Upgrading Mac Studio storage

[Wiggly]

Today is day 164 of my order, thats 5 months and 13 days 🔥

You might want to dispute the charge if your credit card company allows and order elsewhere.

I asked for a refund and didn't get a response so I handled through credit card company, credit was issued almost immediately. I wanted to get this from Polysoft but the lack of communication combined with the deceptive practices around fulfillment/shipping ended up being a deal breaker for me. I got a 8TB kit from upgradessd.com, came in two weeks, seller was responsive to emails/questions, and it is working fine. In last post by Gilles he pointed out he is going to source from a place in Shenzen going forward, guessing that is the same place upgradessd.com is sourcing from, not sure about Ali.

 

[E94]

Well I got a shipping update? Interesting, maybe he's coming through

 

[blackwolff]

Hi everyone, and @gilles_polysoft,


I wanted to drop a quick update here. I finally received my 2TB Studio Drive kit today!


While the wait was definitely long, I want to give credit where it's due. The package arrived perfectly, and the Polysoft team included a complimentary iFixit precision toolkit along with a very nice handwritten apology note for the delay. That was a really classy touch and completely made up for the wait.


I must admit, I had a brief moment of panic when I opened the tin and saw only one module inside (labeled "00"), thinking half my order was missing! Thankfully, I actually read the manual right after and realized the 2TB kit only requires the single card. 😅


Despite the initial communication hiccups and delays, I’m really happy with how this turned out. I appreciate the hard work from Gilles and the team, especially given the circumstances they've been dealing with. Looking forward to upgrading my Mac Studio this weekend!


Thanks again!

 

[MrCoBalt]

I wanted to drop a quick update here. I finally received my 2TB Studio Drive kit today!

Not bad, a late-January order in-hand in under three months… Did you get any ship notices/order update emails in the lead up to it arriving?

Alas my late-December order has seen no replies or apparently movement since. I really wish there was a published queue/orderly FIFO system/some apparent method to the madness, but it would appear to remain all somewhat luck of the draw at this point… 🫤

 

[LilyAa]

Only realistic options are honoring the prepaid in januray order, cancel my order and return the money or i chargeback and hit him with a fee. This has become inexcusable at this point.

 

[E94]

I have received my KIT, he even threw in some caramels and a note that said sorry for the delay, I'm planing on installing tomorrow. The kit does look high quality.

 

[E94]

I'd like to get a clearer picture of what's happening, when people ordered what and if they have received something so we get a little bit more insights into what is going on.

If YOU have placed an order, it would be tremendously helpful if you add your information in here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1CVGcJisW6FMgu3y6OT2r2MPXdv-qwCEXk1fTQO-x2HE/edit?usp=sharing

Feel free to adjust things if you think they might be necessary however I believe that might give a good overview.

We might all be pissed it took so long to receive our highly custom drive, but we should also make sure to redeem the seller by remembering to fill this out.

 

[maflynn]

We might all be pissed it took so long to receive our highly custom drive, but we should also make sure to redeem the seller by remembering to fill this out.

There is no redemption for a seller if he takes months to fulfill an order that was marketed as in stock, takes extended amounts of times to respond to customers, and is largely invisible in the support systems he advertises on his website

 

[trickyswitch]

There is no redemption for a seller if he takes months to fulfill an order that was marketed as in stock, takes extended amounts of times to respond to customers, and is largely invisible in the support systems he advertises on his website

I decided to stop back in to this thread on a whim, and honestly I can't believe people are still ordering from Polysoft, if they have so much as glanced at the tracking spreadsheet or read a few pages of this thread. You can easily order from reputable AliExpress sellers for the same price and have your drive in a week, with multiple users here sharing positive experiences from the Ali sellers.

That said, I do empathize with the people that ordered first, and then saw the backlog problems and unanswered customer service requests reported here after Polysoft had their money. It does not sound like the wait time or the customer service has improved, and the same long-running excuses are still being offered whenever Gilles decides to drop in here. I remember over 6 months ago when he said he was hiring someone dedicated to responding to customer inquiries. It certainly doesn't sound like that happened, but this is of little surprise to anyone that read through the whole saga here.

Good luck to all. If you actually need your drive kit in a normal amount of time, the best thing you can do for yourself is to file a chargeback with your credit card company and place an order with the AliExpress sellers.

One last note: the claim on Polysoft's latest "delivery update" on the shop's front page is misleading. Competitors are not selling 8TB drives for $1500 (USD, I assume.) AliExpress has 8TB kits listed for $1209 today; Polysoft is $1389 with an unknown shipping date and poor-to-zero response to customer inquiries.

 

[rafale77]

One last note: the claim on Polysoft's latest "delivery update" on the shop's front page is misleading. Competitors are not selling 8TB drives for $1500 (USD, I assume.) AliExpress has 8TB kits listed for $1209 today; Polysoft is $1389 with an unknown shipping date and poor-to-zero response to customer inquiries.

When that $1500 claim appeared, I ordered mine (8TB M4) from Ali for $1020 Vs the $1035 from Polysoft website. The claim was ludicrous then and still is now.

 

[MrCoBalt]

We might all be pissed it took so long to receive our highly custom drive, but we should also make sure to redeem the seller by remembering to fill this out.

Hmm… that's an interesting new usage of the word "redeem" when your order for a single-blade 2TB module took 140 days to arrive.

PS - I added your "Received At" date to the tracking spreadsheet as well (index #64) but just extrapolated from when you posted, so you may want to update if it's incorrect. Wouldn't want folks to get the wrong idea about how long an order might take to get to them…

 

[matthiaswanninger]

Hi,

just tested yesterday an upgrade of a plain basic MacStudio M1 Max (2022) from 512GB to 4TB.

and it works :

• take off the 512 GB NAND
• insert in the right order the two 2TB NANDs inside the slots
• restaure the MacStudio bridgeOS with another Mac and AppleConfigurator
• et voilà !

View attachment 2112393

View attachment 2112392


View attachment 2112396

View attachment 2112398

View attachment 2112389

View attachment 2112387



In my tests I have measured the write speed of both configs :


View attachment 2112391

single 512 GB NAND card starts at 4.09GB/s


View attachment 2112388

after SLC cache is filled, single 512GB NAND stalls at 690MB/s

View attachment 2112390
the pair of 2TB NAND cards starts at 6.91GB/s


View attachment 2112386
once SLC cache is filled write speed goes down to 3.14GB/s


To be noted, if the 2TB NANDs are inserted in the wrong order the AppleConfigurator restauration fails with an error.

View attachment 2112397




Important notes :

replacement or upgrade NAND cards for the Mac Studio are not available anywhere at the present.
Apple does not sell them nor intend to.

One could interpolate what occured with the iMac Pro (2017) and the Mac Pro (2019) and imagine that if Apple ships one day a new Apple Silicon Mac Pro, NAND modules similar to those of the Mac Studio would become available on the market.
This is possible but highly hypothetical.

Nevertheless, NAND daughtercards on the Mac Studio use the exact same configurations as those in the M1 MacBook Pro 14" and 16".
And they also use the exact same BGA110 Nands chips used in the iPhone 11 to 13 and all the M1 and M2 Mac line, which are available on the grey market.
One can already upgrade NANDs on a T2 Intel Mac, or on a M1 or M2 Mac, involving soldering BGA chips.

So it would be possible to build a PCB, solder some BGA NANDs on it (for exemple 4x Kioxia KICM229 make a 2TB NAND daugter card), and program them with a JCID programmer.

but no third party company (like OWC) may ever sold this, because those NANDs are very specific to Apple (they are not regular NANDs, the IC integrate NAND with a custom ARM core linked via a PCIe link to specific lines in the M1 CPU).

And manufacturers like Kioxia or Hynix have exclusive contracts with Apple and are forbidden to sell their BGA 110 Nand production to third-party companies.

Hey Giles I think we should come over to your place and help you. Im waiting since october and it looks like you need support !

 

[MrCoBalt]

With “about a hundred” kits remaining to program and ship, and given that between the March 2 and March 13 posted updates at shop.polysoft.fr only 16 more kits shipped, I am guessing it’s gonna be at least 3 more months until those outstanding orders are cleared.

I think we should come over to your place and help you.

🤔 Maybe not the worst plan, but @gilles_polysoft has never made clear where the hold-ups are coming from these days… Is it the reprogramming, which seems to require desoldering/re-soldering of individual NAND chips? The R/W test passes? The shipping process itself? Are there even enough on-hand stock of the NAND chips and PCBs required to fulfill the order backlog given the supplier contract problems mentioned…?

once I’ve finished clearing out my backlog and restored responsive customer service, I’ll start coming back here to answer questions.

At this point I dunno that anybody has any real “questions” aside from:

• What is the method to the madness?
• How are orders in the queue even tracked?
• Why isn’t there some basic table on the Polysoft homepage with a breakdown of all the kit models/capacities, how many of each type remain to ship, and how many were prepped/packaged/shipped on day X?

Even a (hopefully) changing number across those fields would go to show some —any— progress, rather than just sporadically reiterating the reasons things have been delayed.

(…my guess is publishing actual numbers is being avoided since they (a) aren’t tracked at all, or (b) would reveal the situation to be worse than the wiggle room offered by vague statements of “about a hundred” in the backlog and “an average delivery time of 3 month” for those kits that did ship…)

 

[mobutils]

Today is May 5th,

There have been no signs of life from Polysoft since my last update. No responses for requests for updates, no movement on the shipping label, not even forum posts or site upgrades... The last Polysoft communication sent to me indicated my purchase was shipping the week of March 11th. 🙄

Today is day 185 of my order - that’s 6 months and 4 days 🙁

Someone post and tell me they got their order... someone must have, right?

 

[dcf64]

Hi y'all,

my first post here and I am a happy owner of the 8 TB kit for Mac Studio M1 that works flawlessly. Frankly, the first order already took half a year to arrive but it finally arrived and does a great job. This was in 2025.

Based on the positive experience with this kit I placed on order for my new Mac Studio M4 and the story of waiting started all over again. Finally I received my kit mid march finding the time to install in early april. This was short after I had received a mail from Polysoft staff asking if all works fine - something they didn't ask on my first order which made me suspicious…

Let’s cut to the chase—unfortunately, I couldn’t reinstall the kit in DFU mode, and now I’m stuck with an expensive pile of electronic junk. None of the emails or posts in Polysoft’s order system have elicited any response. It seems the team has vanished without a trace.

I’m a patient person, but when I ask if something works and get the answer that it doesn’t, I expect a prompt response. None of this is happening, and that’s not only completely unsatisfactory but also an absolute outrage. I’d bet anything that most of the kits are causing problems and they simply don’t know how to fix them. I would have expected at least a confirmation that they’re working on a solution. But this way, all trust is being squandered…

That's too bad, because then I might as well take the risk and buy it in China.

That's just my 50 cents. I haven't given up all hope yet, but mentally I've already written off the money—or rather, I'm considering taking legal action.

 

[Bakkki]

The last Polysoft communication sent to me indicated my purchase was shipping the week of March 11th. 🙄

Today is day 185 of my order - that’s 6 months and 4 days 🙁

Yeah, it seems a lot of people, me included, got a mail in March stating their kit was being tested and was expected to ship that week. I even got a tracking number. And then, radio silence. Something has gone seriously wrong. Today is day 213 for my order.

EDIT: One Reddit user reported two days ago that his order was refunded (and cancelled, obviously) without him asking for it. So it might be useful to check CC balance ocasionaly in the following days and weeks.

 

[mobutils]

Yeah, it seems a lot of people, me included, got a mail in March stating their kit was being tested and was expected to ship that week. I even got a tracking number. And then, radio silence. Something has gone seriously wrong. Today is day 213 for my order.

EDIT: One Reddit user reported two days ago that his order was refunded (and cancelled, obviously) without him asking for it. So it might be useful to check CC balance ocasionaly in the following days and weeks.

Same,

213 days 🤯 7 Months!!! 🔥 Oh my! We are both pushing up that shipping average and making me wonder how they doing their math! 🧐 "3 Months you say eh?" we are 2x that.

No unexpected refunds from polysoft for me. Though im considering cutting my losses. I'm patient person, but this has been a ridiculous experience to say the least.

 

[MrCoBalt]

it seems a lot of people, me included, got a mail in March stating their kit was being tested and was expected to ship that week.

…I wish I got even a lie incorrect statement like that, it has remained full radio silence for my entire 130 days of waiting. Like that Redditor I'm also waiting on an M2 model so I guess I'll see if mine gets silently canceled as well 🫤

 

[trickyswitch]

Guys, there is a reason that this thread is 46 pages long, and that there is a community spreadsheet out there documenting dozens of chargebacks filed against Polysoft. For those of you still hanging on out of some sense of sunk cost fallacy, or some misplaced commitment to a disreputable vendor or... whatever else, I don't know what else to tell you. His drive kits aren't even cheaper than the other sellers anymore, which was perhaps the last reason to hang in there on an order if you really needed the cost savings.

File your chargebacks, get your money back and go purchase from a vendor that is actually shipping product. What possible reasons could you have to let yourself remain in limbo with this company?

 

[enricoclaudio]

Guys, there is a reason that this thread is 46 pages long, and that there is a community spreadsheet out there documenting dozens of chargebacks filed against Polysoft. For those of you still hanging on out of some sense of sunk cost fallacy, or some misplaced commitment to a disreputable vendor or... whatever else, I don't know what else to tell you. His drive kits aren't even cheaper than the other sellers anymore, which was perhaps the last reason to hang in there on an order if you really needed the cost savings.

File your chargebacks, get your money back and go purchase from a vendor that is actually shipping product. What possible reasons could you have to let yourself remain in limbo with this company?

Unfortunately for most of them posting recently, the time to file a chargeback claim has passed. At least in the US, you have up to 180 days to file a chargeback claim, including PayPal.

 

[trickyswitch]

Unfortunately for most of them posting recently, the time to file a chargeback claim has passed. At least in the US, you have up to 180 days to file a chargeback claim, including PayPal.

I am unable to find the webpage where I saw this documented when I was researching for my own chargeback against Polysoft, but I had read that if you were charged and simply never received your merchandise, you are generally able to dispute that sort of issue for substantially longer than the standard chargeback window. This can depend on your bank and on Visa / MC rules for the type of dispute, as I understand it. Even if not a "chargeback" in the strict payment processor sense, I would expect that most banks would have some recourse to reverse the charge for merchandise that was never received.

There is ample documentation (Internet Archive page captures, inconsistent claims by Gilles, lack of response to customer inquiries) that a customer should be able to present to their bank to substantiate that they were repeatedly misrepresented to / misled by Polysoft. Even if past 180 days since the charge, it is going to be worth a try.

 

[trickyswitch]

I was able to find what I was referencing in the above post. Visa has a special 540-day chargeback rule specifically for situations such as this, where a customer provides prepayment for a promised future delivery, and then the delivery date or range passes with no shipment of merchandise. Anyone who is still waiting on their order and purchased with a Visa CC should intiate this specific dispute with their card issuer. If you didn't buy on a Visa CC, check with your card issuer and card network to see if a similar rule exists for you.

What is the 540 Days Chargeback Rule?

www.disputifier.com

 

[matthiaswanninger]

Hi,

just tested yesterday an upgrade of a plain basic MacStudio M1 Max (2022) from 512GB to 4TB.

and it works :

• take off the 512 GB NAND
• insert in the right order the two 2TB NANDs inside the slots
• restaure the MacStudio bridgeOS with another Mac and AppleConfigurator
• et voilà !

View attachment 2112393

View attachment 2112392


View attachment 2112396

View attachment 2112398

View attachment 2112389

View attachment 2112387



In my tests I have measured the write speed of both configs :


View attachment 2112391

single 512 GB NAND card starts at 4.09GB/s


View attachment 2112388

after SLC cache is filled, single 512GB NAND stalls at 690MB/s

View attachment 2112390
the pair of 2TB NAND cards starts at 6.91GB/s


View attachment 2112386
once SLC cache is filled write speed goes down to 3.14GB/s


To be noted, if the 2TB NANDs are inserted in the wrong order the AppleConfigurator restauration fails with an error.

View attachment 2112397




Important notes :

replacement or upgrade NAND cards for the Mac Studio are not available anywhere at the present.
Apple does not sell them nor intend to.

One could interpolate what occured with the iMac Pro (2017) and the Mac Pro (2019) and imagine that if Apple ships one day a new Apple Silicon Mac Pro, NAND modules similar to those of the Mac Studio would become available on the market.
This is possible but highly hypothetical.

Nevertheless, NAND daughtercards on the Mac Studio use the exact same configurations as those in the M1 MacBook Pro 14" and 16".
And they also use the exact same BGA110 Nands chips used in the iPhone 11 to 13 and all the M1 and M2 Mac line, which are available on the grey market.
One can already upgrade NANDs on a T2 Intel Mac, or on a M1 or M2 Mac, involving soldering BGA chips.

So it would be possible to build a PCB, solder some BGA NANDs on it (for exemple 4x Kioxia KICM229 make a 2TB NAND daugter card), and program them with a JCID programmer.

but no third party company (like OWC) may ever sold this, because those NANDs are very specific to Apple (they are not regular NANDs, the IC integrate NAND with a custom ARM core linked via a PCIe link to specific lines in the M1 CPU).

And manufacturers like Kioxia or Hynix have exclusive contracts with Apple and are forbidden to sell their BGA 110 Nand production to third-party companies.

Dear Gilles - Order TJRNCLUBH - placed on 10/10/2025. i have reported to the french fraud police - you refused to answer - how daring - I just cancelled, if not insane you will love to payback my 900,- and sell it for 1500,- that u r asking now );-(

 

[Bakkki]

It seems someone has deleted the “Ordered at” date column on the community spreadsheet on Google docs.

 

[terratoss]

Wow, people still fall for that. I guess the extra resources are doing a good job keeping people waiting.

I was the one who started getting suspicious after talking to a guy on Threads who had waited over 7 months and still didn’t get his order.

I ended up doing a chargeback and got my money back. I ordered on AliExpress instead and had my order within a week. The drive is still working 24/7 on my server, and I have 2 more units in the office.