diff --git a/common/deployments/hub-staging.yaml b/common/deployments/hub-staging.yaml
index ef703ca3d11ef7213c51d9bd2b5ee602cb459dcd..29ec602f460b02135d1719a80e78d5cd02a46672 100644
--- a/common/deployments/hub-staging.yaml
+++ b/common/deployments/hub-staging.yaml
@@ -131,7 +131,7 @@ singleuser:
       stringData: |-
         {
           "@jupyterlab/apputils-extension:notification": {
-            "checkForUpdates": true,
+            "checkForUpdates": "false",
             "fetchNews": "false"
           },
           "@jupyterlab/application-extension:context-menu": {