diff --git a/.changeset/hot-dingos-act.md b/.changeset/hot-dingos-act.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..8de7dab0497
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/hot-dingos-act.md
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+---
+"@pnpm/manifest-utils": patch
+"pnpm": patch
+---
+
+Dependencies specified via `*` should be updated to semver ranges by `pnpm update` [#5681](https://github.com/pnpm/pnpm/issues/5681).
diff --git a/pkg-manifest/manifest-utils/src/getPref.ts b/pkg-manifest/manifest-utils/src/getPref.ts
index cf750f1e8e9..018d188c29f 100644
--- a/pkg-manifest/manifest-utils/src/getPref.ts
+++ b/pkg-manifest/manifest-utils/src/getPref.ts
@@ -19,7 +19,6 @@ export function getPref (
 export function createVersionSpec (version: string | undefined, opts: { pinnedVersion?: PinnedVersion, rolling?: boolean }) {
   switch (opts.pinnedVersion ?? 'major') {
   case 'none':
-    return '*'
   case 'major':
     if (opts.rolling) return '^'
     return !version ? '*' : `^${version}`
diff --git a/pkg-manifest/manifest-utils/test/getPref.test.ts b/pkg-manifest/manifest-utils/test/getPref.test.ts
index 15ceee403b7..67ce52ba327 100644
--- a/pkg-manifest/manifest-utils/test/getPref.test.ts
+++ b/pkg-manifest/manifest-utils/test/getPref.test.ts
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ test('getPref()', () => {
     getPref('foo', 'foo', '4.0.0', {
       pinnedVersion: 'none',
     })
-  ).toEqual('*')
+  ).toEqual('^4.0.0')
 
   expect(
     getPref('foo', 'foo', undefined, {