Apple’s new M1 based Macs are the new hotness that are insanely fast. But things aren’t all good. Over the past week, some M1 Mac users have been reporting alarming SSD health readings, suggesting that these devices are writing extraordinary amounts of data to their drives:
Across Twitter and the MacRumors forums, users are reporting that M1 Macs are experiencing extremely high drive writes over a short space of time. In what appear to be the most severe cases, M1 Macs are said to be consuming as much as 10 to 13 percent of the maximum warrantable total bytes written (TBW) value of its SSD. Flash memory on solid-state drives, such as those used in Macs, can only be written to a certain number of times before they become unstable. Software ensures that load is spread evenly across the drive’s memory cells, but there is a point when the drive has been written to so many times that it can no longer reliably hold data. So while SSD wear is normal, expected behavior, drives should not be exhausting their ability to hold data as quickly as some M1 Macs seem to be. One user showed that their M1 Mac had already consumed one percent of its SSD after just two months, while another M1 Mac with a 2TB SSD had already consumed three percent. The total data units written for these machines is running into many terabytes, when they would normally be expected to be considerably lower.
This is a huge problem for Apple as these drives are not user replaceable. Which means that a M1 based Mac will have an insanely short lifespan. Which is bad as Macs have a reputation for lasting years. Apple needs to speak to why this is happening and how they are going to do to address this issue. But chances are Apple isn’t going to do that as they aren’t the most transparent company who owns up to their mistakes. And that’s a disincentive for me to buy one. But we will see if Apple changes that behavior with this issue.
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This entry was posted on February 24, 2021 at 8:38 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Apple. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Apple M1 Mac Users Report Excessive SSD Wear
Apple’s new M1 based Macs are the new hotness that are insanely fast. But things aren’t all good. Over the past week, some M1 Mac users have been reporting alarming SSD health readings, suggesting that these devices are writing extraordinary amounts of data to their drives:
Across Twitter and the MacRumors forums, users are reporting that M1 Macs are experiencing extremely high drive writes over a short space of time. In what appear to be the most severe cases, M1 Macs are said to be consuming as much as 10 to 13 percent of the maximum warrantable total bytes written (TBW) value of its SSD. Flash memory on solid-state drives, such as those used in Macs, can only be written to a certain number of times before they become unstable. Software ensures that load is spread evenly across the drive’s memory cells, but there is a point when the drive has been written to so many times that it can no longer reliably hold data. So while SSD wear is normal, expected behavior, drives should not be exhausting their ability to hold data as quickly as some M1 Macs seem to be. One user showed that their M1 Mac had already consumed one percent of its SSD after just two months, while another M1 Mac with a 2TB SSD had already consumed three percent. The total data units written for these machines is running into many terabytes, when they would normally be expected to be considerably lower.
This is a huge problem for Apple as these drives are not user replaceable. Which means that a M1 based Mac will have an insanely short lifespan. Which is bad as Macs have a reputation for lasting years. Apple needs to speak to why this is happening and how they are going to do to address this issue. But chances are Apple isn’t going to do that as they aren’t the most transparent company who owns up to their mistakes. And that’s a disincentive for me to buy one. But we will see if Apple changes that behavior with this issue.
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This entry was posted on February 24, 2021 at 8:38 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Apple. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.