How to Hide a Software Update From the Mac App Store in OS X Mountain Lion

With the release of OS X Mountain Lion, Apple changed the way they handle software updates on the Mac. Instead of going through a dedicated Software Update pane within the Finder, software updates are now managed from within the Mac App Store. Sometimes, however, you have an app that you don’t want to update, and it can be frustrated to see the update pop up every time you want to update your apps.

Fortunately, Apple provides a simple way to hide an update. Hiding an update means you’ll never be prompted to install it until the next time a new update is released for that app. Here’s how it’s done.

How to Hide a Software Update in OS X Mountain Lion

First, launch the Mac App Store from your dock, or from Launchpad. Next, click the Updates tap. You’ll now see a list of all available software updates. If there are multiple updates, you made need to click on the “More” option to see the full list. To hide an update, hover over the update you wish to hide with your mouse, then right click (or CTRL + left click), and select Hide Update from the box that appears next to your cursor. The update will now be hidden until a new update is available, or until you unhide it.

If you decide you want to unhide an update later, simply launch the Mac App Store, navigate to the Updates tap, then click the Store menu in the menu bar, and select “Show All Software Updates…”. To make the update appear, click the Store menu once more, and select Reload Page. All of your updates will now appear in the list.

That’s all there is to it! For more tips and tricks, check out our How-To category for a full listing of the tips we’ve written in the past!

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