Microsoft Edge on Mac is Getting a New Update Experience

Microsoft announced today that it will move its Edge web browser on Mac off Microsoft AutoUpdate because users have found it confusing.

“Getting updates timely and smoothly is key to keeping web browsers secure. It also helps you try new experiences sooner on a fast-moving browser like Microsoft Edge,” Microsoft’s Olivia_Zhang explains. “Since Microsoft Edge launched on macOS, we have heard your feedback on the update experience on Mac devices, specifically [that] having to update through Microsoft AutoUpdate can be confusing, especially since it typically is used to update the Office suite applications.”

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Additionally, users complained that the Edge settings interface on Mac was not always consistent with Microsoft AutoUpdate in showing update availability. And that the update experience has been slow: Users have to close and then reopen the browser when a new update is available and then wait until the update is applied before the browser restarts.

Microsoft will address these concerns with a new update experience that I believe will simply mimic how Edge updates on Windows. This new update experience is now “Edge-native” and updates will happen automatically and silently, with non-Edge notifications displayed.

This new experience is rolling out first in Edge Canary and will come to other channels, and then stable, over time.

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Conversation 15 comments

  • thalter

    Premium Member
    11 March, 2021 - 2:17 pm

    <p>Glad to see this. I always found the Edge Mac update process convoluted (if not confusing) as there were two ways to update Edge, as you pointed out – Through AutoUpdate, or from within the app itself. It makes sense to manage updates just from within the app, like Chrome does.</p>

    • matsan

      11 March, 2021 - 2:42 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#617668">In reply to thalter:</a></em></blockquote><p>Microsoft is just giving us Mac users a whiff of the Windows Experience – same settings in multiple places and on top of that RegEditor and PowerShell. </p>

  • richardbottiglieri

    Premium Member
    11 March, 2021 - 2:49 pm

    <p>Nice!</p>

  • b6gd

    11 March, 2021 - 3:14 pm

    <p>Good on them. It is a mess with the two ways. Sometimes it will close down Edge, update, then restart but you can do anything with it. You must force quit it and then reopen again.</p><p><br></p><p>None of that is a big deal, but lately there have been multiple updates a week.</p>

  • colin79666

    Premium Member
    11 March, 2021 - 3:46 pm

    <p>Never understood why it was different on Mac. Chrome (on which new Edge is based) has handled it fine. </p>

  • thetsart

    11 March, 2021 - 4:26 pm

    <p>I'm confused. I've never used AutoUpdate to update Edge. I just occasionally go to the Microsoft Edge menu and choose About Microsoft Edge. It searches for updates and updates if there is one. Maybe mine is different being on an M1? </p>

  • kalahari

    Premium Member
    11 March, 2021 - 4:26 pm

    <p>This is a bit of a mess right now, bravo!</p>

  • BizTechSherpa

    11 March, 2021 - 5:14 pm

    <p>So glad to see this! I have updated using both the native Chrome like ways, and the Auto Update – Auto Update is maddening because it sometime blocks other Office apps saying something like an update is already in progress, but does not show it. This should clean that up. </p><p><br></p><p>Frankly, I'd be fine if every application updated like Chrome, or how the App store just does it. </p>

  • winner

    11 March, 2021 - 5:21 pm

    <p>Microsoft provides a new update experience – "Runs screaming in horror…"</p>

    • Paul Thurrott

      Premium Member
      12 March, 2021 - 9:04 am

      Well. If you’d suffered from using Microsoft AutoUpdate (or whatever this POS is called), you would actually embrace this.

      • winner

        12 March, 2021 - 10:25 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#617755">In reply to paul-thurrott:</a></em></blockquote><p>The original cynical comment is based upon their track record and ability to provide a "new, better update experience…"</p>

        • Paul Thurrott

          Premium Member
          13 March, 2021 - 9:11 am

          I get it. But this is only new on the Mac. Edge updates perfectly well elsewhere.

  • jblank46

    12 March, 2021 - 2:35 am

    <p>This was always weird and confusing on the Mac so good that they finally made it behave like users expect.</p>

  • derekaw

    12 March, 2021 - 6:33 pm

    <p>I took Office of my Mac because of the awful <span style="background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245); color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Microsoft AutoUpdate experience.</span></p>

  • ivarh

    Premium Member
    13 March, 2021 - 9:12 am

    <p>I got my yearly bonus and invested parts of it in a MacBook pro M1 / 16GB / 1TB. I use an app called jump as an RDP client and it behaves fast and no errors. But I can sit outside in the Oz sun with my M1MBP in my lap without having my nuts being cooked. So I run Zoom/Teams on the MacBook and jump to RDC to my windows PC for the more heavy windows work.</p>

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