The latest iOS 27 update has introduced an unexpected storage issue for some iPhone users: Apple Intelligence, the company's new suite of AI features, is reportedly consuming a significant portion of internal storage. Reports indicate that this allocation can range from 9GB to as much as 16GB on affected devices.
This problem is particularly frustrating for users who cannot access Apple Intelligence in their region but still see their available storage diminish after updating. Even disabling Apple Intelligence or Siri directly does not appear to free up the occupied space.
Why Apple Intelligence is Using So Much Space
According to reports from GSMArena, the storage consumption affects users globally, including those in areas where Apple Intelligence is not yet supported. Older iPhone models or those with lower storage capacities, such as certain 128GB iPhone 16s, are disproportionately impacted, with iOS and AI features together potentially taking up nearly 30% of total storage, in addition to space reserved for system updates.
Attempting to change the country or region associated with an Apple Account is not a recommended solution, as it involves complications like canceling subscriptions or spending remaining account balances.
How to Reduce Apple Intelligence Storage
A workaround identified by Reddit users and validated by GSMArena offers a temporary solution to reduce Apple Intelligence's storage footprint to approximately 100MB. This method involves changing Siri's language settings:
- Navigate to Siri's language settings on your iPhone.
- Select an unsupported English variant, such as English (Canada), English (Ireland), English (South Africa), or English (New Zealand).
- Restart your iPhone.
GSMArena tested this fix with English (South Africa) and confirmed that it resolved the storage issue. It's important to note that Apple Intelligence features are typically functional only when both the device and Siri languages are set to US or UK English. Therefore, switching to an unsupported language may disable some AI functionalities.
This is a user-discovered workaround, not an official fix from Apple. While it frees up considerable storage, it does not eliminate the allocation entirely. With users encountering these storage challenges, some observers note that Apple has been increasingly promoting its iCloud storage service as a solution for data backup and expansion.