How to turn off autocomplete in pages

Question

Level 1

8 points

How to turn off autocomplete in pages

I tried the answers to this: turn off autocomplete in pages - Apple Community

but that didn't work. I never consented to this and can't find a way to turn it off.

I have so many questions.

Is this LLM local? Or is it sending to the cloud? Is it sending the entire document to Apple's servers? How do I turn this BS off??

I'm editing an unpublished novel and this is extremely invasive and a breach of my privacy, something I never explicitly consented to (just cuz I clicked update...that's some shady "consent".). I just opened the document after not touching it for a few months and then tried to make one edit but the MF robot is trying to tell me how to finish the sentence. That is unacceptable, especially since I didn't agree to have an LLM process my writing. Very concerning about what is happening to my data.

Posted on Mar 28, 2025 6:01 AM

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Answer 1

VikingOSX

Level 10

119,591 points

Mar 28, 2025 8:27 AM in response to smcalilly

smcalilly wrote:

Thank you for helping me fix the issue in system settings, but all of my concerns still stand. Apple users hoodwinked into this feature have every right to be concerned about the privacy issue, because it's unclear how this feature uses our data.

Are you OK with Apple processing every sentence you write through an LLM hosted on their servers? I'm not. And I'm very unhappy when I go to do my work and I'm confronted with that possibility, when in the past I've never had that issue.

The first thing I turned off was this sentence auto-completion nonsense. Once it is turned off, I give it no further thought. Apple does not indicate in Get typing suggestions and correct mistakes on Mac - Apple Support that any Pages content is sent to their servers. You are focusing on a non-issue as far as I am concerned. Just focus on writing now that inline predictive text is disabled.

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Answer 2

VikingOSX

Level 10

119,591 points

Mar 28, 2025 7:11 AM in response to smcalilly

You can use any word-processing application that you want as owning a Mac does not mean you must use Pages.

That sentence autocompletion feature arrived in Sonoma, perhaps even Ventura, though I don't have the latter installed to verify. Not to be confused with spelling auto-correction which was word-based and has been a feature in Pages for years.

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Answer 3

VikingOSX

Level 10

119,591 points

Mar 28, 2025 7:52 AM in response to smcalilly

This recent sentence autocomplete feature is a default system setting in recent releases of macOS and is unrelated to any AI enablement. It has caught many Pages users off guard. If it is enabled where I indicated, then Pages will use it. Otherwise, not. Don't jump to conclusions about it being a privacy invasion or your content being sent to any Apple cloud service.

Let the weeping stop. You fixed the issue in System Settings… 😉

No Apple employees participate here to read or respond to your post. It is strictly a fellow user-supported, public community.

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Answer 4

VikingOSX

Level 10

119,591 points

Mar 28, 2025 8:54 AM in response to smcalilly

Defensive of what? There is absolutely nothing beyond fixing that System Setting that I can do for you and I do not wish to subscribe to your reasoning that your privacy is being invaded or shared by Apple.

Back to writing. Life is far too short…

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Answer 5

VikingOSX

Level 10

119,591 points

Mar 28, 2025 6:45 AM in response to smcalilly

That link had nothing to do with fixing the autocompletion of sentences on Pages v14.3.

With macOS Sequoia v15.3.2, or Sonoma 14.7.4, one visits System Settings > Keyboard > Input Sources [Edit…] and switches off Show Inline Predictive Text. There is no setting in Pages to disable this.

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Answer 6

smcalilly Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 28, 2025 6:58 AM in response to VikingOSX

Thanks!!! I had done that many years ago for iMessage and now they are obfuscating it again. Very annoying. I appreciate your help!

Now we just need to list the different ways to do this in all of the other operating system versions.

> There is no setting in Pages to disable this.

What terrible software design! I can't control autocorrect in my text editor! Makes no sense.

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Answer 7

smcalilly Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 28, 2025 7:45 AM in response to VikingOSX

I'm aware that I can use any word processor for my Mac, that's why I chose Pages.

I've never had autocorrect or autocomplete turned on for any of my apps, so I was unhappy when I used Pages this morning to quickly make some edits to my manuscript so I could send it to somebody. This was supposed to be a quick morning task before I started my other work. But I was confronted with the sentence completion, which is a feature I've never asked for or wanted. This was unexpected behavior from the app. It had never done this in the past. I was justifiably frustrated by this, because what should've been a 5 minute task turned into a 30 minute task trying to learn about and turn off the feature.

One might say, well, why didn't you ignore it for your quick 5 minute task? I can't ignore an invasion of privacy on my original, unpublished work. It's not clear if these models are local or if the data is sent to the cloud. If the LLMs are running on the local machine, then this might be acceptable, but I couldn't find the information easily in Apple documentation nor do I want to go digging during what is supposed to be a quick 5 minute morning task since I never had to deal with this in the past. I cannot do the work until the problem is resolved. Since they are most likely not local models, it brings the question: WHAT PARTS OF MY MANUSCRIPT ARE BEING SENT TO THE CLOUD? WHAT ARE THEY DOING WITH THIS?? I NEVER CONSENTED TO THIS!!! I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT AI!!!! I USE AI, TOO!!! JUST NOT FOR THIS SUPER SPECIFIC USE CASE!!! I AM A WRITER!!! I DON'T NEED THAT!!!!!

Therefore I find myself on this community forum, weeping.

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Answer 8

smcalilly Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 28, 2025 8:09 AM in response to VikingOSX

Thank you for helping me fix the issue in system settings, but all of my concerns still stand. Apple users hoodwinked into this feature have every right to be concerned about the privacy issue, because it's unclear how this feature uses our data.

Are you OK with Apple processing every sentence you write through an LLM hosted on their servers? I'm not. And I'm very unhappy when I go to do my work and I'm confronted with that possibility, when in the past I've never had that issue.