Disable Anki 2.1 update check

Screenshot of update notification. Text: "Anki Updated. Anki 2.1.19 has been released. Would you like to download it now? Ignore this update / No / Yes"

Anki 2.1.23 displays a notification when a new version is released. There's an option to skip a particular version by clicking "Ignore this update", but no option to disable all future update checks.

Here's a small Python script to do that. Save it as disable_update_check.py:

from pprint import pprint
import aqt
pm = aqt.profiles.ProfileManager()
pm.setupMeta()
pm.load(pm.profiles()[0])
print('Current settings:')
pprint(pm.meta)
print('Will set "updates" to False.')
if input('Continue? [y/n] ') == 'y':
    pm.meta['updates'] = False
    pm.save()
    print('Done.')
else:
    print('No changes made.')

Back up your Anki settings (~/.local/share/{Anki,Anki2} on Linux), ensure Anki is not running, then execute the script:

$ python disable_update_check.py
Current settings:
{'created': 999999999,
    'defaultLang': 'en',
    'disabledAddons': [],
    'firstRun': False,
    'id': 99999999999999999999,
    'lastMsg': -1,
    'last_addon_update_check': 999999999,
    'suppressUpdate': False,
    'updates': True,
    'ver': 0}
Will set "updates" to False.
Continue? [y/n] y
Done.

Anki will no longer display a notification when a new version is released.