macOS 15.4 Beta 'Hides' Amount of Storage Used by Apple Intelligence

[MacRumors]

When Apple released the second macOS 15.4 beta earlier this month, the company apparently made a change that means System Settings no longer shows how much local storage space Apple Intelligence features are taking up on a Mac.

In macOS Sequoia 15.3.1, users with a Mac powered by Apple silicon can easily discover how much space any installed Apple Intelligence features are taking up on their drive by going to System Settings ➝ General ➝ Storage, and then clicking the circled "i" button next to macOS.

That hasn't been the case since the beta 2 release of Apple's upcoming macOS Sequoia 15.4 update. As spotted by MacRumors contributor Aaron Perris, when users click the "i" button, no further details are now given to explain the amount of storage that macOS is taking up locally.

However, it turns out that if the user has System Integrity Protection (SIP) disabled, System Settings reliably displays the information again. For those unfamiliar, SIP protects the entire system by preventing the execution of unauthorized code, and can only be disabled by entering Recovery Mode. The ability to disable SIP is useful for developers testing apps, but it is generally not recommended for most users.

According to iOS developer @b3lla_dev, Apple has made the Apple Intelligence assets unable to view unless SIP is disabled. This is apparently having a knock-on effect that makes the System Settings app unable to retrieve the file size of said assets.

Apple Intelligence utilizes something called the MobileAsset framework to manage and deliver its machine learning models and related assets to Apple devices. This framework dynamically downloads and updates the necessary components, ensuring that devices have access to the latest capabilities without requiring comprehensive system updates. According to Apple's support page, the assets for Apple Intelligence require up to 7GB of storage space on iPhones, iPads, and Macs.

When storage is tight, 7GB is a significant amount that is bound to influence users when it comes to deciding whether to enable Apple Intelligence or not. It's not clear if this was a factor in Apple's decision to effectively hide the storage space that its suite of AI features eats up locally, but users will come to their own conclusions.

Perris has submitted a feedback report to Apple to notify them about the change, which persists in the latest beta 3, so we'll have to wait and see what action Apple takes, if any. Apple plans to release macOS Sequoia 15.4 in early April.

Article Link: macOS 15.4 Beta 'Hides' Amount of Storage Used by Apple Intelligence

 

[WarmWinterHat]

Well that is a bit shady... 🤨 Wonder if they will do the same with iOS?

 

[AppleFeller]

I can’t understand if this is a security thing or not. Seems silly to hide it though.

 

[stevemiller]

i'm sure you could debate the minutae of this, but broadly speaking, these don't feel like the actions of someone with confidence in their product.

 

[macfacts]

I predict a $5 app will fill this void.

 

[Mr. Heckles]

This means it will take a lot of space and don’t want people to notice as easily.

 

[nortonandreev]

This means it will take a lot of space and don’t want people to notice as easily.

Either this or people use the amount taken to judge how the development of the feature is going. If hidden, people can't see that little to no progress is being made.

 

[dannys1]

I mean that is a TINY LLM model - it's probably only 3 billion parameters. Well, I assume less as this also includes their image generation model too doesn't it?

We can't even really see how well their tiny LLM works as there's no way to interact with it and there's no way to test it - all it does at the moment that daft summary notifications.

 

[Moka Akashiya]

Tim Cook realized he was losing billions on 16GB RAM upgrades and ordered developers to fill up your 256GB SSD so you'd want to upgrade to a larger storage faster!

 

[wanha]

Could not care less about this.

What I do care about is actually having some genuine AI baked into the operating system instead of childish and/or highly limited functionality at the outskirts.

Hope Apple is able to deliver at some point, although this article makes it seem they might be solving a problem there that no one has been able to crack yet.

Is it crackable? I sure hope so.

Otherwise, not sure Apple is going to do with AI.

 

[wanha]

I mean that is a TINY LLM model - it's probably only 3 billion parameters. Well, I assume less as this also includes their image generation model too doesn't it?

We can't even really see how well their tiny LLM works as there's no way to interact with it and there's no way to test it - all it does at the moment that daft summary notifications.

It also does proof reading and rewriting, which is what I've mainly used so far (but even then, it's hardly a very nice UX)

 

[arcite]

Apple shoving AI down our throats....and yet, there is still very little legitimate uses for it.

 

[arcite]

I predict a $5 app will fill this void.

Whatever happened to freeware?

 

[SactoGuy18]

Just as long as Apple Intelligence doesn't hog more than 15 GB on local storage on a Mac, that shouldn't be an issue (mostly).

 

[segfaultdotorg]

It will use no storage on your phone once you get an iThink Pro neural implant.

 

[Paradoxally]

It takes no storage on my device, because I turn it off. It's useless anyway.

 

[Etc_]

Whatever happened to freeware?

It got replaced by subscription-based apps. And honestly, I largely blame Apple for this, they pushed subscription models onto both developers and users. Even the most basic, rarely updated apps now come with a $0.99 subscription.

 

[mikebenton]

Apple shoving AI down our throats....and yet, there is still very little legitimate uses for it.

If only there was a way to turn it off 🤔

 

[brofkand]

Whatever happened to freeware?

You have to pay a tribute to Apple so they will notarize your apps, otherwise the Mac will claim the app is damaged and refuse to open it. Someone has to pay that tribute.

 

[coffeemilktea]

Is this a bug... or an intentional "feature?" 🤫

...also, I imagine the amount taken up will only increase as more features get added to Apple Intelligence and the models get larger and more advanced.

 

[bhirt37]

Just as long as Apple Intelligence doesn't hog more than 15 GB on local storage on a Mac, that shouldn't be an issue (mostly).

Considering they’re stingy with base storage options, 15G is over 10% of many entry-level configurations. That’s ridiculous. Not the model size, machines with 256 GB of storage.

 

[Chungry]

Is this a bug... or an intentional "feature?" 🤫

...also, I imagine the amount taken up will only increase as more features get added to Apple Intelligence and the models get larger and more advanced.

Knowing Apple's software quality as of late, could go either way.

 

[nt5672]

Just remember that any Apple computer that you purchase belongs to Apple, not you. You have no right to know exactly what is going on with it.

 

[Siliconguy]

It takes no storage on my device, because I turn it off.

Are you sure about that? When I downgraded back to Sonoma I reclaimed 40 GB of space. I can explain about 10 GB of that. Was there that much in obsolete system updates still in the system? This is a M1 MacBook Air that came with Big Sur, so maybe. But it could be AI cruft downloaded on the sly too.

I'll be on Sonoma for the next year. Feel free to explore the bleeding edge on my behalf and report in.

 

[Mr_Ed]

If only there was a way to turn it off 🤔

Correct. But when you do turn it off, does Apple give any indication or assurance that relevant resources are released on your device and free for you to use?

This report makes Apple look like they are being less than forthright with customers. Shady.