Why is Apple Intelligence not supported on external boot disks?

Max Studio M1 Max chip with 32 GB RAM booting from external 4 TB Crucial SSD using a thunderbolt 4 external case with a fan built-in to the case. It used to take about 20 seconds to boot from the internal SSD and now with the external SSD it takes about 30 seconds. I can live with that!

It is really discouraging that I can't use Apple Intelligence on an external boot drive because I am trying to save wear and tear on the internal SSD so that this computer will last me a long time (without AppleCare) and I really have no idea how long the internal SSD will last, it is not replaceable of course because it's soldered into the motherboard and I have done so much research on this I think pretty much no one else knows much either about the real world lifespan. It is a long time, sure, but what? Five years?10 or 15 years? Except for this one issue about Apple Intelligence on an external drive the machine works great!

I am very frugal. I am using a Mac mini 2012 with 16 GB ram with two one terabyte SSD's and it's working phenomenally well for my music recording studio in MacOS Mojave. I refuse to upgrade it because I have one plug-in that cost me $400 that won't work past Mojave. I never max out the tracks and I can have a ton of tracks. To me it's a dream studio. So I think it's a very good value to just delegate the Mac mini to my recording studio and I use the Mac Studio for video editing and Internet because it's far more secure with recent updates. I want the free choice of having the Mac studio work for me as long as I want it to. That's why I bought the external drive for the Mac studio.

I hope Apple is able to update the operating system so that external drives can use Apple Intelligence. I find it highly unfair and I have a hard time believing the bus speed on Thunderbolt 4 has anything to do with this.

I believe 32 bit apps were killed off in Mojave so apps like Claris Works (remember that?) won't work in Mojave but syncing to newer machines (like syncing Notes and other apps) is better in Mojave. My answer is to connect an older machine to Ethernet with an OS older than Mojave so I can still "decode" files from Claris Works and other apps, and send them as more compatible formats to newer machines through ethernet if I have to. I am a huge note taker, even back then. Could naturally also use another boot drive and put an older OS X on that and boot off it on the older Mac.

As far as AI running on external boot drives, I guess we have to wait to see what Apple does. I am running the iOS 18.1 AI stuff on a iPad Pro M1 so I can see what I am missing. I am hoping Final Cut Pro on my Mac Studio will do that subtitle AI feature on an external drive or I will have to reconsider booting off the Mac Studio internal drive. That subtitle AI feature in Final Cut Pro would be useful. If it works well. Ha.

Thanks for sharing!

Peace to all!

I learned that it is possible to move your home directory to the external drive. This still allows for booting up off internal, gaining Apple Intelligence, and keeping all of your photos, movies and other space demanding files where you have less expensive storage. Applications will remain on the internal drive.

The process is hidden, but works perfectly fine based on my limited use thus far.

1) Boot from internal drive

2) Copy the home directory from internal drive (or in my case, older iMac) to external drive. If you already boot off external drive and user is located there, you can skip this step.

3) Update the user to point to the new location. (Sonoma) Go to Settings > Users & Groups > Right Click on the user name > Advanced Options ... (log in) > Home directory.

bdtong wrote:

I have a mini m1 that I boot off a thunderbolt 3 nvme. Runs the latest version of sequoia.

the volume is encrypted with Apple’s file system.

the option to enable AI states that booting macOS off an external disk is not supported.

is this an overlooked behavior from the public betas? Artificial market segmentation, like how my older 2011 mini didn’t “support” dark/night mode.

what is the technical limitation of there even is one?

i wouldn’t imagine that it’s a performance issue as thunderbolt nvme enclosures are plenty fast.

We can't answer this question because this is a user to user only forum. We didn't have anything to do with the technical decisions Apple made on where Apple Intelligence works or doesn't work.

I suppose you could contact Apple directly and ask, but it's not likely anyone at the tech support level can tell you much about why as all they can tell is what is.

I have been running Monterey on an external SSD for a few years (I'm generally reluctant to upgrade stable systems, especially as it took several attempts to install originally).

M1 Mini here too.

I spent many hours earlier in the week trying to install Sequoia on a new Samsung external T7 2TB drive, eventually succeeded and can boot from it.

Runs pretty well and seems generally faster than Monterey.

Like you I was disappointed to see that Apple Intelligence is not supported on an external drive.

The small internal SSD just isn't really big enough for me, hence use of an external for a few years. It shipped with Big Sur which I may have retained for a few software reasons, but tempted to try Sequoia on this.

I'm also strongly considering an M4 Mini, haven't looked at trade-in prices, but the 16GB RAM on new base models should be a big help - often found 8GB far from adequate especially as my older Macs had more RAM.

I suppose the big question we still don't know the answer to is the reason we can't try Apple Intelligence with an external startup drive.

Is it something they simply haven't implemented yet, or maybe something to do with secure processing of your data running through Apple Intelligence? Would not be surprised if there's a technical reason for it which would be a shame but more understandable. If it's not a feature limited by such considerations maybe we'll see it implemented later, but I suspect not.

You make assumptions here that people who use their old computers have only one machine. I have quarantined my old 2012 Mac mini to not go online and it's an amazing dedicated recording studio that is super stable and I get to use old expensive plug ins with features not made any more.

Motu MachFive 3 is a brilliant software sampler/synth plugin that can mount CD-ROMS that Macs can't even mount...this sampler plugin can open old sampler CD banks from many competing brands like Akai, E-mu, Kurweil and many more and import them into my DAW. Really cool. The people on my DAW user group complain that they miss that feature, because they are keen to upgrade MacOS and can't easily duplicate that import feature for unmountable CD-ROM sound banks with other strategies and products. That software cost me roughly $400 10 years ago and it is so rich, it's pretty much infinite in creative possibilities. But tech has moved on. I don't have to clog up my new Mac Studio with newer gear and music software purchases. So my Mac Studio is the Video and online machine. No music studio.

I buy newer Apple devices (iPad Pro M1 / Mac Studio M1 Max) to get online for security and I get to play with all the newer stuff. I can use the newer machines to go online and get anything I want for the older machine. But the older machine generally has Ethernet off. It is sandboxed from the world. I'm a nerd and have used Apple products for 40+ years. Frugal Mac computing is underrated. Youtube creator Luke Miani and others have brilliant videos on this topic of frugal computing. But I agree with you, one does have to have something new for the security. That's ok with me, it's still cheaper how I do it, I mix it up.

I bought my Mac Studio (1TB + 32GB RAM) at Apple Refurbished, new with 1 year warranty. And I bought my iPad Pro M1 in "Great Condition" with 2 TB of SSD AND Cell phone radio for a bargain at Amazon Refurbished, which has a very fair return policy. Both devices are still working great. I saved a ton of money and I'm updated for security for going online.

To our peace and creativity! Cheers.

I see a lot of people mentioning that they’re still running older iOS versions on external hard drives with Mac minis, and the reasons for not updating are due to some of the older apps that they enjoy being excluded or terminated from those updates. Therefore, instead of adapting, they’ve just stopped themselves where they were and avoided all future security updates, which by the way can, and will never make sense to me because the implications are disastrous. The whole point of having Apple is for the majority the security. So to me when I hear people saying they’re not updating their security on their iOS services and systems. It blows my mind because you’re eliminating the reason all of the money and sacrifices from iOS are worth it having Apple. If you’re not worried about security updates and you’re just looking for Apple Intelligence, I would like to inform you that there are very strong, much more qualified AI systems out there that are available on external drives that are not Apple iOS. It seems to me people are staying with their old systems because they get comfortable with the programs and a program. So that when Apple decides to better it or in some people’s opinions, worse than by updating or eliminating certain programs and creating others to do the job people are hardwired to the past. It’s like saying I want to be able to help the Earth be more green so how do I make my 20th century Dodge Cummings diesel engine run off of AAA‘s batteries. not trying to be mean but if you want new stuff and you need to be able and willing to update if you buy a coffee maker because it has a creamer adapter, and the next version of that coffee maker does not have a creamer adapter, but you want it because it makes coffee taste better buy the new coffee maker and get your creamer somewhere else. Apple will not allow their new program. It’s still in beta to be available off-line from the cloud onto an external hard drive so that some person can copy the code and install it on their programs in their products. And so cheap knock offs of Apple products with the Apple Intelligence code on it. Just use your external hard drives for backup and update your internal drive for apple intelligence.

It seems like the reason is security but the thing is shouldn’t the user be the one to decide that? Just like if we want to use ChatGPT to augment Apple Intelligence? If encryption is required then they should require the external boot drive be encrypted before being able to enable Apple Intelligence.

Also have a 16GB 2012 Mini booting from external SSD running High Sierra - have not tried Mojave on it, may well be worth a shot for updated security, though some software will cease to function.