ssd swap - high usage of Terabytes Written

[Maximara]

Well it is not Teams writing this on my Mac. Teams wrote 700 mb and read 25GB per the last 3-4 days with no reboot.
It is a kernel_task that made 1.15 TB during these 3-4 days, and read it only 4.68GB out of it.
Kernel_task is a MacOS thing and not MS.

Except as explained back in a 2017 thread: "kernel_task is a core part of the OS that is sort of like the traffic police for many different processes. So apps that write to the disk do it through kernel_task."

In fact, Apple Communities has several threads how several third party programs or hardware were causing kernel_task to go nuts with regards to CPU usage

* "zoom causing kernel_task to use more than 1000%"
* "Microsoft Teams and Zoom cause kernal_task to use lots of CPU and make my system unresponsive"
* "Kernel_task 1000% CPU and USB webcam usage" ("In my case the problem was fixed changing the usb-c connector")
* "kernel_task up to 1000% CPU consumption when doing video conference with MS Teams"

TL ; DR - just because it is kernel_task going nuts doesn't mean it is Apple's fault as apps use that process to write to the disk.

Another poster said that is can be due to low memory: "Even if your memory pressure is green, that is NOT an indication that everything is good memory wise. It will usually be green even when the computer is swapping like mad. My computer currently is using 30 gb of swap and memory pressure is green."

 

[Fishrrman]

Multiple times over the life of this thread, I have offered my suggestions on how to STOP the excessive writes to disk that seem to be prevalent in the m-series Macs.

My suggestion was:
DISABLE vitural memory swapping to the SSD.

No one was ever willing to try this, and at the time I did not have an m-series Mac of my own with which to try it.

That's changed -- I now have the base model m1pro MBP 14" with 16gb RAM, 512gb SSD.

After getting some initial setup done (migration, etc.), I did the following:
- TURN OFF as much startup security as I could.
- TURN OFF system integrity protection (this is "a standard" I do on ALL my Macs)
Then, I used terminal to
- TURN OFF VM disk swapping.

I now use this command to check:
sysctl vm.swapusage

And it renders this response:
"sysctl vm.swapusage
vm.swapusage: total = 0.00M used = 0.00M free = 0.00M (encrypted)"

If I go to Activity Monitor, and chose the "memory" panel, I see this:

Now, some other processes MIGHT still have a way to "reach out and touch" the drive, bypassing VM. I don't know that.
But I DO know that any process that "hits the disk" via VM swapping is now OVER on my MacBook Pro. It can't happen.

There are no crashes, everything continues to run just fine.
Except -- no more disk swapping.... AT ALL.

Works for me.

 

[Maximara]

Multiple times over the life of this thread, I have offered my suggestions on how to STOP the excessive writes to disk that seem to be prevalent in the m-series Macs.

My suggestion was:
DISABLE vitural memory swapping to the SSD.

No one was ever willing to try this, and at the time I did not have an m-series Mac of my own with which to try it.

That's changed -- I now have the base model m1pro MBP 14" with 16gb RAM, 512gb SSD.

After getting some initial setup done (migration, etc.), I did the following:
- TURN OFF as much startup security as I could.
- TURN OFF system integrity protection (this is "a standard" I do on ALL my Macs)
Then, I used terminal to
- TURN OFF VM disk swapping.

I now use this command to check:
sysctl vm.swapusage

And it renders this response:
"sysctl vm.swapusage
vm.swapusage: total = 0.00M used = 0.00M free = 0.00M (encrypted)"

If I go to Activity Monitor, and chose the "memory" panel, I see this:
View attachment 1954459

Now, some other processes MIGHT still have a way to "reach out and touch" the drive, bypassing VM. I don't know that.
But I DO know that any process that "hits the disk" via VM swapping is now OVER on my MacBook Pro. It can't happen.

There are no crashes, everything continues to run just fine.
Except -- no more disk swapping.... AT ALL.

Works for me.

Your solution assumes that no third party apps write to the disk through kernel_task which seems to be the actual problem. Here is a perfectly standard set up:

This window tells you less about disk writes than you think. The disk window is the one you want to look at to see if this is really working.

 

[Fishrrman]

"This window tells you less about disk writes than you think. The disk window is the one you want to look at to see if this is really working."

OK, here are some quick screenshots. I scrolled down about 2/3 of the way in the Activity Monitor "disk" pane.

How do these numbers look...?

 

[Maximara]

"This window tells you less about disk writes than you think. The disk window is the one you want to look at to see if this is really working."

OK, here are some quick screenshots. I scrolled down about 2/3 of the way in the Activity Monitor "disk" pane.
View attachment 1954481
View attachment 1954482
View attachment 1954483
View attachment 1954484
View attachment 1954485

How do these numbers look...?

How about sorting by Bytes written (as I did) so it is easier to compare? Side note My desktop mac has been running non stop for about a month so there is that to factor in.

 

[Darkseth]

I think the main question is whether there’s already a fix or workaround for this issue, which I couldn’t see either. This is absolutely not normal compared with non-M1 Mac (ie, my Intel MBA is only 10TB in 1.5 years).

I use a M1 Macbook pro sin ce it came out. 512gb SSD and 16gb Ram.
Not very extensively. I have 49 Cycles now, because in Lockdown, i used my 2-Monitor PC more often, and the battery latst literaly 20 hours or so. To make it compareable with an Intel macbook, you can see it as 100+ Cycles.

I have 30,4 TB Read
and 3,69 TB Written. According to Smartmontools.
I rarely used Whatsapp Web as Rosetta, and almost never Discord, aside from a few single times.
However, the first time almost every App i had was running through Rosetta 2. Python, Pycharm, Datagrip, R Studio, MS Office, Zoom. And those i used regularely.
I never had any high write numbers.

 

[Isamilis]

Multiple times over the life of this thread, I have offered my suggestions on how to STOP the excessive writes to disk that seem to be prevalent in the m-series Macs.

My suggestion was:
DISABLE vitural memory swapping to the SSD.

No one was ever willing to try this, and at the time I did not have an m-series Mac of my own with which to try it.

That's changed -- I now have the base model m1pro MBP 14" with 16gb RAM, 512gb SSD.

After getting some initial setup done (migration, etc.), I did the following:
- TURN OFF as much startup security as I could.
- TURN OFF system integrity protection (this is "a standard" I do on ALL my Macs)
Then, I used terminal to
- TURN OFF VM disk swapping.

I now use this command to check:
sysctl vm.swapusage

And it renders this response:
"sysctl vm.swapusage
vm.swapusage: total = 0.00M used = 0.00M free = 0.00M (encrypted)"

If I go to Activity Monitor, and chose the "memory" panel, I see this:
View attachment 1954459

Now, some other processes MIGHT still have a way to "reach out and touch" the drive, bypassing VM. I don't know that.
But I DO know that any process that "hits the disk" via VM swapping is now OVER on my MacBook Pro. It can't happen.

There are no crashes, everything continues to run just fine.
Except -- no more disk swapping.... AT ALL.

Works for me.

Thanks and your finding is quite interesting. How do you disable virTula memory swapping to the SSD? Is that through terminal?

 

[telo123]

I use a M1 Macbook pro sin ce it came out. 512gb SSD and 16gb Ram.
Not very extensively. I have 49 Cycles now, because in Lockdown, i used my 2-Monitor PC more often, and the battery latst literaly 20 hours or so. To make it compareable with an Intel macbook, you can see it as 100+ Cycles.

I have 30,4 TB Read
and 3,69 TB Written. According to Smartmontools.
I rarely used Whatsapp Web as Rosetta, and almost never Discord, aside from a few single times.
However, the first time almost every App i had was running through Rosetta 2. Python, Pycharm, Datagrip, R Studio, MS Office, Zoom. And those i used regularely.
I never had any high write numbers.

The general consumer shouldn't have to worry about it. In fact, I strongly believe that the majority of people who had a m1 machine since launch might not even know that this issue even existed.

 

[Fishrrman]

Isamilis asked:
"How do you disable virTula memory swapping to the SSD? Is that through terminal?"

Yes.
Turn off VM disk swapping:
sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.dynamic_pager.plist

Remove VM swap files:
sudo rm /private/var/vm/swapfile*

Check that VM is disabled:
sysctl vm.swapusage

If VM is off, report should be:
vm.swapusage: total = 0.00M used = 0.00M free = 0.00M

Disclaimer:
I only know how to turn VM OFF.
I'm not sure of what the command is to re-enable it once it has been disabled.
I don't think you can change "unload" to "load" (in the command above).
Something else is required.

 

[Fishrrman]

Hmmm...
Found a solution, but no one seems interested in trying it to see if it works for them.

Even did the 12.2.1 update this morning.
OS managed to do it fine, even with VM still turned off.

 

[Thistle41]

Hmmm...
Found a solution, but no one seems interested in trying it to see if it works for them.

Even did the 12.2.1 update this morning.
OS managed to do it fine, even with VM still turned off.

I did look at doing this on my new (ish) Mac Mini 8/256. Is yours an 8/256 model? I'm on 12.1 and see swap sits at 2GB permanently now, used to be quite low then build up over the days between logout/in.

However, I need to get into recovery mode to disable protection. (Background to this is that I bought it as an opened package privately, not used much I was told but have discovered 32TBW result running SmartTBW analysis! The receipt shows it was bought in late November 21, so it's been pretty busy for a hardly used Mac. Anyway, I did get it for £460 though - sells for £699 so maybe I can't complain, and anyway, maybe I'm fussing over nothing that matters.)

 

[ctjack]

Hmmm...
Found a solution, but no one seems interested in trying it to see if it works for them.

Because you proposed to switch off swap at all. It could be a great option to disable if one has 64GB or 128GB of RAM.
But swap is being used here because it is still needed. Let's say that if RAM will be overused, all the other user will have a lag and slowdown - user that disabled RAM will have his laptop just freeze and restart. So losing unsaved data. Overall switching of swap is like removing 4 spark plugs out of your V8, to make it 4 banger and save on gas.

 

[jdb8167]

Because you proposed to switch off swap at all. It could be a great option to disable if one has 64GB or 128GB of RAM.
But swap is being used here because it is still needed. Let's say that if RAM will be overused, all the other user will have a lag and slowdown - user that disabled RAM will have his laptop just freeze and restart. So losing unsaved data. Overall switching of swap is like removing 4 spark plugs out of your V8, to make it 4 banger and save on gas.

Also most of us don’t actually have a problem. After 17 months of use I’m down to 1% used. At this rate I’ll be dead before the SSD.

 

[Maximara]

Also most of us don’t actually have a problem. After 17 months of use I’m down to 1% used. At this rate I’ll be dead before the SSD.

This is why I say this problem is the result of some weird combination of programs.

 

[robfoll]

My 13inch M1 MBP Pro in a normal business setup has now used 75% SSD life, losing 4% since November with 293TB written in just over a year. Apple store Genius Bar Doncaster Australia refuses to acknowledge a problem "we don't do preventative maintenance" 'That's a 3rd party app reading your Smart Data" "You must let it fail and then we'll fix it if still in warranty"

 

[ctjack]

My 13inch M1 MBP Pro in a normal business setup has now used 75% SSD life, losing 4% since November with 293TB written in just over a year.

That is interesting. Could you tell us a little bit more? is it 256GB? If yes, looks like drivedx reads it at 400TBW.

 

[Thistle41]

Also most of us don’t actually have a problem. After 17 months of use I’m down to 1% used. At this rate I’ll be dead before the SSD.

Yes, but you have the 16GB model and we know the RAM capacity is crucial to this effect. So I would hazard a guess that the vast majority of M1 MacBooks sold are of the 8GB variety and therefore the problem (if it is a problem) is much wider than your experience suggests.

 

[jdb8167]

Yes, but you have the 16GB model and we know the RAM capacity is crucial to this effect. So I would hazard a guess that the vast majority of M1 MacBooks sold are of the 8GB variety and therefore the problem (if it is a problem) is much wider than your experience suggests.

That does seem to be the case.

 

[ian87w]

Wow, so this is still an issue today? Not good. I guess I'll be waiting even longer. I don't quite understand why Apple doesn't think that this is a problem (maybe they do, but they don't seem to act on it). So much for hardware and software "integration." 🤷‍♂️

 

[telo123]

Wow, so this is still an issue today? Not good. I guess I'll be waiting even longer. I don't quite understand why Apple doesn't think that this is a problem (maybe they do, but they don't seem to act on it). So much for hardware and software "integration." 🤷‍♂️

Because for most, it's not an issue.

You're looking at a really small population here.

 

[ian87w]

Because for most, it's not an issue.

You're looking at a really small population here.

I don’t think it’s not an issue. Most consumers don’t talk about it because they don’t know about it, not because it’s not an issue. If it wasn’t an issue, this thread wouldn’t have existed to begin with.

The fact that the data existed and Apple did try to fix it kinda proves that it’s a problem. But since not fixing this issue means shorter lifespan of the product, I guess it’s more beneficial for Apple to not fix it? 🤔

 

[Thistle41]

Because for most, it's not an issue.

You're looking at a really small population here.

Perhaps, for those with a 16GB RAM install that could be true. The majority of users have no idea of what 'swap' SSD or TBW means so they're not going to look for it.

Doesn't mean it's not happening though, does it?

 

[ctjack]

I don’t think it’s not an issue. Most consumers don’t talk about it because they don’t know about it, not because it’s not an issue. If it wasn’t an issue, this thread wouldn’t have existed to begin with.

I am a tech inclined person: was swapping hdds with my friends at the age of 12, reinstalling windows since 13, changing cracked screens, internals from 14.

And I got stuck on how to use smartctl function. I didn't want to pay for drivedx, but the free option was not easy for me.

It took 1 year to find out how to use smartctl. I mean in reality it took me 1 week of active searching so 1 year of passive thinking about checking it out.

So only after 1 year after purchase I found out the issue and have 135+ TBW. There lots of people who even doesn't know about that.

Because for most, it's not an issue.

You're looking at a really small population here.

I am not sure how small the population of MS Teams users here. All I use for work daily is Safari(web apps)+MS Teams+Word/excel.
Still get new excess TB every couple days.

 

[939248]

Not sure if the power on hours is correct but I'm at 57.5GiB/hour if SMART data is to be believed
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED SMART/Health Information (NVMe Log 0x02) Critical Warning: 0x00 Temperature: 28 Celsius Available Spare: 100% Available Spare Threshold: 99% Percentage Used: 0% Data Units Read: 30,588,647 [15.6 TB] Data Units Written: 19,548,936 [10.0 TB] Host Read Commands: 460,803,752 Host Write Commands: 163,156,487 Controller Busy Time: 0 Power Cycles: 399 Power On Hours: 178 Unsafe Shutdowns: 9 Media and Data Integrity Errors: 0 Error Information Log Entries: 0

 

[robfoll]

That is interesting. Could you tell us a little bit more? is it 256GB? If yes, looks like drivedx reads it at 400TBW.

Meant to say 8GB memory and 256GB SSD