Should you’ve lately picked up considered one of this yr’s new iPhone fashions and have been shocked by their seeming lack of Apple Intelligence, there’s some excellent news, because it seems like Apple has resolved this subject — and we didn’t even have to attend for an iOS replace to get it.
Even in iOS 26, Apple Intelligence stays a function that customers must choose into. Because the AI language fashions (LLMs) that energy Apple Intelligence are fairly massive, Apple doesn’t preinstall them on new iPhones or embrace them as a part of its core working system. As a substitute, they’re downloaded from Apple’s servers when Apple Intelligence is enabled, both by responding to a immediate throughout preliminary setup or toggling on the change within the iPhone Settings app. This manner, house isn’t needlessly wasted for individuals who don’t have any use for Apple’s AI options.
This yr’s iPhone fashions have been no exception; they shipped with out the LLMs preinstalled. Nevertheless, for causes that aren’t fully clear, some iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Professional, and iPhone 17 Professional Max fashions — in addition to Apple’s new iPhone Air — have been unable to obtain the mandatory information, both throughout preliminary setup and even after toggling Apple Intelligence on and off a number of occasions.
The issue didn’t seem to have an effect on all new iPhones, which made it much more mysterious — and irritating — for individuals who discovered themselves locked out of Apple Intelligence. These affected have been unable to make use of Apple Intelligence since buying their new iPhones — a scenario that’s each disappointing and considerably ironic, provided that Apple has usually marketed it as a serious promoting level for the iPhone.
When iOS 26.0.1 didn’t resolve the difficulty, many feared they’d have to attend till the tip of October for the discharge of iOS 26.1 to achieve entry to Apple Intelligence.
Fortuitously, it doesn’t seem that the issue was on the iPhone aspect. Because the fashions are downloaded immediately from Apple’s servers, Apple was probably in a position to right the difficulty remotely — probably by adjusting availability or authentication parameters for the mannequin downloads.
The repair was reported by MacRumors, after contributor Aaron Perris found that they’re now in a position to obtain the mandatory AI fashions.
Apple has simply rolled out a server-sided repair for iPhone 17 fashions that couldn’t obtain Apple Intelligence fashions. pic.twitter.com/QlpdhBmN0l— Aaron (@aaronp613) October 7, 2025
The right way to Repair Apple Intelligence Mannequin Obtain Points on iPhone
There’s nothing particular that must be carried out on the iPhone aspect to activate this repair, though it might be essential to toggle Apple Intelligence off and again on once more if it’s at the moment sitting in a state the place it’s caught:
- Open the Settings app in your iPhone.
- Choose Apple Intelligence & Siri.
- If Apple Intelligence is off, toggle it on. If this setting is already enabled and no error messages are displayed, it means the AI fashions have been probably robotically downloaded after the repair was made, and you need to be able to go. If an error message seems right here, toggle Apple Intelligence off, wait a couple of seconds, after which toggle it again on once more.
In some circumstances, it might even be essential to restart your iPhone earlier than re-enabling Apple Intelligence.
Remember the fact that the Apple Intelligence fashions will take a while to obtain. Since we’re speaking about a number of gigabytes of information, it’s additionally greatest to do that over a fairly quick Wi-Fi connection. Apple doesn’t technically say that Wi-Fi is required — merely “really useful” — however we’ve seen quite a few experiences suggesting that they received’t obtain correctly over mobile, even when utilizing a quick 5G connection. Even over Wi-Fi, the complete obtain can take anyplace from a number of minutes to over an hour, relying in your web pace, so don’t be shocked if enabling Apple Intelligence takes some time.