Topic: Automatic download behaviour

Further to a previous thread I made I've now witnessed how the the WiiU handles standby downloading. As I knew there was an update for Wii Street U I put my console on at the wall. The red light appeared but the orange light didn't. I then turned the console on with the gamepad, let the home menu appear, then switched it off again with the gamepad.

This time the red standby light was followed by the orange light and sure enough, the Wii Street U update was downloaded and installed. So it would seem that the console only checks for updates when you put it on and then off again. Simply leaving it in standby constantly won't do very much.

This is all in my own experience anyway. One thing the home menu should do is show immediately if any standby updating has taken place. It only showed that Wii Street U was updated when I launched it.

Hope this may help if anyone was wondering.

I've noticed that it takes up to a minute for the light to turn orange when downloading something. Anyone else second this?

You guys must really love your Wii U that you take time to notice the Home button light color change. I turned ON my Wii U yesterday but it didn't prompt me to download automatically. I knew there's an update on the Wii Street U cuz I read it somewhere on the internet. I have to go click the Wii Street U app only then it automatically download the update. I could care less of the light changes but it did install the upgrade (it's a large update) before I can start running again the app.

I'm trying to download Lego City, will this continue to download in the background when I switch off the Wii U?

Not only will it continue to download, but it will also install it, too.

The standby download thingy behaves quite strangely. Everytime i shut down the WiiU directly from Wii mode (been playing some xenoblade lately), the standby LED turnes orange. That happens everytime. Im not shure what the WiiU is downloading and / or installing, but im pretty sure that there can not be that many patches...

the wii u activates the 'standby mode' every time its turned off then for about 30-40 seconds it'll check for system updates and updates for frequently used software/apps if it detects any it downloads and installs them if there's none it shuts down.

Download the system update. It enables automatic downloads and significantly improves menu performance. When you do so you'll be told about the power light colour changes and that it turns orange when it's downloading something in standby. It removes the need for wait for large updates before playing a game but it seems to only do it just after you've turned the Wii U off. This behaviour probably doesn't warrant its own thread but it's strange and hard to tell what it's actually doing.

@OP
What's probably happening is that the updates appear while you're playing sometimes. So the updates download as soon as you turn the system off. Nothing more.