How to Disable Automatic Updates in Plex for Windows

By default, the Plex for Windows application will automatically update if one is available. You may prefer to have more control over when the Windows Plex player updates, so you may want to disable automatic updates.

The steps for disabling automatic updates for Plex for Windows are outlined below.

How to disable automatic updates

To disable automatic updates, do the following:

1. Open the following file: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Plex\plex.ini in a text editor.
2. In the [debug] section (add it if it doesn't exist), add the following:

   disableUpdater=true

3. Save the file.

After performing the steps above, Plex for Windows will no longer automatically update. You will now need to do so manually.

Why would you want to disable automatic updates?

For most people, disabling automatic updates is not recommended as updates can provide fixes and enhancements that could improve the application.

There are times, however, when updates could actually break the application, and rolling back to a previous version is recommended. In such a case, waiting before applying an update and then manually updating the application after some time would be best.

Rolling back the update

If you do have automatic updates enabled or have updated Plex for Windows manually, and would like to rollback to a previous version, then you can do the following:

1. Uninstall the current version of Plex for Windows.
2. Navigate to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Plex\cache\updates and install one of the previous updates.

You can uninstall and reinstall any previous version that is in the updates folder.

The above sections explained how to disable automatic updates for Plex for Windows, why you would want to disable automatic updates, and what to do if you would like to roll back an update.

While most users will not want to disable automatic updates, you do have the option to disable them if you choose.