argo-cd: Unable to disable auto-sync

Also check if you have an ApplicatoinSet that manages your Applications. In this case all changes to Application will be instantly undone, no matter what they were made with (UI/argocd cli/CRD)

I also ran into this issue, which is disconcerting when trying to temporarily adjust settings, perform manual tests, rollbacks, or whatever else. Argo’s UI seems to allow disabling regular apps, but when using an ApplicationSet (in my case, to generate ephemeral preview environments based on PRs) I’m unable to turn off the auto sync.

I’m not sure how to recommend a resolution, but this should certainly be addressed in some fashion. I think it’s important to be able to disable sync, healing, etc on the apps created by an AppSet.

Update: For my problem (and i figure it might resolve the OPs problem as well) the issue was that in my app-of-apps pattern, the root-application was configured with self-heal=true, causing changes to the child-apps to be “healed” even though the child apps had a different (or no) sync-policy configured. So now my setup is: root-app: syncPolicy: automated # so new apps are auto-detected and deployed prune: true # so removed apps get deleted and selfHeal: false # so changes to child-apps (e.g. via the UI) do not trigger an auto sync

I hope this helps someone out there as well!

I actually found out that setting this field to the null equivalent disables auto sync

  # Sync policy
  syncPolicy:
    automated:

We are also experiencing this issue, what is the current status on this?

kubectl -n <namespace> patch --type='merge' application <app-name> -p "{\"spec\":{\"syncPolicy\":null}}"

@sadovnikov Would you mind to re-open this issue ?

@illegalnumbers yes, this will allow folks to exclude fields from ApplicationSet’s regular updates: https://github.com/argoproj/argo-cd/pull/14743

I want to override sync policy from CLI and I also fail miserably. I tried the approach proposed by @adrian-sturm, but with no result. I tried disabling syncing at all, also with no result. From UI the situation is the same. Additionally, I don’t get any error messages, argo just keeps bringing back the original configuration.

1. Parent application yaml and original status:

   destination:                                                                 
     namespace: krowa                                                           
     server: https://kubernetes.default.svc                                     
   project: default                                                             
   source:                                                                      
     helm:                                                                      
       valueFiles:                                                              
       - environments/dev.yaml                                                  
     path: argocd/krowa-apps                                                    
     repoURL: <redacted>                                                        
     targetRevision: HEAD                                                       
   syncPolicy:                                                                  
     automated:                                                                 
       prune: true                                                              
       selfHeal: true                                                           
   

   $ argocd app get krowa-parent
   Name:               argo/krowa-parent
   Project:            default
   Server:             https://kubernetes.default.svc
   Namespace:          krowa
   URL:                <redacted>
   Repo:               <redacted>
   Target:             HEAD
   Path:               argocd/krowa-apps
   Helm Values:        environments/dev.yaml
   SyncWindow:         Sync Allowed
   Sync Policy:        Automated (Prune)
   Sync Status:        Synced to HEAD (5519559)
   Health Status:      Healthy
   
   GROUP        KIND         NAMESPACE     NAME             STATUS     HEALTH  HOOK  MESSAGE
                Namespace    krowa         krowa            Succeeded  Synced        namespace/krowa unchanged
   argoproj.io  Application  argo          child-app        Synced                   application.argoproj.io/child-app configured
                Namespace                  krowa            Synced
   

2. I edited parent app and I commented out whole syncPolicy section:

   $ argocd app edit krowa-parent
   
    # Please edit the object below. Lines beginning with a '#' will be ignored,
    # and an empty file will abort the edit. If an error occurs while saving this file will be
    # reopened with the relevant failures."
   
    destination:
      namespace: krowa
      server: https://kubernetes.default.svc
    project: default
    source:
      helm:
        valueFiles:
        - environments/dev.yaml
      path: argocd/krowa-apps
      repoURL: <redacted>
      targetRevision: HEAD
   # syncPolicy:
   #   automated:
   #     prune: true
   #     selfHeal: true
   

3. Check app once again

   $ argocd app get krowa-parent
   Name:               argo/krowa-parent
   Project:            default
   Server:             https://kubernetes.default.svc
   Namespace:          krowa
   URL:                <redacted>
   Repo:               <redacted>
   Target:             HEAD
   Path:               argocd/krowa-apps
   Helm Values:        environments/dev.yaml
   SyncWindow:         Sync Allowed
   Sync Policy:        Automated (Prune)
   Sync Status:        Synced to HEAD (5519559)
   Health Status:      Healthy
   
   GROUP        KIND         NAMESPACE     NAME             STATUS     HEALTH  HOOK  MESSAGE
                Namespace    krowa         krowa            Succeeded  Synced        namespace/krowa unchanged
   argoproj.io  Application  argo          child-app        Synced                   application.argoproj.io/child-app configured
                Namespace                  krowa            Synced
   
   

4. Running argocd app set krowa-parent --sync-policy="none" has no effect.

5. Changes in UI are also immediately brought back to the original settings.

6. Argo CD Server version

   {
   "Version": "v2.6.3+e05298b",
   "BuildDate": "2023-02-27T14:40:19Z",
   "GitCommit": "e05298b9c6ab8610104271fa8491f019fee3c587",
   "GitTreeState": "clean",
   "GoVersion": "go1.18.10",
   "Compiler": "gc",
   "Platform": "linux/amd64",
   "KustomizeVersion": "v4.5.7 2022-08-02T16:35:54Z",
   "HelmVersion": "v3.10.3+g835b733",
   "KubectlVersion": "v0.24.2",
   "JsonnetVersion": "v0.19.1"
   }
   

I’d really appreciate some help 😃

I’m facing the similar problem that I cannot disable auto-snyc (nor pruning and self heal) of an application resource via the UI. It seems to me that argoCD is overwriting these changes immediately as it tries to sync and auto-heal again - which Im trying to disable! So the UI buttons must get around the self-healing and auto-syncing process to be able to work…

Any news?

I’m experiencing the same issue.

To disable the sync in the YAML manifest I set syncPolicy: {} but I would like to keep the syncOption, and today is impossible to have both.

https://argo-cd.readthedocs.io/en/stable/user-guide/sync-options/#fail-the-sync-if-a-shared-resource-is-found

syncPolicy:
    syncOptions:
      - FailOnSharedResource=true