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Still no flush microSD adapter for Mx series…?

navaira

navaira

macrumors 601
Original poster
May 28, 2015
4,076
5,264
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Hi all,

the Black Friday deals are here, for 512 GB models. There is no way I can possibly fit all that I need (my Air M1 is my only computer) on 512 GB. So, I decided to use a microSD card for less used data… and I’m stumped.

I’ve had a flush enclosure for microSD for my… was it 2015 MBP that still had a SD slot? I can only find two ways to expand MBP M4 storage that don’t involve the card sticking out. One is a Transcend Jetdrive that fails after a year or so because it wasn’t made to be used :p and the other is a BaseQi adapter that apparently loves breaking into literal pieces, especially when inside the computer, and some microSD cards won’t even fit in it (or it won’t fit inside the SD slot with the card in).

It’s been, what, four years with the Mx Pros and there is no other solution that would allow me to add storage and be flush with the laptop…? SanDisk Extreme Pro 1TB is €114 as compared to Apple’s €230 and there’s a lot of data I need *sometimes* which doesn’t need high transfer speeds… but if I have something that sticks out of the slot, I am guaranteed to find a way to break it.
 
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jlc1978 said:
I have a slightly older version that has not had any physical problems. I do have an intermittent issue with SD Cards not being mounted, but I have that issue with various adapters.
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Which Macbook Pro do you use? If this fits the M4 Pro and doesn’t really downgrade speeds to USB 2.0 (like some reviews say) I don’t care about the colour :)

Edit: I’ve read more reviews and they say it doesn’t support UHD-II. I don’t care too much about speed as long as I can keep my iTunes library (I mostly stream anyway) and documents on it, but some reviews say 6 MB/s and others 83 MB/s (read speed).
 
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navaira said:
Which Macbook Pro do you use? If this fits the M4 Pro and doesn’t really downgrade speeds to USB 2.0 (like some reviews say) I don’t care about the colour :)

Edit: I’ve read more reviews and they say it doesn’t support UHD-II. I don’t care too much about speed as long as I can keep my iTunes library (I mostly stream anyway) and documents on it, but some reviews say 6 MB/s and others 83 MB/s (read speed).
Click to expand...
M3 Pro Max. Never worried about speeds since all I use it for as CCC backup and QRecall.
 
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dmccloud said:
I have been using that adapter in my MBP for almost a year and a half and haven't had any issues with it. I also keep it in the machine most of the time rather than continually inserting and removing it from the machine.
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It has a good average and possibly people are more likely to come and post negative reviews than positive ones – it works, what’s there to talk about – but there are 10% of 1* reviews and the photos frankly scare me… I’m glad you have a good experience! I also don’t plan to remove it once it’s in, just treat it as an extra drive.

What microSD card do you have? Some reviews mention that there are slightly thicker/thinner cards available. The transfer speed interests me less than whether I’m going to end up breaking a €2000 machine…
 
They should just switch from SD to microSD port, then it would fit flush with no adapter. Full-size SD card sticking out of the side makes the port useless for memory expansion. full-size SD cards aren't used much anymore anyway.
 
nucl30us_m said:
They should just switch from SD to microSD port, then it would fit flush with no adapter. Full-size SD card sticking out of the side makes the port useless for memory expansion. full-size SD cards aren't used much anymore anyway.
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While it would be useful, they'd either have to add some sort of ejection method or let it stick out fr removal.
 
nucl30us_m said:
They should just switch from SD to microSD port, then it would fit flush with no adapter. Full-size SD card sticking out of the side makes the port useless for memory expansion. full-size SD cards aren't used much anymore anyway.
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Just a Micro SD card slot would be useless for professional photographers. Virtually all cameras use full-sized SD cards.
 
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My hub has a microSD card slot and the card sticks out about 1 mm – I press on it and it ejects. But Apple’s business is not to make it easy to expand storage for 1/4 of their prices, the card slot is for photographers, as @Janichsan says. It’s Macbook Pro, not Macbook Oh Finally ;)
 
navaira said:
My hub has a microSD card slot and the card sticks out about 1 mm – I press on it and it ejects. But Apple’s business is not to make it easy to expand storage for 1/4 of their prices, the card slot is for photographers,
Click to expand...

While it is useful (although I still use CF) for photographers, it has uses beyond that. I us eit as a backup storage taht automatically backs up files every hour.

navaira said:
as @Janichsan says. It’s Macbook Pro, not Macbook Oh Finally ;)
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The Pro moniker is a marketing distinction, not that it is a 'professional' machine, much like the iPhone and iPad Pros.
 
navaira said:
It has a good average and possibly people are more likely to come and post negative reviews than positive ones – it works, what’s there to talk about – but there are 10% of 1* reviews and the photos frankly scare me… I’m glad you have a good experience! I also don’t plan to remove it once it’s in, just treat it as an extra drive.

What microSD card do you have? Some reviews mention that there are slightly thicker/thinner cards available. The transfer speed interests me less than whether I’m going to end up breaking a €2000 machine…
Click to expand...

I'm using a Teamgroup 1TB MicroSD Card in the BaseQI adapter. It fits perfectly into the adapter, and the adapter itself is standard SD size so there are no issues with fit there.

Teamgroup has some highly rated and popular PC components, such as RAM and both 2.5" and M.2 SSDs, and I personally have not had an issue with any of their products.
 
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Woodstockie said:
Haven’t been able to try it out yet as I ordered the combo just before I left for a trip. Will be back in a couple days to get it going.
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Also looking forward to finding out what read/write speeds you can achieve. I am currently trying to decide whether to return a 1.5TB Sandisk Ultra. Read speed is acceptable, 88.1 MB/s, write is 21.1 MB/s – it takes a minute to copy 1 GB. A 512GB card, also Sandisk Ultra, achieves 29.6 MB/s writing, which also isn’t much to write home about, but 140% of the larger version’s capabilities.

dmccloud said:
I'm using a Teamgroup 1TB MicroSD Card in the BaseQI adapter.
Click to expand...
I can only find up to 512GB here, but may I ask what read/write speeds you are getting? Thanks in advance!

Who knew the adapter would be less of a problem than the card. o_O One thing for sure, I can definitely go with the UHS-I version, I can’t even find UHS-II microSD cards.

Edit: I just found this: https://www.kingston.com/unitedkingdom/en/blog/personal-storage/memory-card-speed-classes and that’s how I learned that Sandisk Ultra guarantees minimum writing speed of 10 MB/s. Gee. I’m lucky that I got 20. Returning it…
 
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Update 12/20 Received the BaseIQ adapter today and get the same results as from the Samsung adapter. So, 90mb read and 75mb write with a Samsung 512GB card.

SD Card.png
 
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Thanks! I am awaiting the UHS-I version @jlc1978 linked to and I got a SanDisk Extreme card – I was thinking of the same Samsung as yours, but 1TB was out of stock. Looking forward to it not sticking out of the side of the laptop!

Screenshot 2024-12-19 at 19.33.24.png
 
Copied today some files over. 4GB just took a couple minutes. Happy with the speeds and it is indeed nice that is sits flush. Changed also the SD icon to a Hard Drive icon, so on the desktop it looks nicer as well.
 
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Woodstockie said:
Copied today some files over. 4GB just took a couple minutes. Happy with the speeds and it is indeed nice that is sits flush. Changed also the SD icon to a Hard Drive icon, so on the desktop it looks nicer as well.
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I thought I’d need Mountain, but it just stays connected and shows as internal drive in Disk Utility – interesting, that! With the previous card it was 1 GB per minute, now I took a few hours and the 1TB card is already half-full. Now, if someone could tell me why I have 148 GB of System Data… but that’s another thread on many other subforums :p
 
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