloads are set to download over cellular data. You can see more about this here: How to manually update apps on your Apple device - Apple Support

How to turn on or turn off automatic updates on your iPhone or iPad

1. Go to Settings.

2. Tap App Store.

3. Turn on or turn off App Updates.

Kind regards.

Thanks for those details. In a previous message you mentioned you were using an older version of iOS.

Let's go ahead and update to iOS version 16.4.1 using these steps: Update iOS on iPhone.

Afterward, test again.

Let us know how it goes.

its not working