ssd swap - high usage of Terabytes Written

[tab0reqq]

It's going to be my main computer and I will post updates regarding this continuesly. It's going to stay on 24/7/365 btw.

I'm in the club. Now I have a weekend so definitely more time with kids. But tomorrow will be a normal workday with pretty heavy multitasking.

Since my first post on this topic, I started taking DriveDx screenshots and I will keep doing this as long as trial version ends So at least 8-9 more days.

I wrote, that after an update without any OS tinkering I started to see less SWAP usage. Not trying to tell, that problem is 100% fixed, but for me, it looks like they did something that resulted in less SSD taxing.

Window titles have timestamps.

Since 11.2.2 Big Sure update I didn't perform any restart. kernel_task in task manager reporting 49GB written and 3GB read.

 

[pistonpilot]

That is concerning. It conflicts with the previous poster who claimed it worked without turning off Spotlight. Perhaps there is more than one issue here.

I have one Intel and one Silicon Apple Computer. My Intel iMac is writing monstrous amounts to the platter HD. It is also writing to the SSD as it is a fusion drive.

I watch activity monitor, specifically the Kernel. When I turned off Spotlight the Kernel Task stopped writing gobs of data. It's that simple.

Again, don't take my word for it, I'm not "the Guy" or "Some Guy" so take it for what it is worth.

I haven't looked a my M1 Mac Mini to see how it is reacting. I am taking snapshots daily of the drive(s) in each unit to see the Delta.

I'm just "the Gal" here.

 

[gkingha]

I'd like to get some opinions on my situation as it applies to the SSD situation. I'm in the situation where waiting for a 2021 Macbook Pro likely isn't an option for me as I'm moving to a new city and will need to get a new laptop. I use Lightroom for pleasure as a hobbyist photographer and all this discussion on SSD swap and the longevity of the computer has me questioning which MacBook Pro to buy. I've ordered 2, both from the refurb store . A M1 with a 1TB hard drive and 16gb of RAM (yes I will check how much usage the SSD has when I receive it) and an intel i5 2020 with 32gb of RAM the same capacity. For me the laptop will mostly be a secondary device once I am able to move my main computer (my desktop) in the summertime, but I still plan on using the MacBook Pro for Lightroom when mobile (mostly). My situation dictates that I'd rather have reliability over speed but if I can have both that would obviously be best. Waiting another minute to process files isn't going to kill me if it means my computer is a stable machine over a greater amount of time (longevity). The M1 is priced less then the Intel though and that is appealing. Should I go with M1 machine though over the Intel, or pick the Intel because this last gen Apple actually corrected many of the problems of the past (speed aside)? Thoughts and opinions appreciated please and thank you.

 

[flopticalcube]

I have one Intel and one Silicon Apple Computer. My Intel iMac is writing monstrous amounts to the platter HD. It is also writing to the SSD as it is a fusion drive.

I watch activity monitor, specifically the Kernel. When I turned off Spotlight the Kernel Task stopped writing gobs of data. It's that simple.

Again, don't take my word for it, I'm not "the Guy" or "Some Guy" so take it for what it is worth.

I haven't looked a my M1 Mac Mini to see how it is reacting. I am taking snapshots daily of the drive(s) in each unit to see the Delta.

I'm just "the Gal" here.

haha... I don't take anyone's word for it. It looks like Apple is the ultimate responsible party here and needs to deliver. Your gender is entirely uninteresting to me, at least in this conversation.

 

[Dockland]

I'd like to get some opinions on my situation as it applies to the SSD situation. I'm in the situation where waiting for a 2021 Macbook Pro likely isn't an option for me as I'm moving to a new city and will need to get a new laptop. I use Lightroom for pleasure as a hobbyist photographer and all this discussion on SSD swap and the longevity of the computer has me questioning which MacBook Pro to buy. I've ordered 2, both from the refurb store . A M1 with a 1TB hard drive and 16gb of RAM (yes I will check how much usage the SSD has when I receive it) and an intel i5 2020 with 32gb of RAM the same capacity. For me the laptop will mostly be a secondary device once I am able to move my main computer (my desktop) in the summertime, but I still plan on using the MacBook Pro for Lightroom when mobile (mostly). My situation dictates that I'd rather have reliability over speed but if I can have both that would obviously be best. Waiting another minute to process files isn't going to kill me if it means my computer is a stable machine over a greater amount of time (longevity). The M1 is priced less then the Intel though and that is appealing. Should I go with M1 machine though over the Intel, or pick the Intel because this last gen Apple actually corrected many of the problems of the past (speed aside)? Thoughts and opinions appreciated please and thank you.

For photo editing? The M1 without doubt.

 

[alien3dx]

I have one Intel and one Silicon Apple Computer. My Intel iMac is writing monstrous amounts to the platter HD. It is also writing to the SSD as it is a fusion drive.

I watch activity monitor, specifically the Kernel. When I turned off Spotlight the Kernel Task stopped writing gobs of data. It's that simple.

Again, don't take my word for it, I'm not "the Guy" or "Some Guy" so take it for what it is worth.

I haven't looked a my M1 Mac Mini to see how it is reacting. I am taking snapshots daily of the drive(s) in each unit to see the Delta.

I'm just "the Gal" here.

windows also got this issue with their search engine which i off .I off spotlight search .
No worried i just non native english . My advise use external ssd usb c hub . Been using external usb c since 2017.

 

[gkingha]

For photo editing? The M1 without doubt.

Yes, photo editing in Lightroom. Thx

 

[theSeb]

Anyone else halting their purchase because of this?

No, why would you?

 

[Dockland]

Yes, photo editing in Lightroom. Thx

Lightroom is native for M1 already and works flawless. Lightroom Classic probably soon aswell

 

[gkingha]

Lightroom is native for M1 already and works flawless. Lightroom Classic probably soon aswell

Ok thanks. My concern was the SSD swap i'm reading about, particularly with the use of Lightroom being resource heavy.

 

[bigcat]

I don't know if my report helps with anything since it's not an M1. But here it is. iMac 2020, running since 08/11/2020, I never turn it off, use it for work (software development), I run VMs, docker containers, build code all day long. My RAM is maxed out at 128gb though. My main browser is Safari but I do use Chrome & Firefox for work. So all three browsers are running most of the time on my iMac. I did cancel an M1 air I had ordered (to get some mobility when not at my desk) because of this issue. I suspect anything other than 0% for most M1 users is a red flag so'll just wait for a resolution.

EDIT: forgot to mention. I ran most of BigSur beta releases and upgraded to its official release on day 1.

$ sudo smartctl --all /dev/disk0
smartctl 7.2 2020-12-30 r5155 [Darwin 20.3.0 x86_64] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-20, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Number: APPLE SSD AP1024N
Firmware Version: 1161.80.
PCI Vendor/Subsystem ID: 0x106b
IEEE OUI Identifier: 0x000000
Controller ID: 0
NVMe Version: <1.2
Number of Namespaces: 1
Local Time is: Sun Feb 28 16:02:56 2021 EST
Firmware Updates (0x02): 1 Slot
Optional Admin Commands (0x0004): Frmw_DL
Optional NVM Commands (0x0004): DS_Mngmt
Maximum Data Transfer Size: 256 Pages

Supported Power States
St Op Max Active Idle RL RT WL WT Ent_Lat Ex_Lat
0 + 0.00W - - 0 0 0 0 0 0

=== START OF SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

SMART/Health Information (NVMe Log 0x02)
Critical Warning: 0x00
Temperature: 39 Celsius
Available Spare: 100%
Available Spare Threshold: 99%
Percentage Used: 0%
Data Units Read: 26,394,821 [13.5 TB]
Data Units Written: 20,149,409 [10.3 TB]
Host Read Commands: 708,959,229
Host Write Commands: 510,659,787
Controller Busy Time: 0
Power Cycles: 191
Power On Hours: 508
Unsafe Shutdowns: 31
Media and Data Integrity Errors: 0
Error Information Log Entries: 0

Read 1 entries from Error Information Log failed: GetLogPage failed: system=0x38, sub=0x0, code=745

 

[eshroom]

The 11.2.2 update DOES NOT fix the problem. Turning off Spotlight seems to stop the excessive writing.

Great tip. Thanks. How long have you disabled spotlight for and what kind of a difference are you seeing?

Do you have a spotlight alternative installed instead, like Alfred for example?

 

[antwormcity]

In the spirit of capturing more data for reference, here is for a brand new M1 MBA 8/256

output here

smartctl 7.2 2020-12-30 r5155 [Darwin 20.3.0 arm64] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-20, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Number:                       APPLE SSD AP0256Q
Serial Number:                      0deadbeefdeadbeef
Firmware Version:                   1161.80.
PCI Vendor/Subsystem ID:            0x106b
IEEE OUI Identifier:                0x000000
Controller ID:                      0
NVMe Version:                       <1.2
Number of Namespaces:               3
Local Time is:                      Sun Feb 28 13:38:41 2021 PST
Firmware Updates (0x02):            1 Slot
Optional Admin Commands (0x0004):   Frmw_DL
Optional NVM Commands (0x0004):     DS_Mngmt
Maximum Data Transfer Size:         256 Pages

Supported Power States
St Op     Max   Active     Idle   RL RT WL WT  Ent_Lat  Ex_Lat
0 +     0.00W       -        -    0  0  0  0        0       0

=== START OF SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

SMART/Health Information (NVMe Log 0x02)
Critical Warning:                   0x00
Temperature:                        32 Celsius
Available Spare:                    100%
Available Spare Threshold:          99%
Percentage Used:                    0%
Data Units Read:                    943,806 [483 GB]
Data Units Written:                 768,626 [393 GB]
Host Read Commands:                 10,702,508
Host Write Commands:                5,304,459
Controller Busy Time:               0
Power Cycles:                       78
Power On Hours:                     5
Unsafe Shutdowns:                   3
Media and Data Integrity Errors:    0
Error Information Log Entries:      0

Read 1 entries from Error Information Log failed: GetLogPage failed: system=0x38, sub=0x0, code=745

 

[Leon1das]

Just reporting DriveDx diagnostics.
2 Months old M1 MBP
1.7 TB

Adding to my previous posts about kernel_task activity
I managed to put mine under control after I limited Spotlight indexing.
If you see high activity of kernel-task - try to disable Spotlight indexing and check back again.
Not guaranteeing - but worth of trying.

 

[dogslobber]

# sudo mdutil -a -i off

This will disable spotlight indexing.

 

[pistonpilot]

Great tip. Thanks. How long have you disabled spotlight for and what kind of a difference are you seeing?

Do you have a spotlight alternative installed instead, like Alfred for example?

I turned off Spotlight this morning.

I am using Alfred and https://apps.tempel.org/FindAnyFile/

I see the difference in Kernel writes when I look at the activity monitor. I'll have more to report in the morning.

 

[Jack Neill]

Im not worried, I'll use it until its burns up and then buy a new one. My M1 Air is 8/512 and is 118 days old.

 

[pistonpilot]

# sudo mdutil -a -i off

This will disable spotlight indexing.

iMac:~ a$ sudo mdutil -a -i off
Password:
/:
2021-03-01 05:38:15.578 mdutil[10786:308133] mdutil disabling Spotlight: / -> kMDConfigSearchLevelFSSearchOnly
Indexing disabled.
/System/Volumes/Data:
2021-03-01 05:38:15.621 mdutil[10786:308133] mdutil disabling Spotlight: /System/Volumes/Data -> kMDConfigSearchLevelFSSearchOnly
Indexing disabled.
/Volumes/2TB:
2021-03-01 05:38:16.025 mdutil[10786:308133] mdutil disabling Spotlight: /Volumes/2TB -> kMDConfigSearchLevelFSSearchOnly
Indexing enabled.
/Volumes/DATA:
2021-03-01 05:38:17.162 mdutil[10786:308133] mdutil disabling Spotlight: /Volumes/DATA -> kMDConfigSearchLevelFSSearchOnly
Indexing and searching disabled.
/Volumes/Mini 2T:
2021-03-01 05:38:17.446 mdutil[10786:308133] mdutil disabling Spotlight: /Volumes/Mini 2T -> kMDConfigSearchLevelFSSearchOnly
Indexing and searching disabled.
/Volumes/Time Machine:
2021-03-01 05:38:18.077 mdutil[10786:308133] mdutil disabling Spotlight: /Volumes/Time Machine -> kMDConfigSearchLevelFSSearchOnly
Indexing and searching disabled.
/Volumes/Time Machine/Backups.backupdb:
2021-03-01 05:38:18.126 mdutil[10786:308133] mdutil disabling Spotlight: /Volumes/Time Machine/Backups.backupdb -> kMDConfigSearchLevelFSSearchOnly
Indexing enabled.
iMac:~ a$

 

[Ethosik]

Even if it doesn't need it doesn't mean software doesn't try to do it.

I said in the rest of the post you quoted that I'm not sure if MacOS still does this tho.

This is 100% false. SSDs have nearly instantaneous access to ANY area of the drive. Mechanical HDDs need to defrag to prevent the RPM slowness of accessing needed data and having the platter spin.

 

[pistonpilot]

I can confirm that writes are 28GB in 10 hours. This is for my iMac that has already written 28TB to the spinning drive. This has nothing to do with 11.2.2 and everything to do with turning off Spotlight.

 

[osplo]

# sudo mdutil -a -i off

This will disable spotlight indexing.

But this severely cripples a basic feature of the OS.

If this is healthy I'd rather prefer illness.

 

[dogslobber]

But this severely cripples a basic feature of the OS.

If this is healthy I'd rather prefer illness.

Some people prefer to protect their hardware investment until Apple fixes this showstopper bug. Whether you do or don't is irrelevant to me.

 

[chouseworth]

Some people prefer to protect their hardware investment until Apple fixes this showstopper bug. Whether you do or don't is irrelevant to me.

The point that osplo makes has some validity and is not irrelevant to this forum.

 

[Mistborn15]

Im not worried, I'll use it until its burns up and then buy a new one. My M1 Air is 8/512 and is 118 days old.

good for you

 

[wirtandi]

Even with this issue, I have decided that most likely Ill buy the MBA M1, but the problem is, i wont be able to return it if covid strikes again and the stores are closed...

Oh Apple, all we need is an official statement from you