#Backuploupe alternative update
#Backuploupe alternative software

Cask solves the automation problem, in that you can schedule it to run whenever you want, but the whole system is built around the idea that someone else (other than you) will notice when an update to an app is available, and then submit it to the maintainers. Homebrew Cask does the same thing that Homebrew does, except for regular apps. (See Has MacUpdate fallen to the adware plague?) Every one of my scripts so far (and for the foreseeable future) downloads directly from the official website.

#Backuploupe alternative software

Also: although I have been working on these scripts for a long time, and I still use MacUpdate, there was a very troubling “experiment” which seemed to happen recently where MacUpdate was bundling additional software with downloads and claiming it was a feature. Also, there’s no good way to tell it when to run, so it doesn’t solve the interruption problem. MacUpdate Desktop might be the easiest to use, but it’s $40/year, and seems to miss some apps that I use. MacUpdater seems like a better alternative to MacUpdate Desktop (one-time-fee versus subscription, and it seems to do better at finding apps which need to be updated). Yes, there are lots of other ways to do this: (Note: Technically these scripts do three things: Download, Install, and Update but I didn’t want to prefix them with dui and diu seemed awkward to type, so I went with a di prefix.) “But what about…?” That’s what these scripts allow you to do. Wouldn’t it be better if you could check for updates right after an app quits? Or check in the middle of the night or when your computer isn’t in use?

Most apps have an update system, but they usually want to update at the least convenient time: right after you launch them, when you are trying to use them for something. dmg files, then copying them to /Applications/ (and un-mounting DMGs) zip files (or tbz files, etc) or mounting. Going to Google to find the appropriate website (not always easy because, especially if app has a common name, or if the search results have a lot of other download sites before the official site.)įinding the download link (not always easy)ĭownloading the app (easy, but sometimes slow, due to a slow server or slow Internet connection) However, there are a lot of good apps - maybe even the majority of good apps - which aren’t available in the Mac App Store. (For all of its problems, the Mac App Store does updates pretty well.) If you buy apps from the Mac App Store, then getting updates is fairly easy.