Apple Costs me 1/3 of my Monthly Cell Phone Data by Downloading Unwanted macOS Mojave

So here I am below (the Sprinter van in the Alabama Hills). I need ALL my data for remote internet access. When I hit the limit, it drops to 11K/sec (AT&T flat out lies about how bad it drops, repeated experience prove this). So If I use up my data, it’s big fing deal.

So what does Apple think to do when using a cell phone for data? Download 6+ GB macOS Mojave, apparently just in case I might want to install it (I don’t and haven’t for 4 months now).

macOS downloads using cell phone data when
user never asked for Mojave

So Apple has chewed up 1/3 of my monthly cell phone bandwidth, so if I run out of data, I get to work at 11K/sec for the rest of the month—so I can have something I don’t want and did not ask for. Real genius design there.

Alas it’s just one more aspect of the sloppy and inconsiderate and dangerous (security) issues with Apple Core Rot—when it comes to sensible and robust design, no one at Apple thinks any deeper than an iPhone screen protector.

Presumably I am supposed to uncheck “Download newly available updates in the background” in App Store preferences. I had inadvertantly left it there, checked. But I don’t consider a major system reinstall an “update”; it is of a sort, but it is a major system change with a complete reinstall. In any case, Apple should NOT be chewing up cell phone bandwidth like this.

f1.8 @ 1/2500 sec panorama, ISO 20; 2019-03-06 16:00:30
iPhone 7 Plus + iPhone 7 Plus 4.0 mm f/1.8 @ 4mm
ENV: Alabama Hills, altitude 4660 ft / 1420 m, 58°F / 14°C

[low-res image for bot]