ssd swap - high usage of Terabytes Written

[BoPl]

Hey guys.
Was reading this thread for a couple weeks and was really worry about my and my daughter's base model MacBooks Air M1. Finally got back home and checked both macs:
My daughter MacBook Air M1 base model after 5 month of usage as regular - YouTube, Office, Safari, VLC:

And my MacBook Air M1 base model after 3 days of normal usage:

So what I can see that for the regular users even base 256Gb SSD will last for more than life time of MacBook and nothing to be worry about high usage of SSD.

 

[Queen6]

Hey guys.
Was reading this thread for a couple weeks and was really worry about my and my daughter's base model MacBooks Air M1. Finally got back home and checked both macs:
My daughter MacBook Air M1 base model after 5 month of usage as regular - YouTube, Office, Safari, VLC:

View attachment 1802255
And my MacBook Air M1 base model after 3 days of normal usage:

View attachment 1802256
So what I can see that for the regular users even base 256Gb SSD will last for more than life time of MacBook and nothing to be worry about high usage of SSD.

Mostly scare mongering, average users of the current M1 models have little to be concerned about. Those switching to M1 from far higher capacity Mac's (RAM, Storage etc.) to take advantage of the SOC's performance and utilising them in heavy professional roles may have issue, equally the current M1 Mac's were never designed with such workloads in mind. M1 is also priced so competitively that you could replace every 12 months and not blink, especially if generating revenue

My own M1 MBP, I've not even looked at writes to the SSD as Activity Monitor is adequate to see that the system isn't needlessly swapping or excessively writing to the drive. Ultimately Apple only offers one professional orientated computer the Mac Pro. The rest of the line up are consumer grade machines that can be utilised in professional roles, similar to many other Windows/Linux systems. Reality is there's more chance of the battery giving up than the SSD for the vast majority of users. My 13" M1 is just a work tool same as the rest and will be replaced as and when is needed, nor am I remotely concerned about the SSD.

To be brutally honest I gave up monitoring my Mac's years ago, if you want to run an OSX/macOS system you need to accept what Apple offers, focus on the bigger issues not the trivia...

Q-6

 

[pshufd]

My own M1 MBP, I've not even looked at writes to the SSD as Activity Monitor is adequate to see that the system isn't needlessly swapping or excessively writing to the drive. Ultimately Apple only offers one professional orientated computer the Mac Pro. The rest of the line up are consumer grade machines that can be utilised in professional roles, similar to many other Windows/Linux systems. Reality is there's more chance of the battery giving up than the SSD for the vast majority of users. My 13" M1 is just a work tool same as the rest and will be replaced as and when is needed, nor am I remotely concerned about the SSD.

I also just use Activity Monitor to ensure that there's no swap. If there is, I move something to the system next to it. This is a stopgap until the M1X and it doesn't really matter what the SSD wear is as I don't really have an option anyways.

 

[Queen6]

I also just use Activity Monitor to ensure that there's no swap. If there is, I move something to the system next to it. This is a stopgap until the M1X and it doesn't really matter what the SSD wear is as I don't really have an option anyways.

Exactly. M1 is a more a test bench for me and if proves to be solid as it has done so far I'll look to the 2022/23 M2 16" as long as the new design is reliable. There will always be outliers who will push the machines to the max, myself included at times, yet the vast majority of users will likely incur no concern or issue with M1.

Apple Silicon is still very much in it's infancy and will be for some years to come. Want to play safe opt for an Intel Mac, want cutting edge go with Apple Silicon. It wont be a perfectly smooth ride, nor the disaster some portray it to be. What it will be is interesting with rapid development.

So far I've had zero issue with my own M1 MBP. Very impressed with the base MBP's performance, that said I don't presume that it can replace a 17" portable Workstation. The M1 MBP is genuinely rapid, however lacks a lot of aspects/features the larger notebooks have, nor is Apple likely to include short of the Mac Pro...

Q-6

 

[ZebedeeG]

My new iMac M1 was delivered on Monday and after the initial flurry of downloading my stuff from the iCloud, installing applications, and generally playing with it! My daily write to the SSD has settled down to about 20 - 30GB, so pretty much exactly the same as my intel iMac.

My iMac is fully loaded with 16GB RAM & a 2TB SSD, and I leave everything I'm using open across a dozen desktops, including a total of about 40 tabs on Safari, Firefox & Chrome, a couple of Numbers spreadsheets, some OpenOffice docs (using Rosetta), Pages, Skype (also Rosetta), Calendar, Photos, News, email, etc., etc... and it's being used all day.

Even with that lot open it hardly swaps at all (never seen it go above 100MB - so basically nothing), and runs super fast.

I think it's safe to say that something else will fail long before the SSD expires from use - probably my liver!!

 

[pshufd]

My new iMac M1 was delivered on Monday and after the initial flurry of downloading my stuff from the iCloud, installing applications, and generally playing with it! My daily write to the SSD has settled down to about 20 - 30GB, so pretty much exactly the same as my intel iMac.

My iMac is fully loaded with 16GB RAM & a 2TB SSD, and I leave everything I'm using open across a dozen desktops, including a total of about 40 tabs on Safari, Firefox & Chrome, a couple of Numbers spreadsheets, some OpenOffice docs (using Rosetta), Pages, Skype (also Rosetta), Calendar, Photos, News, email, etc., etc... and it's being used all day.

Even with that lot open it hardly swaps at all (never seen it go above 100MB - so basically nothing), and runs super fast.

I think it's safe to say that something else will fail long before the SSD expires from use - probably my liver!!

Very similar to my use.

When I switched from Open Office to Numbers, memory usage dropped 400 MB. I assumed that that was due to running a standalone spreadsheet but it could have been due to Rosetta 2 overhead. So the Open Office and LibreOffice teams need to come out with native ports.

 

[sneeks]

A couple of screenshots below. One when my refurbished Mac Mini M1 16gb arrived and the other from 8 weeks later. Used daily for a variety of tasks and all appears to be looking good.

 

[Thistle41]

Just checking in to say that I am still getting excessive writes as shown in the table below.

30/06/2021	73,214,272	37.40
01/07/2021
02/07/2021
03/07/2021
04/07/2021	79,076,529	40.40

As of today 11/07 2021 9:22.

Available Spare = 100%
Available Spare Threshold = 99%
Percentage Used = 2%
Data Units Read = 106,721,892 [54.6 TB]
Data Units Written = 93,459,637 [47.8 TB]
Host Read Commands = 535,925,613
Host Write Commands = 293,691,659


The only solution I've found is to log out overnight and make sure any apps that are critical are started up on login so you only need to touch the sensor a couple of time to carry on as before.

M1 MBA 8/256

 

[One2Grift]

Mostly scare mongering, average users of the current M1 models have little to be concerned about. Those switching to M1 from far higher capacity Mac's (RAM, Storage etc.) to take advantage of the SOC's performance and utilising them in heavy professional roles may have issue, equally the current M1 Mac's were never designed with such workloads in mind. M1 is also priced so competitively that you could replace every 12 months and not blink, especially if generating revenue

My strong suspicion is it’s more than “mostly” scare mongering. This one goes more into urban legend. I work directly with content delivery servers (not a lot of customers but do have a cluster of 3 at one customer site)(expensive machines). I’d be shocked if anyone does in a lifetime what these do in less than a normal year. I’ll have to get back to ya on when the dreaded swap creature eats its first SSD.

 

[jdb8167]

My strong suspicion is it’s more than “mostly” scare mongering. This one goes more into urban legend. I work directly with content delivery servers (not a lot of customers but do have a cluster of 3 at one customer site)(expensive machines). I’d be shocked if anyone does in a lifetime what these do in less than a normal year. I’ll have to get back to ya on when the dreaded swap creature eats its first SSD.

Literally the post above yours shows that the user is writing a TB a day. That doesn’t fall into any kind of myth. That translates to about 4 years of life given that they have used up 2% of the expected lifetime (and they are likely to roll over to 3% at around 48 TBW). That gives about 1600 days of use. While that write rate isn’t common it can and does happen. That is concerning.

 

[Queen6]

Literally the post above yours shows that the user is writing a TB a day. That doesn’t fall into any kind of myth. That translates to about 4 years of life given that they have used up 2% of the expected lifetime (and they are likely to roll over to 3% at around 48 TBW). That gives about 1600 days of use. While that write rate isn’t common it can and does happen. That is concerning.

Equally without the exact usage & software installed, the values are meaningless. I've two Mac's on Big Sur 1.4, one Intel, one M1 and both are pretty close in writes, nor worth worrying about. The M1 MBP does write more to the SSD, which I put down to Rosetta 2 nothing spectacular just more.

Apple Silicon is brand new out the gate and it will take time for Apple and the third parties to dial everything in. Nor am I an automatic advocate of all things Apple, being noted for strongly calling out the 2016 MBP redesign as poor design for the sake of design not practicality.

From my perspective it's a non issue; I look to utilise native M1 applications and Intel based if not available. Swap remains reasonable as does disk writes. I keep the systems simple, install what's needed avoid application's that don't add value or just illustrate values that for the most part the average user is not able to effect.

M1 MBP has some serious computational performance for a 13" Ultrabook, yet as said I don't think for one second it can replace a 15"/17" PC portable workstation...

Q-6

 

[jdb8167]

Equally without the exact usage & software installed, the values are meaningless.

There are nearly 3000 posts of context if you need more. The values are not meaningless. Your experience isn’t everyone’s experience.

 

[pshufd]

There are nearly 3000 posts of context if you need more. The values are not meaningless. Your experience isn’t everyone’s experience.

What are you going to do about it if it's a problem?

I haven't bothered to check writes. If the mini SSDs fail, I'll just attach an external SSD and run off of that. These early M1s are experiments for us. We have two of them with 16 GB of RAM so there should be little swapping.

 

[jdb8167]

What are you going to do about it if it's a problem?

I haven't bothered to check writes. If the mini SSDs fail, I'll just attach an external SSD and run off of that. These early M1s are experiments for us. We have two of them with 16 GB of RAM so there should be little swapping.

Using an external, replaceable and fast SSD is a good solution, especially if you are using a mini or iMac. There are also many mitigations for numerous problems posted here. There is a potential problem for anyone currently using an M1 Mac and Big Sur. I wouldn’t want to be ignorant of the issue if I had it and it reduced the expected lifespan of my Mac. I would want to look for help including from Apple who is ultimately responsible. They’ve clearly reduced the problem and eliminated it for many. More work needs to be done though. Writing a TB a day can’t ever be considered normal.

 

[pshufd]

Using an external, replaceable and fast SSD is a good solution, especially if you are using a mini or iMac. There are also many mitigations for numerous problems posted here. There is a potential problem for anyone currently using an M1 Mac and Big Sur. I wouldn’t want to be ignorant of the issue if I had it and it reduced the expected lifespan of my Mac. I would want to look for help including from Apple who is ultimately responsible. They’ve clearly reduced the problem and eliminated it for many. More work needs to be done though. Writing a TB a day can’t ever be considered normal.

You take chances with anything that you buy. If a device dies in a year or two or three, then maybe the manufacturer repairs it or maybe not. If not, I'll just buy another one or a new model. The M1s are a grand experiment.

 

[Queen6]

There are nearly 3000 posts of context if you need more. The values are not meaningless. Your experience isn’t everyone’s experience.

I completely agree, nor are we all in the same pot or are these extreme reports of writes to the SSD the norm. Simple computers are not appliances and need some thought as to the best applications to compliment the OS of choice.

If so concerned post a thread where applications and nominal usage is accurately captured on the current M1. As what you are describing isn't everyone’s experience,. Personally I have no dog in the fight, as mostly on W10 these days, although Apple Silicon is a game changer in some respects ...

Q-6

 

[One2Grift]

Literally the post above yours shows that the user is writing a TB a day. That doesn’t fall into any kind of myth. That translates to about 4 years of life given that they have used up 2% of the expected lifetime (and they are likely to roll over to 3% at around 48 TBW). That gives about 1600 days of use. While that write rate isn’t common it can and does happen. That is concerning.

The urban myth isn't that SSD have a 'write' lifespan. That's not a secret. The urban myth is exactly what you're doing here: taking that fact and applying it to the 'but if you A and B and C and you X and you Y and you Z, it's gonna fail!'. It takes a lot, A LOT, of writes before SSD begins to reallocate...did I mention A LOT? So If someone is writing a Petabyte (petabyte!) in 3 years (in testing of SSDs they all had significantly past their MFG stated 'life) then an 8/256 base MBA was the wrong use case choice. You needed to haul around 2 tons of dirt in a trailer every day and you bought a BMW with a trailer hitch to do it.

What was accomplished with the swap monster thread was nothing but causing buyers unneededconcern about the M1 8/256 when none was needed. Because you could go out to find a massively extraordinary use case is not germane. A massively extraordinary use case could be applied to the functionality of many things to make them appear frightening and they won't last. Not a good thing...

 

[swrdl]

Just to provide a data point,
This machine is about 7 months old, TBW = 1.27TB
I think the only non-silicon app that I run is my VPN app.

 

[jdb8167]

The urban myth isn't that SSD have a 'write' lifespan. That's not a secret. The urban myth is exactly what you're doing here: taking that fact and applying it to the 'but if you A and B and C and you X and you Y and you Z, it's gonna fail!'. It takes a lot, A LOT, of writes before SSD begins to reallocate...did I mention A LOT? So If someone is writing a Petabyte (petabyte!) in 3 years (in testing of SSDs they all had significantly past their MFG stated 'life) then an 8/256 base MBA was the wrong use case choice. You needed to haul around 2 tons of dirt in a trailer every day and you bought a BMW with a trailer hitch to do it.

What was accomplished with the swap monster thread was nothing but causing buyers unneededconcern about the M1 8/256 when none was needed. Because you could go out to find a massively extraordinary use case is not germane. A massively extraordinary use case could be applied to the functionality of many things to make them appear frightening and they won't last. Not a good thing...

Would you be sanguine if it was your new M1 MacBook Pro that was showing signs of limited lifespan? I doubt it. It is easy to say to someone, you bought the wrong computer but that isn't helpful. There is no reason that normal use of a computer with a soldered in SSD should die after 4 or so years. It doesn't matter what you are doing unless the task is literally writing TBs of data to a drive, but the OS shouldn't be writing a TB a day.

There are dozens of people on this thread who have reported this issue. There are probably many more who don't know that their SSD's lives are being shortened. Why do you find this acceptable just because it doesn't affect you? It doesn't affect me either but I still want to see it fixed.

Again, what massively extraordinary use case are you talking about. The users in this thread with this issue are not doing anything out of the ordinary. I've followed this thread since it started and I haven't seen any cases where the users are doing something unusual. Apple has clearly fixed some of the issues but others are still outstanding as the latest post @Thistle41 shows.

 

[One2Grift]

Again, what massively extraordinary use case are you talking about. The users in this thread with this issue are not doing anything out of the ordinary. I've followed this thread since it started and I haven't seen any cases where the users are doing something unusual. Apple has clearly fixed some of the issues but others are still outstanding as the latest post @Thistle41 shows.

Scare tactics indeed. Users in this thread aren't users, they are posters.
And That you would even state "what massively extraordinary use case" regarding a base model 8gb RAM 13" SSF device device while speaking of petabytes of swap writing above installed ram is something I'll let "users" here decide for themselves what is an extraordinary use case.

In the meantime here is a suggestion: don't buy an M1 and certainly don't buy SSD. Because swap is used in many ways and someone with a PC with 64gig of ram can come up with a use case (no, no, no, not massively extraordinary), just "users" who were scammed into buying it.

 

[jdb8167]

Scare tactics indeed. Users in this thread aren't users, they are posters.
And That you would even state "what massively extraordinary use case" regarding a base model 8gb RAM 13" SSF device device while speaking of petabytes of swap writing above installed ram is something I'll let "users" here decide for themselves what is an extraordinary use case.

I was quoting you. You are the one who used the words, "Because you could go out to find a massively extraordinary use case is not germane." I was just curious what extraordinary use case you were referring to. All the users showing 10s to 100s of TBW are just normal, average use cases as far as I can see. Have an example of an extraordinary use case?

"Users in this thread aren't users, they are posters."

I'm not sure what you are implying here. Is it that you think people are lying about something? The vast majority of posts that show large TBW seem to come from ordinary users of M1 Macs. If you know something different, spell it out.

 

[NoPlansForThis]

I came here looking for help and what I found was a random guy saying that my computer using almost 10% of the SSDs lifespan in 3 months is a non issue.

And also that “MacBook Air are cheap and you could replace them once a year”

Yep. Sure. In your dreams, or maybe if someone else is paying your bills.

113TB written from April 16 to July 10. And no, I don’t overwork my machine. I use it for emails and video call meetings. I don’t edit video, I don’t play games.


“Replace your macbook every 12 months, it’s cheap!”. Glorious.

 

[gank41]

I came here looking for help and what I found was a random guy saying that my computer using almost 10% of the SSDs lifespan in 3 months is a non issue.

And also that “MacBook Air are cheap and you could replace them once a year”

Yep. Sure. In your dreams, or maybe if someone else is paying your bills.

113TB written from April 16 to July 10. And no, I don’t overwork my machine. I use it for emails and video call meetings. I don’t edit video, I don’t play games.


“Replace your macbook every 12 months, it’s cheap!”. Glorious.

View attachment 1805045

What OS are you on?

 

[NoPlansForThis]

What OS are you on?

11.4

I performed the update exactly a day after it came out. Absolutely no difference.

The test above was made on July 10th. The one below was performed on May 28th (a few days after the update came out, IIRC)

 

[Queen6]

I came here looking for help and what I found was a random guy saying that my computer using almost 10% of the SSDs lifespan in 3 months is a non issue.

And also that “MacBook Air are cheap and you could replace them once a year”

Yep. Sure. In your dreams, or maybe if someone else is paying your bills.

113TB written from April 16 to July 10. And no, I don’t overwork my machine. I use it for emails and video call meetings. I don’t edit video, I don’t play games.


“Replace your macbook every 12 months, it’s cheap!”. Glorious.

View attachment 1805045

Then look into your choice of applications as my M1 MBP doesn't do this. What I said in context was that if the system is generating revenue they are cheap and easy to replace compared to certified professional hardware, which can easily exceed $10K for a portable.

Likely the choice of teleconferencing SW is the culprit. Thing with computers is they just do as instructed, however they don't think. If your locked into that app, little you can do short of reverting to an Intel based Mac or speak with the SW provider. As stated by myself and others this us not a universal problem as has been illustrated over and over.

Booting from an external TB3 drive may be another option. if Apple hasn't closed the door...

Q-6