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Beyond relieved that my 2017 MacBook Pro isn’t included in this. I’m a college student and can’t do without my computer and I’m glad I don’t need to worry about losing my files and pictures.
 
I new Apple was trying to boost its TV offering but I have to tell them this is the wrong kind of program :D
Seems to be every week a new program, screen here, ssd there, keyboard here,batteries there...

Must be a bitch for Apple to have to replace the whole motherboard just to change an SSD. What a waste. Apple touts its green credentials yet look at this debacle.
It is just greenwashing.
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...I bet putting Ssd management on the T2 chip had something to do with not being satisfied with the third party SSDs out there...
And little bit of background:
https://www.macworld.com/article/1164533/apples_purchase_of_anobit_would_give_it_a_leg_up_on_rivals.html

"Anobit has produced two generations of its Genesis SSD technology . The intellectual property that sets it apart from other SSD manufacturers is its controller, which uses firmware it calls Memory Signal Processing (MSP), a type of ECC.

Anobit’s MSP technology increases the signal-to-noise ratio, making it possible to continue reading data even as electrical interference rises. The MSP controller technology also extends the endurance of standard consumer-grade multilevel cell (MLC) flash from about 3,000 write/erase cycles to more than 50,000 cycles—making MLC technology suitable for heavy-duty cycle applications, such as relational databases."
 
Thank goodness its not the touchbar version, because my brother would have a lot of trouble on his hands. This is probably another reason to stay away from the cheap entry level versions of Apple products; Apple never seems to put their heart and soul into it.
 
Well, considering the SSD is soldered, I would highly recommend literally nuking (i.e., 7-pass security erase) your SSD before handing it over to Apple. Unless, of course, you don't mind the Geniuses or something else making a backup of your SSD beforehand.... (Sorry, I just don't trust "repair" services, whether from Apple or anyone else.)
 
What's this going to be called? SSD gate? And the iPhone X with its display problems.

The problems seem to keep piling up. From the speakers to overheating to breathe wrongly and your laptop/phone will probably give up on you. Keyboard is well documented.

At least Apple is owning up and addressing some of the problems.
 
Well, considering the SSD is soldered, I would highly recommend literally nuking (i.e., 7-pass security erase) your SSD before handing it over to Apple. Unless, of course, you don't mind the Geniuses or something else making a backup of your SSD beforehand.... (Sorry, I just don't trust "repair" services, whether from Apple or anyone else.)

The only thing a multi-pass “security erase” will do for an SSD is shorten its lifespan quicker. Those multi-pass erasure techniques only apply to magnetic media such as HDDs, not SSDs. Writing a bunch of random 1’s and 0’s to an SSD will count toward its TBW spec. Probably not an issue with drives these days having a guarantee of 300+ TBWs, but that’s all you’ll be doing to the SSD with that erase method, after the 1st pass.

An ATA Secure Erase utility will be good enough for an SSD, and is the recommended way to erase them, because you aren’t filing up the cells with 1’s and 0’s (which is still treated as data by the controller.) One command to SSD controller, and *poof* ... the data is usually gone within 10 seconds. There was a time, like 5 or so years ago, where it was not guaranteed with all SSDs, because not every SSD controller out then would respond to the erase command. Those days are long gone now, afaik.
 
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Well, considering the SSD is soldered, I would highly recommend literally nuking (i.e., 7-pass security erase) your SSD before handing it over to Apple.

That's only for magnetic media. For NAND, the industry standard way is via physical destruction such as drilling holes through the chips. Another advantage for using replaceable M.2 SSD instead so it doesn't overly complicate the warranty process while having the peace of mind that your data remains private.
 
Maybe, but I bet the overall failure rates are extremely low in spite of all the negative press, why else would they go in that direction?
The direction that Apple takes is one of cash return. It doesn't matter to Apple that a customer has to pay over a $1000 to have a motherboard replaced when a $100 replacement will do.
 
They get the darwin award instead :D

In all seriousness, anyone doing research will have the data stored on a backed up network drive. Your measly SSD won't hold much research data.
And/or have many degrees of physical backups. Internal RAID, external rolling backup, local-network backup (possibly in a fire proof safe), cloud clone of absolutely irreplicable data, an off-site physical copy swapped weekly or sooner on a major break through.

Too bad Apple makes the first difficulty.
 
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And/or have many degrees of physical backups. Internal RAID, external rolling backup, local-network backup (possibly in a fire proof safe), cloud clone of absolutely irreplicable data, an off-site physical copy swapped weekly or sooner on a major break through.

Too bad Apple makes the first difficulty.
Apple makes a lot of things easier, but that doesn't negate that Apple makes a lot of things more difficult. Especially when that thing is related to repair. I guess Apple isn't very good at design.
 
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...and why isn't this just a user-installable firmware upgrade??????

I get it, a downloadable upgrade that might wipe the SSD is a bit of a danger, but I imagine Apple could get their considerable UX experts on the task of ensuring anyone who's running the update must jump through some real hoops to acknowledge that their data will be wiped...

In systems as complex as modern PCs, mistakes can happen. I'm not upset at Apple (or their SSD suppliers) for this (although admittedly when it comes to user data, QC should be paramount) but I do think it's pretty crappy to require you to haul yourself to an Apple store just so some drone can install a firmware update.

But hey, in some alternate universe, Apple is shipping out replacement SSDs to their customers, along with tools, instructions and a Thunderbolt-to-SSD enclosure to make the replacement process painless. Oh, and they're giving you the firmware update anyway and letting you keep the Thunderbolt enclosure and the original SSD as compensation for the inconvenience. (I can dream, I guess...)
 
I bought my ntb in Jan 2017 and the SSD/logic board failed and had to be replaced in Feb 2017 (thankfully Best Buy covered the repairs). I wonder how accurate June actually is.
 
Beyond relieved that my 2017 MacBook Pro isn’t included in this. I’m a college student and can’t do without my computer and I’m glad I don’t need to worry about losing my files and pictures.
You should always be worried about losing data and backup regularly. An SSD or HDD can fail at any time.
 
my drive already failed while updating to Mojave. They ended up replacing the SSD but also the logic board! The guy said even though the SSD was separate that it might be paired to the logic board (some sort of software lock possibly I have no idea maybe he didn't know what he was talking about)
 
This is probably another reason to stay away from the cheap entry level versions of Apple products; Apple never seems to put their heart and soul into it.

Sorry but this is horrible advice. If you can’t trust a manufacturer to put out products that work consistently across the board, then you can’t trust that manufacturer, period. It seems you’re trying to justify something else.

And I don’t know where you’re coming from with “cheap entry level versions” - this is the MacBook Pro, I.e. their best, most premium line of computers. Using your metrics the iPhone X, w-high had a recall issued just yesterday, is a cheap entry level version, and so are all versions of the MacBook Pro Retina since 2013, since those were recalled as well.

If anything, the “cheap entry versions” of Apple products are the most reliable since they use tried and true technology (see iPhone SE, old MacBook Air).
 
Damn, my MBP is eligible for this. A bit crazy having data loss is the worst that can happen although I back up my important files..
 
My October 2017 256GB MacBook Pro 13" has "APPLE SSD AP0256J".

Entering the serial number says it's not eligible for service.
 
This is actually a disaster for Apple. They now should reconsider, to build hardware with interchangeable components, mainly SSDs, RAMs, CPUs.


It should be an integral part of their product philosophy just like the design and recyclability.
 
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