Tested 1.1ubuntu1.18.04.4 and it worked as expected. Log: rbalint@yogi:~$ dpkg -l unattended-upgrades | cat Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold | Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend |/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad) ||/ Name Version Architecture Description +++-===================-==================-============-=========================================== ii unattended-upgrades 1.1ubuntu1.18.04.4 all automatic installation of security upgrades rbalint@yogi:~$ sudo unattended-upgrade --dry-run --verbose Initial blacklisted packages: Initial whitelisted packages: Starting unattended upgrades script Allowed origins are: o=Ubuntu,a=bionic, o=Ubuntu,a=bionic-security, o=UbuntuESM,a=bionic System is on metered connection, stopping rbalint@yogi:~$ nmcli -t -f GENERAL.DEVICE,GENERAL.METERED dev show `ip route list 0/0 | sed -r 's/.*dev (\S*).*/\1/g'` GENERAL.DEVICE:wlp4s0 GENERAL.METERED:yes (guessed) rbalint@yogi:~$ lxc shell bb-uu11ubuntu118041 mesg: ttyname failed: No such device root@bb-uu11ubuntu118041:~# sudo apt install ./unattended-upgrades_1.1ubuntu1.18.04.4_all.deb Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done Note, selecting 'unattended-upgrades' instead of './unattended-upgrades_1.1ubuntu1.18.04.4_all.deb' The following package was automatically installed and is no longer required: libfreetype6 Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove it. Suggested packages: bsd-mailx default-mta | mail-transport-agent needrestart The following packages will be upgraded: unattended-upgrades 1 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 47 not upgraded. Need to get 38.1 kB of archives. After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used. Get:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-proposed/main amd64 unattended-upgrades all 1.1ubuntu1.18.04.4 [38.1 kB] Fetched 38.1 kB in 0s (107 kB/s) Preconfiguring packages ... (Reading database ... 28484 files and directories currently installed.) Preparing to unpack .../unattended-upgrades_1.1ubuntu1.18.04.4_all.deb ... Unpacking unattended-upgrades (1.1ubuntu1.18.04.4) over (1.1ubuntu1) ... Processing triggers for ureadahead (0.100.0-20) ... Processing triggers for systemd (237-3ubuntu10) ... Setting up unattended-upgrades (1.1ubuntu1.18.04.4) ... Replacing config file /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/50unattended-upgrades with new version Processing triggers for man-db (2.8.3-2) ... root@bb-uu11ubuntu118041:~# sudo unattended-upgrade --dry-run --verbose Initial blacklisted packages: Initial whitelisted packages: Starting unattended upgrades script Allowed origins are: o=Ubuntu,a=bionic, o=Ubuntu,a=bionic-security, o=UbuntuESM,a=bionic No packages found that can be upgraded unattended and no pending auto-removals root@bb-uu11ubuntu118041:~# logout rbalint@yogi:~$ sudo vi /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/51unattended-upgrades-metered rbalint@yogi:~$ cat /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/51unattended-upgrades-metered Unattended-Upgrade::Skip-Updates-On-Metered-Connections "false"; rbalint@yogi:~$ sudo unattended-upgrade --dry-run --verbose Initial blacklisted packages: Initial whitelisted packages: Starting unattended upgrades script Allowed origins are: o=Ubuntu,a=bionic, o=Ubuntu,a=bionic-security, o=UbuntuESM,a=bionic No packages found that can be upgraded unattended and no pending auto-removals