Apple Intelligence stuck on "Preparing" status for more than 10 hours

I ran into this issue when initially setting up an iPad Pro. It came with iPad os 18 and during the initial setup process it recommended upgrading to iPad os 18.1.1. After the update finished and the setup finished, the iPad would not finish installing Apple Intelligence and reported it was on the “preparing” stage for hours—even letting it sit overnight did not help. Eventually I guessed that something went sideways during the iPad os upgrade in the middle of the initial setup process so I erased the iPad and went through the setup process again knowing now it was running the iPad os 18.1.1 software. After the setup process was complete I was able to activate Apple Intelligence and it successfully downloaded and installed without stopping in the “preparing” phase. I hope this information helps someone.

Has ANYONE discovered anything that works? I do not get why Apple, with all this new "intelligence," cannot fix this problem. That's weird. My M3 MacBook Air has been "preparing" for weeks. Tried every suggestion I've seen. No change.

I have an M3 and it's still doing the same thing after weeks and is showing 4.43 GB downloaded instead of 4.94 GB. I have plenty of space and have restarted the computer and the internet modem more than once.

I found a solution that worked for me after being stuck for a month on preparing. I went to WIFI settings and turned off Private Wi-Fi address, after 30 sec apple intelligence started to work. Hope this helps

Hello~ Have you taken a look here?

How to get Apple Intelligence - Apple Support

~Katana-San~

Hello~ Have you taken a look here? Please refrain from using that kind of language…

How to get Apple Intelligence - Apple Support

~Katana-San~

Enable Siri -> Change Language to English (United States) -> Save.

This worked for me

Now my screen has changed. No longer days preparing but can’t see any changes to what the phone does- totally underwhelmed!

I had a similar problem on my MacBook. Rebooting didn't help until I connected it to charging. A couple of minutes later, a message about availability appeared

Hello~ Are you trying to install beta or the now publicly released version?

~Katana-San~

Have you managed to resolve the issue yet?

Try turning Siri off and then on again. That worked for me!

Did you leave it off or just off and back on?

So I’m guessing this is a known bug for iPhones as well? I have the 15 Pro.