Completely Uninstalling Apple Intelligence on iPhone 16 Pro

[rm5]

I noticed on my iPhone 16 Pro by looking under General > iPhone Storage > System Data that Apple Intelligence is taking up 5.7 GB of storage alone, excluding the rest of the system (17.3 GB total consumed by system files). I am by no means running out of storage, I still have around 96 GB available, but it is INCREDIBLY irksome how Apple Intelligence is just lingering there taking up nearly 6 GB, when I have it disabled and no intention of using it. Is there a way to completely disable it such that the files are removed? I tried the "disable then wait a week" method to no avail.

I also did not give iOS my permission to download Apple Intelligence, it just did on its own without my interaction. It also seems to re-enable itself after every iOS update.

 

[russell_314]

I don’t think there’s currently any way to remove portions of the iOS operating system. It’s like it’s not possible to remove Siri. Even if you turn Siri off, that just turns it off without actually removing the components.

Maybe look into jailbreaking methods? I know that makes some modifications possible but I’m not sure about Apple Intelligence

 

[Ctrlos]

It is now part of the OS whether we like it or not. The Photos app also downloads its own data even if you offload all the images to iCloud. Asking Apple to remove OS files is like complaining you can't extract the camera hardware from the phone because you never use it. You don't have to be happy with Apple's decision but ultimately Apple Intelligence is now part of the package.