M1 Mac Users Report Excessive SSD Wear

[Roxy.music]

More issues for the M1 Macs .This time using cheap USB hubs. don,t buy cheap hubs.
Sweet cat in the video.

 

[flopticalcube]

More issues for the M1 Macs .This time using cheap USB hubs. don,t buy cheap hubs.
Sweet cat in the video.

Addressed in 11.2.2

 

[tollickd]

In a word, yes.

Thank you!!! if the laptop lasts more than 4 years with normal wear and tear I would be happy!

 

[MarvinRouge]

I have a MacBook Air 8Gb/512. I'm at over 100TB read and written after 60 days of normal use (Safari, Mail, Slack, Keynote, some messaging apps).

After doing a bit of testing, I can reproduce the problem consistently just by opening my normal apps and visiting memory heavy sites such as Facebook or Google Drive. As soon as the swap reaches 4-5Gb, kernel_task starts writing 500Mb-2Gb per second.

I contacted Apple support, the first person asked me to try to use the laptop in safe mode and reinstall. Did it, no change.

The second person I got acknowledged the problem, said that definitely looked abnormal and escalated to a more senior person that said that it was totally normal and he wouldn't be worried if that happened to his own laptop...

I just called Apple so the problem would be documented, I hope that can help them see the issue, acknowledge and fix it if enough of us contact them.

My laptop's drive SMART info says 3% used, in two months. If we just do the maths, that means the disk could start failing after 5,5 years. Of course, it might not, it's just numbers.
But I'm definitely pissed I'm one of the few having this issue while other users have a few Tb read/written in the same timeframe. Now I'm afraid of using too many apps at the same time, I'm closing tabs all the time...

 

[wirtandi]

I have a MacBook Air 8Gb/512. I'm at over 100TB read and written after 60 days of normal use (Safari, Mail, Slack, Keynote, some messaging apps).

After doing a bit of testing, I can reproduce the problem consistently just by opening my normal apps and visiting memory heavy sites such as Facebook or Google Drive. As soon as the swap reaches 4-5Gb, kernel_task starts writing 500Mb-2Gb per second.

I contacted Apple support, the first person asked me to try to use the laptop in safe mode and reinstall. Did it, no change.

The second person I got acknowledged the problem, said that definitely looked abnormal and escalated to a more senior person that said that it was totally normal and he wouldn't be worried if that happened to his own laptop...

I just called Apple so the problem would be documented, I hope that can help them see the issue, acknowledge and fix it if enough of us contact them.

My laptop's drive SMART info says 3% used, in two months. If we just do the maths, that means the disk could start failing after 5,5 years. Of course, it might not, it's just numbers.
But I'm definitely pissed I'm one of the few having this issue while other users have a few Tb read/written in the same timeframe. Now I'm afraid of using too many apps at the same time, I'm closing tabs all the time...

Thank you for reporting to Apple about this. The more reports, the more attention this will bring so apple will finally hopefully release an official statement

 

[toke lahti]

It has boiled down to that single question it seems. Pretty much every SSD makers these days log the Data Units Written column of SMART records in 1,000 of 512 Byte (512,000 Byte). A SMART reading utility particularly ones with GUI just do simple division and give you the meaningful conventional number unit, in this case TB (TeraBytes). One has to ask if Apple, given their SoC is now double duty as an SSD controller, also reports those numbers with the same base math. If it logs with a smaller increment, this explain the magnitude of seemingly high wear levels since the calculation would be inversely larger.

Okay!
I originally planned to use 2TB hdd with those parts of my homedir that doesn't need speed (Movies, Music, Pictures) with mini2018. Then I learned that Apple doesn't "support" this.

This hdd is always on and plugged to my mini.
It has 16996 hours in SMART.
(Seagate FireCuda 2.5 ST2000LX001-1RG174)

And Total_LBAs_Written is 8707455762.
Which then translates to 8707455762 * 512000 / 10^12= 4458 Tbytes written? Maybe not...

 

[Roxy.music]

Thank you!!! if the laptop lasts more than 4 years with normal wear and tear I would be happy!

If it is a Mac it should last a lot longer than 4 years?

 

[toke lahti]

Most phones with FM use the headphone as an antenna. Remove the jack, remove the antenna.

Argument of not using the FM radio in a chip, because of wireless headphones is a valid argument TODAY.
It was not walid argument when Apple did it.
Hardly no-one was using bt headphones back then.

 

[seadragon]

Thank you for reporting to Apple about this. The more reports, the more attention this will bring so apple will finally hopefully release an official statement

If it is a Mac it should last a lot longer than 4 years?

Exactly... my 2010 MBP is still functional and usable. My main computer is a 2009 Mac Pro which I use daily for photo processing and music production. If 4 years is considered good for Macs now, our expectations have indeed sunk to a new low. Should get a good decade outta these machines.

 

[toke lahti]

Exactly... my 2010 MBP is still functional and usable. My main computer is a 2009 Mac Pro which I use daily for photo processing and music production. If 4 years is considered good for Macs now, our expectations have indeed sunk to a new low. Should get a good decade outta these machines.

The saddest thing here is, that average mac user doesn't understand, that the resale value of macs has dropped and will drop more. It will still take some years that those who sell now mac with 4GB of ram, will understand that if they buy a used mac in 2021, it should have 16GB of ram to be nice in 2025. They have to first buy the used mac by themselves and notice the need after few years.

The dropped resale value will affect in Apple's brand with a delay.
I've been wondering how to buy an used mbp with soldered ran & ssd, when most of the sellers can't tell what is the remaining lifespan of the ssd...
For the short time, Apple will sell more new macs.
And if they keep dropping the prices, because they avoid the intel tax, everybody are quite happy. Except the enviroment issues of throwawayism.

Or most mac buyers don't even care about resale value anymore...
("Hardly no-one buys a used mac anymore...")

 

[Maximara]

The saddest thing here is, that average mac user doesn't understand, that the resale value of macs has dropped and will drop more. It will still take some years that those who sell now mac with 4GB of ram, will understand that if they buy a used mac in 2021, it should have 16GB of ram to be nice in 2025. They have to first buy the used mac by themselves and notice the need after few years.

The dropped resale value will affect in Apple's brand with a delay.
I've been wondering how to buy an used mbp with soldered ran & ssd, when most of the sellers can't tell what is the remaining lifespan of the ssd...

Considering Apple has been using soldered SSD since at least 2017 I find it interesting the only now are people worrying about the RAM and SSD being soldered on the logic board: "Bottom line is you can't upgrade the SSD or anything on that model as RAM and storage are both soldered onto the logic board."

For the short time, Apple will sell more new macs.
And if they keep dropping the prices, because they avoid the intel tax, everybody are quite happy. Except the enviroment issues of throwawayism.

Replaceable SSD are just as much apart of that "throwawayism" as what Apple is doing. Heck every replaceable part has much the same throwawayism" issue because what one do with the old part? Why throw it away.

Or most mac buyers don't even care about resale value anymore...
("Hardly no-one buys a used mac anymore...")

I doubt this as there is a clear way around the soldered SSD issue - it's called boot from an external SSD.

 

[flopticalcube]

Considering Apple has been using soldered SSD since at least 2017 I find it interesting the only now are people worrying about the RAM and SSD being soldered on the logic board: "Bottom line is you can't upgrade the SSD or anything on that model as RAM and storage are both soldered onto the logic board."

Replaceable SSD are just as much apart of that "throwawayism" as what Apple is doing. Heck every replaceable part has much the same throwawayism" issue because what one do with the old part? Why throw it away.

I doubt this as there is a clear way around the soldered SSD issue - it's called boot from an external SSD.

I can see a promising market in a "permanently" attached TB3 hub with a built-in NVMe drive for the laptops.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Replaceable SSD are just as much apart of that "throwawayism" as what Apple is doing. Heck every replaceable part has much the same throwawayism" issue because what one do with the old part? Why throw it away.

ikr? Maybe it’s the “amount” of throwawayism that’s the problem. They want to be able to throw away more in the form of lots different bits over time. LOL

 

[Phantom iCloud tabs]

There is still no confirmation that the numbers produced by these various ssd diagnostic programs is accurate. I would wait until there is more news before concluding some of the things I'm seeing in this thread.

 

[kc9hzn]

More issues for the M1 Macs .This time using cheap USB hubs. don,t buy cheap hubs.
Sweet cat in the video.

That’s more of a USB-C issue that’s not really unique to M1 Macs or even Macs. There’s a whole raft of incorrectly wired cheap USB-C cables that’ll fry just about any device that requires more than 5V, 2A. Heck, there are cables out there that claim to be USB 3 (or even USB-C) that electrically are just USB 2 cables with a different physical connector. USB is a bit of a mess right now, and cheap component manufacturers who don’t build to spec are a large part of the issue.

Edit: Well that, and large household name retailers that don’t actually do any QA on the products sold through their storefronts or any (or only minimal) vetting of the third sellers whose products they sell. As a result, cheap, even fraudulent, crap is more available than it’s ever been, used to be you had to go into that dodgy import store in [insert-ethnic-community] or a dodgy electronics store like Crazy Eddie’s to buy that kind of junk.

 

[tollickd]

 

[SeanGold]

I am at 92TB written and I've had this machine for only 30 days so far. I too am worried about using my machine with Lightroom and other editing apps for fear of doing damage to my SSD before an update is released. But I also can't avoid using these apps indefinitely. Quite frustrating.

 

[rhett7660]

Thank you!!! if the laptop lasts more than 4 years with normal wear and tear I would be happy!

I have a 2011 MBP that I replaced the HD to SSD about seven years ago and it is my daily driver. It is getting long in the tooth, but for what I do, it works like a charm. Knock on wood no video or MB issues... knocking really hard right now lol

 

[vcsyc]

I am at 92TB written and I've had this machine for only 30 days so far. I too am worried about using my machine with Lightroom and other editing apps for fear of doing damage to my SSD before an update is released. But I also can't avoid using these apps indefinitely. Quite frustrating.
View attachment 1738543

What’s your SSD size?
And how the percentage is calculated?

Somebody posted in other thread that he has -10% with 150TBW. On 256GB machine.
And and yous is 9% for 90TBW.
Whats the math?

 

[jsamuelson]

Sorry for butting in to this thread with a non-M1 mac, but these are my results, do they indicate that my SSD in my launch-day MacBook is vulnerable to failing, with 0% available spare threshold? Thanks!

Maybe useful as a comparison - bought this in 2015 and 54 TB written since then. Some people are reporting more than that in a month or so...

This is a 512GB drive.

SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED
SMART/Health Information (NVMe Log 0x02)
Critical Warning: 0x00
Temperature: 38 Celsius
Available Spare: 100%
Available Spare Threshold: 0%
Percentage Used: 6%
Data Units Read: 105,929,946 [54.2 TB]
Data Units Written: 47,418,948 [24.2 TB]
Host Read Commands: 3,801,377,821
Host Write Commands: 925,922,299
Controller Busy Time: 0
Power Cycles: 2,680
Power On Hours: 1,204
Unsafe Shutdowns: 45
Media and Data Integrity Errors: 0
Error Information Log Entries: 0

 

[SeanGold]

What’s your SSD size?
And how the percentage is calculated?

Somebody posted in other thread that he has -10% with 150TBW. On 256GB machine.
And and yous is 9% for 90TBW.
Whats the math?

Mine is a 8GB/256GB M1 Air

 

[pdoherty]

There is still no confirmation that the numbers produced by these various ssd diagnostic programs is accurate. I would wait until there is more news before concluding some of the things I'm seeing in this thread.

How likely does it seem that misreading what’s been standard across disk controllers an disk drives for years is the issue? I’d say it‘s not likely at all.

 

[flopticalcube]

How likely does it seem that misreading what’s been standard across disk controllers an disk drives for years is the issue? I’d say it‘s not likely at all.

Not likely but then the M1 NVMe controller is part of the M1, so maybe it has some "Apple Magic" that the software is misreading.

 

[Phantom iCloud tabs]

How likely does it seem that misreading what’s been standard across disk controllers an disk drives for years is the issue? I’d say it‘s not likely at all.

I will just quote a line from the initial article: "The reported wear is so extreme on some M1 Macs that it suggests the problem is due to a bug rather than the expected behavior of the M1 chip, but it is unclear if the problem pertains to erroneous readings or macOS genuinely writing vast amounts of data to the drive."

 

[jdb8167]

Not likely but then the M1 NVMe controller is part of the M1, so maybe it has some "Apple Magic" that the software is misreading.

The software uses official MacOS IOKit APIs to retrieve the SMART data. If there is some “magic” involved it is a bug in MacOS. Not impossible but unlikely since all available data from multiple sources on the same computer are in agreement. You can correlate the writes of the SSD between the Finder, Activity Monitor, and smartctl (third party smartmontools) very easily.