I'm becoming very concerned with the way Apple is doing business as of late especially getting on this morning and noticing an article stating ios7 is automatically downloaded to the device without user permission. So I check my phone and yes, ios7 has managed to creep itself onto my phone without any input from me. Download and Install has simply become Install.
Update: I've successfully blocked OTA updates through my router with help of Intell's suggestion.
On my Linksys E2000 I created a new Access Restrictions policy blocking URLS:
mesu.apple.com
appldnld.apple.com
filtering IP range 192.168.1.1-192.168.1.254 - this essentially blocks all connecting devices to the router from accessing the culprit (mesu.apple.com). TIP: do not add access restrictions such as HTTP or DNS to the policy as these aren't specific to the url itself and function as a global block.
As an extra precaution you could add your iphone's WIFI mac address to the access restriction as well. This can be found from Settings>About
To make sure you have done this correctly, connect to WIFI and go to Software Update. You should be presented with the following popup error:
"Unable to Check for Update: An error occurred while checking for a software update."
In order to delete the pre-existing OTA update from your phone, backup to either computer or icloud (icloud preferred as it saves your app scheme), Delete all content and settings (essentially wiping the phone), then restore from said backup.
This guide will help you preserve the 1-3GB of storage vampirism implemented by apple if you are staying on iOS 6.x
UPDATE 2: This is very troublesome. This method has worked the entire day however I just noticed that the phone's "Other" started filling up again. I went back into OTA update and it showed that it's "preparing update" with the bar showing about 90% done. I have no idea how Apple is doing this with direct intervention from the user.
UPDATE 3: Added appldnld.apple.com to block list. Hopefully blocking both will prevent any further tampering from Apple.
Update: I've successfully blocked OTA updates through my router with help of Intell's suggestion.
On my Linksys E2000 I created a new Access Restrictions policy blocking URLS:
mesu.apple.com
appldnld.apple.com
filtering IP range 192.168.1.1-192.168.1.254 - this essentially blocks all connecting devices to the router from accessing the culprit (mesu.apple.com). TIP: do not add access restrictions such as HTTP or DNS to the policy as these aren't specific to the url itself and function as a global block.
As an extra precaution you could add your iphone's WIFI mac address to the access restriction as well. This can be found from Settings>About
To make sure you have done this correctly, connect to WIFI and go to Software Update. You should be presented with the following popup error:
"Unable to Check for Update: An error occurred while checking for a software update."
In order to delete the pre-existing OTA update from your phone, backup to either computer or icloud (icloud preferred as it saves your app scheme), Delete all content and settings (essentially wiping the phone), then restore from said backup.
This guide will help you preserve the 1-3GB of storage vampirism implemented by apple if you are staying on iOS 6.x
UPDATE 2: This is very troublesome. This method has worked the entire day however I just noticed that the phone's "Other" started filling up again. I went back into OTA update and it showed that it's "preparing update" with the bar showing about 90% done. I have no idea how Apple is doing this with direct intervention from the user.
UPDATE 3: Added appldnld.apple.com to block list. Hopefully blocking both will prevent any further tampering from Apple.
Last edited:
