Enabling TRIM on a specific external SSD on an M1 mac (Big Sur 11.3)

[JippaLippa]

Hello.

I'd like to know if it was possible to enable TRIM for a specific external SSD on an M1 mac (specifically a mac mini M1 2020 with macOS Big Sur 11.3).
Even a paid app would be good; Basically I'd like to avoid the onboard SSD of the mac being affected.

Thank you very much.

 

[Mike Boreham]

Hello.

I'd like to know if it was possible to enable TRIM for a specific external SSD on an M1 mac (specifically a mac mini M1 2020 with macOS Big Sur 11.3).
Even a paid app would be good; Basically I'd like to avoid the onboard SSD of the mac being affected.

Thank you very much.

What you want will happen automatically if you use a Thunderbolt external. OTOH I don't think you need to worry about external drives affecting the internal. How are you concerned it will be affected?

My understanding and experience is that macOS cannot send TRIM commands to external drives connected to the USB bus, but automatically does to Thunderbolt devices connected to the TB bus, (as it does to the internal drive).

I have an external Thunderbolt drive (Envoy Express with NVMe WD) on which System Information shows TRIM is automatically enabled, and several Samsung T5 and T7 USB drives on which TRIM is not supported or enabled.

 

[leman]

I'd like to know if it was possible to enable TRIM for a specific external SSD on an M1 mac (specifically a mac mini M1 2020 with macOS Big Sur 11.3).

As @Mike Boreham states, this is enabled automatically

Basically I'd like to avoid the onboard SSD of the mac being affected.

Not quite sure what you mean here. Affected how/by what?

 

[CMMChris]

Basically I'd like to avoid the onboard SSD of the mac being affected.

TRIM is enabled for built-in Apple SSDs by default.