Life expetancy - M1 SSD - Apple's policy

[stigman]

I know this topic has been brought up many times and estimated lifetime were given based on other SSD's using TLC technology, but I keep asking myself this question: Why APPLE can't provide us info on how long their SSDs may last?
Actually we may acquire this info from other brands while purchasing SSD which gives us estimated numbers and usually 5 YEARS WARRANTY and let us rest easy without worrying about data. That also means that we can prepare ourself for transfering our files to new SSD if lifespan reaches its limits.
That even becomes more serious if M1 uses swap method in excsessive numbers compared to older macbook's. Actually that's a thing which worries me as I have base model MBP. I need to tweak macOS using extensions to reduce swap in order to prolong my SSD life. Here comes a question: was it intended from APPLE to rely on swap knowing it may affect lifespan of SSD significantly?
If so, that put as at greater risk without any help to save our data in case of disk failure. That's not user friendly policy at all and it may even be some trigger anxiety factor.
I like this machine and its performance, but I can't stand how APPLE treats users not giving us a choice in case of ssd failure.

 

[theluggage]

Why APPLE can't provide us info on how long their SSDs may last?

Probably because it is a complete piece of string that depends almost entirely on how often and how much the SSD gets written to - and these are general-purpose computers that see a huge variety of workloads. If you look at the thread on the “data written to SD” concern, you’ll see a 10x or more variance in the totals being reported (although there is an offchance that the utility being used there is reporting garbage).

Not defending Apple’s decision to solder in the SSD here (soldering in the part of the system most likely to fail = dumb) - in fact, the unpredictability is what makes that extra dumb. But quoting a lifetime would be a huge hostage to fortune (just put the SSD on a ruddy daughterboard in anything larger than an Air, D’Oh!)