Delay in Apple Intelligence setup on M1 iMac after Sequoia 15.1 update

I had the same issue at first. I had no options to change the voice. I think I the tried to change the language but that was also an issue. I can’t remember exactly what I did but try changing the language to English UK or English Singapore and the have to English American. Then they changing the voice. Try it a few different ways. Sorry I don’t remember the exact sequence.

Wow, just after sending my response to this thread, I found solution. I did some addition searching are tried a solution that worked for someone else. Go to Settings>Apple Intelligence & Siri. Change the Language to English (United States) and change Voice to something else and then back. AI immediately became available!

Had the same problem. Tried all the work arounds via Apple Community, and genius.

Here’s what worked for me: Back up your Mac with an external drive using Time Machine, then erase it. Go through the setup process, but don’t restore your Mac until after you’ve downloaded the latest OS version and Apple Intelligence. Once you’ve done that and verified it’s working, use Migration Assistant to completely restore your Mac.

It might take some time to restore - depending on the speed of your external device and how many files need to be transferred over, but this was much better than remaining frustrated and waiting for the next update to fix the issue.

Yes, updated my macbook pro m1pro 2 days ago when it came out to Sequoia 15.1. Still says preparing and I chatted with apple support why my apple intelligence still wasn't available. She didn't really have an answer and said it is beta and alot of people may be trying to activate it at same time and could slow down network. But it said 4 hours and mine is sitll not on. Not sure why

Mine has been stuck on “Preparing” for 48 hours now and says I’ll be notified once it’s available for my Mac. I chatted with Apple Support yesterday who said nothing is wrong and I should probably see it sometime today.

You may want to consider counting your blessings.

Apple Intelligence is installed and running my 2021, 16 GB, 1TB SSD, M1 iMac.

Since then, my iMac has been continuously indexing and is so slow it’s almost useless.

I have lots of memory and free disk space (most room being free in both cases). And Time Machine is constantly failing or is also very, very slow. Most processes, like backups, which normally take minutes take an hour or more or (fail altogether).

I have the same issue. Mine has been "preparing" since 10/28 (so 4 days now). I spoke to Apple support and they had no idea so they escalated to a senior advisor. I got the same feedback. Ton's of people are trying to upgrade so you just need to wait. That was on 10/29. I am still waiting.....................

This is exactly what I had to do as well and it worked.

1. Backed up to Time Machine

2. Used Disk Utility to erase the drive

3. Used Recover Utility to reinstall macOS (Sonoma)

4. Updated to the latest macOS Sequoia 15.1.

5. Verified Apple Intelligence was installed and working.

6. Used Migration Assistant to transfer my info from Time Machine.

Here are the steps I took to resolve it:

1. Backed up to Time Machine

2. Used Disk Utility to erase the drive

3. Used Recover Utility to reinstall macOS (Sonoma)

4. Updated to the latest macOS Sequoia 15.1.

5. Verified Apple Intelligence was installed and working.

6. Used Migration Assistant to transfer my info from Time Machine.