Why do I get error "Writing Tools is unavailable" when opening Apple Intelligence?

If any of you have grammarly try quitting it completely I was having the same problem for days and quitting grammarly fixed it. They added an AI update and it seems grammarly AI doesnt get along with Apple Intelligence.

ok sorted here. I don’t normally use wifi just mobile data. So I had disabled the Apple Intelligence after initially trying it a couple of days ago. And as above when I re-enabled it from setting I got the message as above.

however once I re-enabled wifi it seemed to download again now running fine.

so it appears to me that if you turn Apple Intelligence Off, perhaps it deletes a good portion of it, then needs a wi-fi connection to re download.

Actually I did finally get it to work! I had to change the Region to match both the OS and Siri languages. Once all 3 were the same, I got the writing tools. I also had to restart the Mac after changing the parameters.

In case anyone else is still having problems with it, try this. Obviously the tools are available in the EU, contrary to some earlier posts.

TriVitaRyan wrote:

A.I. Writing Tools is still not fully working on my MacBook Pro 16" M1 Max (work laptop). I've wasted too much time trying to figure it out with no luck, so I've turned A.I. off until Apple produces a better A.I. experience. I should have known better; I generally don't run beta software because it may cause more issues than it's worth. I've reinstalled Grammarly and will return to using ChatGPT until Apple figures out their A.I. 😊

Since you are using a work laptop I assume it might actually be your IT department who blocks some of the features. One of the current features they can currently block is writing tools (see link below) which is also the reason why it doesn’t show up on my work computer. I confirmed this with my IT department who said they blocked every AI feature they can right now to make sure it’s safe to use.

more on what they can currently block:

JAMF and writing tools

more discussion on that:

Reddit

Solved, at least for one scenario:

I was having a similar issue on my Macbook Pro (M1 Pro running 15.1.1) - I could see the Apple Intelligence icon in Notes and click it, but nothing happened. Similary I could SEE the writing tools in the edit menu, but they were all grayed out.

In my case it turned out that being on my company VPN was blocking my access to the service. Turning it off immediately let me see the tool palette and access them all through the menu. YMMV - good luck!

I’m not sure if this will help you, but I use the Brave browser, and the Apple Intelligence tools only worked once per restart for me earlier. When I tried to use them a second time without restarting my Mac, I received the “Writing tools not available” message. After disabling “Leo AI” in Brave, the Apple Intelligence tools began working normally. It seems you can’t use any other AI integration while Apple Intelligence is active, which might be causing the issues. So, you might want to try disabling any AI-related features in your browser, including Grammarly.

By the way, I use the M4 Mac mini.

I finally solved it making both the OS language and the Siri language the same. In my case it was english UK.

Upgrade to 15.2 finally sorted the issue. Hope it works now on...

Have you gone through this link and made sure you aren't in a location, where you can't get Apple Intelligence, your language and Siri language is set to a supported language, etc. --> How to get Apple Intelligence - Apple Support (CA)

I turned off my VPN and it worked.

Simple, change region to United States.

I had the same issue, but I got it to work after switching my wifi connection. I ended up joining the hotspot on my phone, from my mac and that worked.

Same!!! I thought maybe my wifi was blocking it, but VPN and hotspot also had it disabled.

Try this:

Disable Apple Intelligence completely

1. Connect to hotspot or a VPN or a DIFFERENT wifi network that you're sure you aren't getting blocked on as whichever you're currently on or were on when you downloaded last may have blocked the download. (Again, I'd recommend still using hotspot or a free or paid vpn to make absolutely sure you aren't going to get blocked)
2. Re-enable, you should see something along the lines of "Apple Intelligence Downloading"
3. Stay on the network until it's finished and you tested it.
4. Connect to the previous network if you'd like.

EDIT:

The bottom 4 (Summarize, key points, list, table) appear to be enabled without downloading anything extra, so that's weird it's not working for you.

The rest need to be downloaded from the internet.

Helium68 wrote:

Simple, change region to United States.

It is NOT necessary to change ones resion to the United States. It IS necessary to change the language AND Siri language to one of the supported languages as detailed in this link --> How to get Apple Intelligence - Apple Support (CA)

This did the trick for me: Click Apple icon top left > system setting > left column find "Apple Intelligence & Siri" > toggle the Apple Intelligence & Siri button to gray / off > toggle back on. I hope I don't insult anyone's "intelligence", but it worked for me so I want to put it out there. Good luck friends!