Some Mac users want to turn off Siri on their Mac maybe because they don’t tend to use it, or maybe because they prefer to use it just on their iPhone or iPad. Whatever the reason may be, it is a fairly simple task to disable Siri on your iPhone and totally remove traces of it from the menubar or touch bar. It’s an equally easy process to get it back by re-enabling Siri in case you want to give it another chance.
A few days ago one of our followers direct messaged us on Twitter asking us for help, it was a rather simple query but very unusual. The follower was feeling distracted and disturbed by the inbuilt Apple voice assistant Siri, he was being annoyed by his kids repeatedly activating Siri and disturbing him. For this reason, he wanted to totally get rid of Siri as it was not possible to get rid of his kids. Although a fairly simple and straightforward process, some feel that it’s a little hidden in the settings and find it hard to locate the setting and turn it on. Here is a guide to disable Siri in case you’re going through a similar problem as our subscriber or have one of your own, and if you ever feel like giving Siri a second chance and try it again, there’s a guide to re-enable the service at the bottom of the post.
How to disable Siri on Mac:
First, go to the Apple menu and choose “System Preferences” and then choose “Siri” from the list of control panel options. Here untick the box next to “Enable Ask Siri” and then close System Preferences window.
With the Siri service now disabled, the Menu icon is removed, the Dock icon is hidden and if you have a New MacBook Pro with the touch bar then the Siri icon is removed from the touch bar as well. Siri is also disabled and cannot be used without manually activating it again.
How to re-enable Siri on Mac:
For some reason, if you plan to give Siri another try and use it again, it is not possible to do so without manually re-enabling it again from the system preferences. To do so, follow the steps below.
Go to the Apple menu and choose “System Preferences” and Choose “Siri” from the control panels to open the page having its’s settings. Now, tick the box next to “Enable Ask Siri”
This should re-enable Siri and it will be ready to use. Do note that if you disable Siri, all its wonderful features and voice commands will also get disabled.