open Console.app , start the log stream, and see what it's bitching about. A lot of it is just overzealous logging, but sometimes we'll catch a process or two going crazy. Often they're Apple's processes.
I think the GBs of excessive writes are all logs. But the logs are truncated, so you shouldn't see disk USAGE rise forever, but if it's litterally writing all those logs out to disk (I'm not quite sure it is), that's a lot of busywork that few people ever need or see.
We have a Mac Mini running Big Sur.. still has a spinning HDD and Big Sur GRINDS THAT DRIVE TO DEATH. It got a little better after an update a few months ago, but... it's back. We no longer leave it on 24x7...
Oh, that's a good suggestion, thanks.
🙂 I didn't know if there was a way to see was what creating all these writes. I actually have a suspicion it may be due to unique recent activities or software I've been using since I got my iMac 90 days ago; software I needed to run when setting up and migrating to a new computer. I'll monitor their usage and see if one of them is the culprit.
I'm of the same mind 🙂 My own well used 15" 2011 still runs good as it ever did, even with a known dGPU flaw. I gave up micro analysing my Mac's years ago and got on with using them.
My own M1 MBP from Activity Monitor & Terminal writes no more to the disk than I would expect. The issue of significant writes to the M1 SSD's is a factor for some and no doubt concerning. Personally I believe it's likely due to 3rd party software or all the M1's would be similarly effected.
The solution in my mind is for those suffering this issue is to trace the offending applications, report to the vendor & Apple. I only tend to use my portable Mac's for two years professionally then replace them, so have no concern on battery/SSD life. After that point I re-task them or gift them.
Q-6
Actually, I didn't bother with this over-analysing thing, with both my 2011 MacBook Air and 2016 MacBook Pro, which I still use often, and also with my PCs. I understoodd about SSD spares, lifespan, etc. when building my PC and picking SSDs, and had always used them as much as I can throw at them without these things concerning me too. I'm still very happy with them. 😊
The SSD health wasn't a concern, it was my
hard drives that I was monitoring. I had many external hard drives connected to my MacBooks, and
four died in a period of a year, including one backup and the 2nd back up hard drive (while in the process of backing)
😱. I had used DriveDx before and it flagged errors indicating a low percentage score of hard drive health. Good thing I still had off-site backup.
When I was migrating my stuff over to my iMac, I was monitoring the new hard drives I was restoring to. Having experienced hard drive failure in the midst of restoring, I wanted to be sure things went smoothly. It was only
then I noticed that 99% number on my iMac and the insane amount of writes (38.4TB
😱) in such a short period.
Like many others here say, I should just use and enjoy my new iMac, which I do, it's an amazing device, and it's so speedy.
🙂 I do like to keep my devices, mostly still in use. So that post of mine earlier was more of a concern and possible hassle if it really comes down to having to replace the SSD. In my country, we don't have Apple stores, the closest Apple Authorized Service Provider is 200km away from where I am, and devices may be sent away to Singapore. Hence, my question about warranty and Apple Care. But I guess I should direct these questions to Apple instead.
You're right, it must be a 3rd party software. I'll limit each use and then try them again, and see if it makes unusually high writes (whatever that means/is, lol), and then as you say, report it to the vendor & Apple. Thank you.
