When Should You Upgrade to Apple’s OS 27 Releases?

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I’d go farther and say those are two separate issues and at the moment are both missing. The master switch is the first thing we need added. But then, just because you turn off the AI master toggle, does not necessarily mean you would regain the space (even if you never use Safari and select another default browser, it’s still going to always occupy disk space). So you’d also need a means to tell macOS to purge all AI related stuff once you have turned that toggle off.

There might be a temptation to consider that once such a master toggle is turned off, macOS can auto-remove all models, but I’m not sure that’s always what the user really would want. If somebody wants to test things, it hardly makes sense to delete and then download again from scratch a 30 GB payload every time they flick that switch.

Either way, IMHO first of all, we need a master toggle for all things Apple Intelligence. Not just Siri.

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I sent Feedback to Apple several days ago asking for an Off switch.

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Yes I found out the hard way! I had been just managing my M4 Mini with 256GB, which had typically 60GB free. Updated to Golden Gate and this became 30GB. I had been mulling trading this in before, but GG was the straw that broke the camels back. Now have a 1TB M5 MacBook Air instead.

Also concerned about my wife’s 128GB iPhone 16pro.

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I’ll take this as a good opportunity to remind everybody that it’s usually a good idea to leave about 20% of your SSD capacity unused. Both macOS and SSD controllers need excess bits available to perform housekeeping and ensure the cells (floating gate transistors) that do get used to store your data are actually alive and healthy.

On a 256 GB Mac, once free space dwindles below 60GB, you should start to consider either getting rid of files, upgrading your storage, or, if that’s not an option for that Mac and its SSD, getting a new Mac. As painful as that might sound, you don’t want to risk your data or your system’s stability because things became too tight.

(I apply the same rule to my iPhone too.)

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Wondering if there’s a way to block the mandatory GG AI download using using Little Snitch..?

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I don’t use Little Snitch so can’t say. I think that the newer devices are downloading more data for features that don’t work on older devices. My M1 Air shows near 16GB for AI on Golden Gate where others have stated much higher storage.

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I updated both my watch and phone this week, leaving my Mac to run Tahoe until a few dot updates pass. First impression was nothing much had changed, everything seemed more or less normal, but it hasn’t been all perfect.

First off, sleep score notifications can take several minutes to arrive, whereas on the previous version it was a few seconds. Not a big deal, it just seemed off.

Maps seems worse, Siri much the same. “Get me directions to Stockton Beach” became “I can’t get directions to Stockbridge” - multiple times. We manually entered an address and when we went to ‘End Route’ it froze completely. When it finally came back to life, it spun a globe on screen, eventually stopping with Australia displayed upside down - which some might argue is comically correct.

My greater concern is my Series 11 Watch. At the gym yesterday, doing a normal workout, it froze and all attempts to get it back failed. It then appeared to reboot the workout - screen black except for a spinning workout icon - and then it eventually returned with the original workout still running.

More concerning, today I had a legitimately hard fall, climbing over some rocks on the beach. I caught my toe and fell HARD onto my knee, hand and forearm - also damaging the camera I was carrying. Despite having fall detection on - nothing. No alert, no attempt to call for assistance. This is the same watch which thinks I’ve fallen when throwing a long pass in touch football, or when I light up the field with a sparking side-step. Multiple times it has started to call our ‘000’ emergency number which has me fumbling to stop it.

I appreciate it can’t detect every fall, but this was EASILY the hardest fall I’ve ever had, and I genuinely thought I’d broken something in my knee. Now sitting in my hotel room with ice strapped on my leg, I’m wondering about the effectiveness of fall detection, or if perhaps the update is the cause. I’m sceptical when it alerts doing normal activity, but fails to detect a genuinely hard fall. I’m glad I didn’t hit my head, I could still be lying there (I was alone).

If I had the option, I would wind them both back to OS26.

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Behold! It appears that someone has come up with an Open Source tool that toggles off Apple Intelligence under Golden Gate – along with the up-to-30 GB of models that goes along with it:

https://arstechnica.com/apple/2026/10/command-line-tool-quickly-removes-apple-intelligence-from-macos-27/

That said, I agree with those above who say Apple should have kept the Apple Intelligence All-In-One Kill Switch in Golden Gate.

Removing macOS AI in 27
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OK, I have installed 26 on the 2020 iMac I’m setting up to replace the 2011 iMac and also on my TurboTax Deluxe only M2-MacBook Air.

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For years, the family’s general attitude was to stick with whatever Apple OS a device came with, and only upgrade when necessary: when Apple stopped issuing security releases for that OS.

Although that has turned out to be problematic: it’s not always clear when Apple will stop providing security releases; if you want to use the Apple device with another, newer device which runs a newer OS version, they generally work better together if both have OS’s of the same vintage; and sometimes you may simply want features in a newer OS.

So we’ve generally gone to waiting a few months before a new Apple OS comes out – after we know there are no initial problem with it, and after it has some security releases. In other words: rather than updating to OS N when it first comes out, wait until N.1 or N.2 (or at least N.0.something).

Now Apple OS 27 has progressed to 27.0.1 at least, and 27.1/2 are in late beta test and look to be released real soon. Most of the issues people seem to have are apparently with Apple AI aka Siri AI. Since that’s a separate additional install, I’ve started updating various family members’ Apple devices to 27 – all of which were on 26. I found:

A few devices that will not update to 27. I expected the Intel Macs; but not the various older iPhones and iPads.

A number of devices (iPhones & iPads, plus an Apple TV) that would update to 27, but do not qualify for Siri AI. No issues updating those to 27. No one was terribly disappointed when I told them that they won’t be able to use Siri AI on their device. I also told them to be sure to keep backing their device up, because someday they might want to, or need (if device lost, stolen, damaged, etc.) to replace it.

Only a few devices could update to 27 and use Siri AI. All the Apple silicon Macs, but surprisingly only one iPhone (along with an Apple Watch used with it). In each case, I did the 27 update, but did not install/start Siri Ai. No problems with any of these systems so far.

[Okay, I did subsequently try Siri Ai on my own M2 Mac mini; and I’ve subsequently turned it off, though some of the extra disk space Siri AI takes up (roughly 10GB) lingers.]

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I write this article each year to answer some of those questions ahead of time:

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