M1 ssd problem?

[raindog90]

Hi,

I ordered a macbook air m1 couple of hours ago. An hour ago i came across the m1 ssd lifespan issue.
Some say that Apple fixed it, others say that it is still a major concern.
What's the truth about it?.
Should i cancel my order?.
This is my first mac ever, and i always thought that mac lasts for years... . I don't want my mac to collepse after an year or two (i will be using it mainly for music production)

 

[Mr Screech]

After the 11.4 update it got fixed. So unless you have an insane amount of TBW per project you'll be fine. Worst case scenario, you'll get an external thunderbolt ssd and either boot from it of direct all caches towards it.

 

[mi7chy]

If you're worried about endurance get the larger capacity SSD since endurance is higher with increasing size.

 

[GoetzPhil]

When ordering the M1 machines you should always invest in the 2TB internal SSD - as these are blazing fast!
Even the OWC Evony T3 cant reach those speeds - but costs same. So at this moment you cant do wrong with paying the price at Apple for 2TB.

Thats the speed of my 24" iMac internal SSD...

 

[Toutou]

you should always invest in the 2TB internal SSD

you cant do wrong with paying the price at Apple for 2TB

What the hell, are you being serious? That's $800 more for something most people don't need and quite possibly can't afford, and which will fetch only marginally better resale value. That's borderline financial illiteracy.

 

[GoetzPhil]

What the hell, are you being serious? That's $800 more for something most people don't need and quite possibly can't afford, and which will fetch only marginally better resale value. That's borderline financial illiteracy.

Some people need speed more than others...

 

[leman]

Some say that Apple fixed it, others say that it is still a major concern.
What's the truth about it?.

The truth about it is that there hasn’t been a single confirmed report of an M1 SSD failing (and they should be failing in troves after a year of excessive writes). The entire things was quite odd anyway, some people were affected and some were not, but even those affected did not see any dips in the projected SSD lifespan. If I remember correctly, an Apple engineer has claimed that there was never any issue with excessive writes, but just a bug with data reporting which they say they have fixed. I don’t remember seeing reports of excessive data writes afterwards.

Anyway, indirect evidence suggests that Apple SSDs have significantly higher endurance than usual consumer SSDs. I don’t think we ever had a Mac SSD fail on us, and we have dozens of employees with fairly intense disk workloads.

When ordering the M1 machines you should always invest in the 2TB internal SSD - as these are blazing fast!

A highly dubious advice. Why pay this much money for something almost nobody needs?

 

[Digitalguy]

This issue has been exaggerated. It mainly affects people with the entry level model that use a lot of RAM (people who think that 8GB in a M1 Macbook is equivalent to 16GB, which is not, and therefore use a lot of swap).
If you use a lot of RAM, get the 16GB device and that's all. Get a large SSD only if, in addition to RAM, you write ton of data to your internal drive regularly

 

[Agrailag]

I have m1 air with 16gb ram/ 1Tb ssd.

Last time i checked it in august TBW on mac was ~ 430 Gb (i didnt use it hard). After it was usually in sleep mode and didnt work on it about month. Now i checked TBW again - its ~820 Gb. And a lot still from kernel_task.

Also it was also after 11.4 update.

 

[Serban55]

Until now if this was a real issues, a lot of mac mini M1 servers that are running with different project and segments 24/7 would have failed after 3-4 months

 

[JoshTheLegend]

Everything aside, the rumored MacBook event is right around the corner. Are you sure you don't wanna wait for a few more days?

I bought my m1 MBA (16gb+1TB model) back in January. I used mine mainly for photoshop and DaVinci Resolve. I checked just now. Data units read on it was around 30TB and data units written was around 27TB. Honestly I do concern about this issue, but I don't think there is anything we can do.

I don't know if music production costs lots of ram, if it does, go for the 16gb ram model. Before Apple increases the m series processors' capacity for ram (like up to 32gb or 64gb with those intel models), that swap thing will still happen, just a matter of frequency and severity. So just back up your important files occasionally.

 

[Agrailag]

Before Apple increases the m series processors' capacity for ram (like up to 32gb or 64gb with those intel models), that swap thing will still happen

How it will help if kernel_task do a lot of r/w?

 

[leman]

Everything aside, the rumored MacBook event is right around the corner. Are you sure you don't wanna wait for a few more days?

I bought my m1 MBA (16gb+1TB model) back in January. I used mine mainly for photoshop and DaVinci Resolve. I checked just now. Data units read on it was around 30TB and data units written was around 27TB. Honestly I do concern about this issue, but I don't think there is anything we can do.

I don't know if music production costs lots of ram, if it does, go for the 16gb ram model. Before Apple increases the m series processors' capacity for ram (like up to 32gb or 64gb with those intel models), that swap thing will still happen, just a matter of frequency and severity. So just back up your important files occasionally.

It was never confirmed that swap had anything to do with it. Your usage is certainly way above average, but it probably makes sense if you work with video files, as these things tend to be large (but even then 2.7 TB/month sounds excessive unless you work with high-res uncompressed data). Still, even with this level of writes, you are looking at at least 10 years of writes before the SSD endurance will even remotely become an issue.

 

[osplo]

Not my case, after 10 months my SSD is like brand new. It hasn't even written 4 times its capacity (1TB here, 16 GB RAM).

I think that there were a few people affected because:

1) macOS related reasons, fixed long ago,
2) non-M1 versions of software such as Adobe's or Microsoft's, which is also fixed now,
3) people with 8 GB of memory opening 500+ (I'm not making this up) browser tabs at once and complaining of disk writes caused by swapping,
4) probably a couple of defective SSD chips - extremely rare.

In my view this is a non-issue today but you can play with your machine for a week and check the Units Written to see the trends with your real use.

There is a huge thread regarding this thing. Go there if you want the details and even a free tool to check Units Written (instead of buying DriveDx).

 

[satcomer]

if you real best speeds for get SSDs and build yourself an NVME external on your quickest port right here and get the speeds you need!

 

[Fishrrman]

OP's concern is why I would advise getting 16gb of RAM with ANY m-series CPU (instead of 8).

I sense that the main cause of the excessive disk writing with the m-series comes from continuous VM disk swapping (page ins, page outs) to the SSD. Rosetta2 may also have something to do with it.

16gb may not end the disk swapping, but it could slow it down somewhat.

My opinion only.
Others will disagree.
Some will disagree vehemently.

 

[JoshTheLegend]

It was never confirmed that swap had anything to do with it. Your usage is certainly way above average, but it probably makes sense if you work with video files, as these things tend to be large (but even then 2.7 TB/month sounds excessive unless you work with high-res uncompressed data). Still, even with this level of writes, you are looking at at least 10 years of writes before the SSD endurance will even remotely become an issue.

And that's why it's called an issue. I didn't use it excessively. I don't do photography or videography for a living. I work on a Thinkpad and play games on a windows desktop. Macbook is kinda like a little toy for me to get out of the windows world once in a while. That's also why I went for the air model. That thing was always sleeping during weekdays from Jan to May. I didn't start editing video until late May when I got my 50GM. I know the math indicates there is still a long time before the SSD breaks, but I am not risking those photos and videos on it. And if OP is planning to use it for work, I think he/she should know the risks too. That's why I think he/she should wait for a couple more days. At least this will not be an issue on those new models, hopefully.

 

[leman]

That thing was always sleeping during weekdays from Jan to May. I didn't start editing video until late May when I got my 50GM.

Which macOS version are you on? When did you update to 11.4?

I know the math indicates there is still a long time before the SSD breaks, but I am not risking those photos and videos on it.

Any SSD (and any computer) can fail at any moment. I surely hope you have a backup of your main machine. Speaking of which, how much TBW does your Thinkpad show? You should keep in mind that consumer SSDs used in your Thinkpad likely has lower endurance than Apple SSDs.

 

[JoshTheLegend]

Which macOS version are you on? When did you update to 11.4?



Any SSD (and any computer) can fail at any moment. I surely hope you have a backup of your main machine. Speaking of which, how much TBW does your Thinkpad show? You should keep in mind that consumer SSDs used in your Thinkpad likely has lower endurance than Apple SSDs.

I am always on the latest version of macOS. Now I am on developer beta.

Well I don't care a bit about that on the Thinkpad haha. That's a computer from the firm and basically everything is on cloud. It breaks or not, won't matter. Actually I kinda want it to break, then I can get a new laptop right away and I don't have to wait for the three-year cycle.