Why is Apple Intelligence stuck on "Preparing" on my M1 MacBook?

There have been many discussions here on this very subject.

Some users have suggested setting the region to the United States and the language to English U.S.

What has worked for me?

First and foremost, you must establish your connection to a WiFi network 🛜, not simply a mobile hotspot.

If Apple Intelligence is stuck on your Mac:

1. Open Settings ➢ General ➢ Storage.
2. Scroll to the bottom and double-click ⚙️ macOS.
3. Apple Intelligence should be fully downloaded if it reads: 4.94 GB.

Now, go directly to Settings ➢ Apple Intelligence & Siri and you should find the prompt or switch to toggle on Apple Intelligence.

Please provide any feedback if this has helped so we can all learn from this.

Good Luck! 👋🏼😉

Just found a solution that worked for me.

Language was set to an invisible null option in a dropdown. Clicking on it made it look like I was set to English, but I wasn't. Also my "Voice" was locked on British-1 with no other options,. Trying to select English(US) will give you an error, and you'll have to back out and come back in. BUT then if you select say French(Canada), it will disable your Apple Intelligence Options. Then you can set the language back to English(US) which will bring back the Apple Intelligence dropdown. Once enabled you'll click through the startup boxes and then it's just fine. You'll even have the voice options back (multiples of American, Australian, British, Indian, Irish and South African).

[Edited by Moderator]

I found a solution on reddit that worked for me!!!

Go into the Siri and AI setting panel.

Language was set to an invisible null option in a dropdown.

Clicking on it made it look like it was set to "English", but it wasn't. Also my "Voice" was locked on British-1 with no other options.

What you have to do is reset the Language to anything that isn't English(US). Trying to select English(US) will give you an error, and you'll have to back out and come back in. BUT then if you select say French(Canada), it will disable your Apple Intelligence Options. Then you can set the language back to English(US) which will bring back the Apple Intelligence dropdown. Now you'll be able to turn the Apple Intelligence switch on and it should just go. Once enabled you'll click through the startup boxes and then it's just fine. You'll even have the voice options back (multiples of American, Australian, British, Indian, Irish and South African).

After trying most of the suggestions on this thread I called Apple Care (I have a new Mini M4, running Mac OS 15.1.1). Agent directed me to Settings/Apple Intelligence & Siri/ Language; then select Arabic (or any other language) from pull-down list; message will indicate that AI is not available. Then go back to Language and select English (United States). Selection was accepted (whereas previous attempts were not) and AI was turned on.

My Apple Intelligence on two of my 'Mac's was stuck in the “preparing” phase for the last two weeks. Tried all the suggestions posted here, none of them worked for me. I contacted Apple Care, but they had no clue why this was happening.

I decided to take a full Time Machine backup, then factory reset my Mac, and restored it from the backup. And voila, within five minutes, I got a prompt to activate my Apple Intelligence—now it’s activated.

I repeated the same with my second device, and it worked this time too.

Both my M3 MacBook Pro and my son's M1 MacBook Air were stuck on "Preparing" since the day 15.1 came out. Nothing worked. So last night I did full Time Machine backups of both machines, did a reset and then a restore, and voila. Suddenly Apple Intelligence was ready to turn on after maybe 5-10 minutes back in action.

It could have been much worse if Time Machine wasn't so brilliant. 45 minutes later and it was like nothing even happened even though I had nuked my computer lol

I finally went to the nuclear option: I did a full Time Machine backup, factory reset and then restored from the back-up. And that did the trick. (2024 Mac Air M3.)

I did notice when I went to the Voice option under Apple Intelligence and Siri, that it used to be just a greyed out circle and after the reset, it looked like it was downloading something (the circle filled up in a clockwise direction.) So maybe the voices were not really downloaded before? Dunno.

FYI: Under General, Storage, macOS, I am still showing 4.43, yet new Siri is working.

But it works!!! Only took 3 and a half weeks!

I reluctantly did the reset and restore from full Time Machine backup and it worked. First question to “smarter” Siri?

“Hey Siri, what took you so long?”

“I’m not sure I understand.”

🤣

Thanks for all the help here everyone.

To Rick Rush and everyone posting here with your download not working:

I would like to recommend trying another Wifi network. 🛜

You can always use the free WiFi network at your local Apple Retail Store.

Good Luck! 👋🏼😉

I also went ahead and performed a factory reset on my Mac M1. After running the upgrade to Sequoia, Apple Intelligence is up and running.

It appears that the download stopped for some reason.

Have you restarted the Mac and the WiFi network?

⇡ You are on a waiting list. ⇣

Once your time has arrived, Apple Intelligence should be available to you.

Where are you located?

What can we do if #3, "Apple Intelligence should be fully downloaded if it reads: 4.94 GB" is not 4.94? Mine says 4.43. Its been stuck on preparing for well over a week. MacBook Air M3, just purchased last month. Thanks.

Yes, Smilin-Brian, I've restarted both, again today and multiple times before today, including trying wifi hot-spot. Also changed languages, regions, and voices multiple times. Toggled Siri on and off. The only thing I can think of that I haven't tried is connecting to another Wifi network, as I don't have one available and would have to take computer to library or a friend's house. Other than that, I guess I'm waiting for 15.2 to come out, hoping it will trigger something. I'm not going to go to the extent of resetting computer just for this. (BTW, I am in US and my computer has always been in US.) thanks.