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Apple's Old-School SuperDrive Is Out of Stock and Unlikely to Return
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I never had digital contents removed for me from Apple or any place
I have. Most of the subscription services I use add and remove media on a regular basis. Netflix is a big one. You might not have lost a song but are you sure you have never lost anything else digital from a service?
I've got an LG model that works perfectly on my Macs, and it's a fraction of the price.
Bought one this winter to rip all my CDs (over 670) and it worked fine.
This isn’t true. I use one with my Studio. However, it has to be connected directly to the Mac; through a dock, macOS complains the device needs more power and to connect directly to an onboard port.
I buy my content from iTunes, I should have been more specific
Lucky you. It does happen and it can happen to anyone nonetheless. I'm not saying it is something that happens often, but I'd rather not even have to worry about it.
I use mine with my M1 iMac and a USB-C to USB-A adapter.
I haven't been recommending anybody buy the Apple drive in years.
3rd party options are less than half the price and have more reliable drives inside. The slot load mechanism is significantly more likely to fail than a tray loader, but if you feel like you must have slot load those are also cheap.
I use optical drives pretty regularly, I'm having to burn something about every few weeks.
3rd party options are less than half the price and have more reliable drives inside. The slot load mechanism is significantly more likely to fail than a tray loader, but if you feel like you must have slot load those are also cheap.
I use optical drives pretty regularly, I'm having to burn something about every few weeks.
Truly the end of an era... even if it was an annoying era, with lots of weird whirring noises. 😔
(I still remember the days of getting Mac OS X upgrades via discs)
(I still remember the days of getting Mac OS X upgrades via discs)
I had one, nice looking hardware. I replaced it with a USB-C Pioneer BDXL unit, which admittedly was more expensive but supports all kinds of Blu-ray and M-Disc.
Oh, SuperDrive, you trusty old mate,
Spinning those discs at a steady rate.
You were the hero of the digital age,
Now you’re retired, out of the tech stage.
Remember the days of burning CDs?
Mixing up tracks with such ease?
You were the DJ, the maestro of tunes,
Now we’ve got playlists and streaming boons.
Installing software? You had our back,
We’d feed you a disc, you’d get right on track.
No Wi-Fi? No problem! You saved the day,
Like a techy knight, in your silver display.
Your hum was a comfort, a nerdy delight,
Though your speed was slower than dial-up at night.
We’d sit and we’d wait, and sometimes curse,
But in the end, you always came through.
You held our memories, backups galore,
With a whir and a click, you’d open the door.
Sure, you were bulky, and let’s not forget,
You’d chomp on our discs like a hungry pet.
Now you’re a relic, a bygone dream,
Replaced by the cloud and the endless stream.
But let’s not forget the fun we had,
Even if sometimes you drove us mad.
Farewell, SuperDrive, you did us proud,
In the hall of fame, you stand tall and loud.
Here’s to the laughs, the spins, and the burns,
Your legacy lives as the tech world turns.
Spinning those discs at a steady rate.
You were the hero of the digital age,
Now you’re retired, out of the tech stage.
Remember the days of burning CDs?
Mixing up tracks with such ease?
You were the DJ, the maestro of tunes,
Now we’ve got playlists and streaming boons.
Installing software? You had our back,
We’d feed you a disc, you’d get right on track.
No Wi-Fi? No problem! You saved the day,
Like a techy knight, in your silver display.
Your hum was a comfort, a nerdy delight,
Though your speed was slower than dial-up at night.
We’d sit and we’d wait, and sometimes curse,
But in the end, you always came through.
You held our memories, backups galore,
With a whir and a click, you’d open the door.
Sure, you were bulky, and let’s not forget,
You’d chomp on our discs like a hungry pet.
Now you’re a relic, a bygone dream,
Replaced by the cloud and the endless stream.
But let’s not forget the fun we had,
Even if sometimes you drove us mad.
Farewell, SuperDrive, you did us proud,
In the hall of fame, you stand tall and loud.
Here’s to the laughs, the spins, and the burns,
Your legacy lives as the tech world turns.
I have Sonoma 14.6 on my iMac, and it works fine with that computer.
Yeah, Mac OS X upgrades (just like Windows) were optical disk-only up to and including 10.6 Snow Leopard in 2009. After the Mac App Store was released in January 2011 in the 10.6.6 update, OSX 10.7 Lion became the first major version to be sold mainly online (a USB stick version was also available on the Apple Store site).
I've got an external Asus Blu-ray RW drive and it works perfectly. No need to use an Apple drive.
This was always a weird device. It didn't work properly on Windows PCs unless you installed the Bootcamp driver kit, which was weird; Apple should have just used the standard USB optical drive driver that comes with every operating system.
Mine died years ago and I never bothered to replace it since I haven't used an optical disc in an age and a half.
Mine died years ago and I never bothered to replace it since I haven't used an optical disc in an age and a half.
Working fine on my M1 Studio Max running 14.6. It also works on my OWC Thunderbolt Dock with OWC’s patch applied.
Old-school is right, given how it still used USB 2.0, and was also kind of unreliable compared to some third-party external disc drives, not to mention costing $80. I have an external USB Blu-ray burner made by MthsTec that costs about the same, and it even has a USB-C plug, in addition to a USB-A 3.0 plug, and it gets the job done very nicely when I want to watch a DVD or Blu-ray, or rip music from a CD.