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iOS 18.1 region limitation loophole

G

gusnyc

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Sep 18, 2007
354
39
New York City
Hello!
I have 2 iPads and 1 iPhone. I reside in the US and I have all of my accounts in the US. Currently I am in Europe and after installing 18.1 I received the message that Apple Intelligence “is not available in your country or region.”

I turned on Surfshark VPN, turned off location services and I was able to sign in the waiting list and get Apple intelligence in the 13 inch iPad. Unfortunately, I followed the same steps with the 11 inch iPad and the iPhone but I am still getting the message that is not available in my region.

I don’t understand how this loophole worked on the 13 inch and not on the other devices. I’ve tried switching off cellular, turning on Airplane mode, logging in and out of the Surfshark VPN but I am still locked out of signing in Apple Intelligence on those devices. Any suggestions?

Thank you!
 
Same issue here .. unlocked just fine on my Mac by changing the region but still not available on my iPad and iPhone 😞
 
I’m in the UK and it worked fine. Set it like this?
 

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I managed to get it and am in the UK.

I did the following;

1. Set phone Region to USA
2. Updated again to iOS 18.1 via macOS (option + update to select the IPSW)

If you haven’t yet updated to iOS 18.1 I would suggest changing your region to USA prior to updating
 
I’m travelling and currently in Spain, I wonder if even when you change your setting and are in the eu It doesn’t work
 
I think your device gets blacklisted if you enter the EU and then you can't turn it on. If you're just in the UK for example you should be able to get it to work.
 
There are two things at play here:

  1. Apple requires anyone using Apple Intelligence to set the device and Siri language to US-English and the region to US. This likely relates to the developmental state of the foundation models being used right now; and
  2. Apple likely has geofenced off the EU countries and China as “no go” locations regardless of what your language / region settings are.
Non-US users in countries other than EU nations and China can access Apple Intelligence simply by doing Step 1 above. A pain but it gets you in the door.

Users in the EU and China, regardless of the device language / region settings likely cannot access Apple Intelligence (or 18.1) at all while in those physical locations (though I am not clear if a VPN can overcome that or not). That is probably true because Apple has allowed non-US users to gain access by following Step 1 (for legitimate development reasons). But Apple Intelligence may (or in the case of China, would) violate local law and Apple can’t distinguish US users traveling abroad from local users who are going the Step 1 route. So, they just aren’t allowing it at all out of an abundance of caution.
 
lazygolfer666 said:
Was wondering the same since Im in Spain for a month lol
Click to expand...
Me too, for a month in Spain. I was able to install it in the 13 inch iPad and the MacBook Pro, but not in the 11 inch iPad and iPhone.

For the first two I used Surfshark VPN and it work. My region and accounts are US based, so I didn’t have to change those settings.

I don’t understand how the 13 inch iPad allowed me to sign in for Apple intelligence but the 11 and iPhone won’t do it.
 
Last edited:
Been trying everything except using an app store account in the US as this mess a lot of stuff for doing it in the past (apple music removes all downloaded music, subscriptions do go a bit wonky etc...).

Wish there was a clear way to get it as right after the installation, I already had all the right settings in US but still said not available in my region :(
 
Been trying from Spain changing language and region, with VPN in device, in access point... Nothing works.
 
gusnyc said:
Me too, for a month in Spain. I was able to install it in the 13 inch iPad and the MacBook Pro, but not in the 11 inch iPad and iPhone.

For the first two I used Surfshark VPN and it work. My region and accounts are US based, so I didn’t have to change those settings.

I don’t understand how the 13 inch iPad allowed me to sign I for app,e intelligence but the 11 and iPhone won’t do it.
Click to expand...
Especially in your case it feels like there's another small setting/feature that needs to be changed in order to make it work, same with me - in the EU on travel for another month but can't enable AI...
 
zbugrkx said:
Been trying everything except using an app store account in the US as this mess a lot of stuff for doing it in the past (apple music removes all downloaded music, subscriptions do go a bit wonky etc...).

Wish there was a clear way to get it as right after the installation, I already had all the right settings in US but still said not available in my region :(
Click to expand...
I tried the US account, didn’t work either. Do have it on my Macs though and so far I’m not impressed and happy to wait.
 
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Im a user in Germany with iPad Pro 11” and M4 Chip. What I have tried:

1, Install 18.1 from 18 Release 4 (all settings and accounts with “german” and local appstore/icloud account)
2, Of course got the Region error
3, switched appstore to US account - nope
4, switched region and language (also Siri) to US - nope
5, Switched also iCloud account to us - nope
6, iPad restart - nope
7, Switched on NordVPN set to Los Angeles- nope


I don’t get it, usually these things work.
 
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Paddle1 said:
I think your device gets blacklisted if you enter the EU and then you can't turn it on. If you're just in the UK for example you should be able to get it to work.
Click to expand...
Black listed? That’s extreme. It’s just an EU block due to regulations.
 
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