Apple software update “bug” enables Apple Intelligence

February 10 2025

Some people who had previously disabled Apple Intelligence in macOS 15.3 and iOS 18.3 saw it re-enabled after updating to macOS 15.3.1 and iOS 18.3.1 today. In fact I personally have two different Apple silicon Macs running macOS Sequoia, and after I updated both Macs to 15.3.1, Apple Intelligence was re-enabled on my MacBook Pro but not on my Mac mini. The difference in behavior appears to depend on whether the Setup Assistant and welcome screen is displayed after the update. On my MacBook Pro, but not my Mac mini, I saw the Setup Assistant.

This is essentially an advertisement for Apple Intelligence, with no option to enable or disable it. After pressing the Continue button, I saw the macOS welcome screen, which required me to press Continue a second time.

After I was logged into my user account, I opened System Settings and checked whether Apple Intelligence was enabled. It was, contrary to my previous setting before the macOS 15.3.1 update.

My iPhone and iPad aren’t new enough to support Apple Intelligence, and I didn’t see the welcome screen on either device, but security researcher Will Dormann experienced the issue on iOS:

People who updated to iOS 18.3.1 today: Did you see a “Welcome” screen on reboot, and subsequently also an Apple Intelligence screen that automatically turns it on?

Out of my two iPhone devices (on two different Apple accounts), both of them got the multiple-language welcome screen. The one that was new enough to support Apple Intelligence also got the Apple Intelligence screen, which turned it on.

Out of my two iPhone-owning coworkers who responded, NEITHER of them got the welcome screen.

I also noticed a Reddit post and comments about this issue:

My iphone 15 pro max showed the welcome screen for apple intelligence like 18.3 and it turned itself back on. On the iPad (M4 11″) it didn’t show the screen and didn’t turn it on.

Needless to say, Apple re-enabling Apple Intelligence is user-hostile and annoying. It’s reminiscent of how Apple re-enabled Bluetooth on every OS update on purpose. Amazingly, though, after several years, Apple appears to have finally fixed that Bluetooth issue in macOS 15 and iOS 18. Unfortunately, it also appears that Apple replaced Bluetooth re-enabling by Apple Intelligence re-enabling, so we users never come out ahead.

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