ssd swap - high usage of Terabytes Written

[leons]

Sorry to ask, but is there an up-to-date post with the latest working methods to mitigate this, please? (I’ve just come across it and don’t have several days to read the whole thread 😉)

Like the other poster, this is all which is putting me off purchasing at this point.

I am a Lightroom Classic user if this makes a difference, and it would be a major use case for this machine...

1. Buy and use the machine normally. After 7-10 days, check your disk usage to see if you are affected.
2. If you are, change to Edge or Firefox for browsing and turn off browser caching. This alone will bring you (at minimum) to utilization that will assure your disk is good for 10 years+.
3. Enjoy!

 

[TheSynchronizer]

So, yesterday I did a reboot and also turned off 'Handoff' (but not back on like you did) and also turned off 'Sharing' as that shows up in the assertions.

Better results. Previously I had overnight 11Gb over 13Hrs, this morning it is 5.7Gb over 11.5Hrs. I will use it as normal to see what the day-to-day usage looks like. Good tips as well thanks but it is a chore that I didn't expect on a Mac.

Great to see!

Now, to me it seems that the remaining data being written is your RAM contents after 3 hours. This is controlled by pmset standby - 1 means it will write the contents after 3 hours, 0 means it will keep the RAM powered for the entirety of sleep.

But as I said previously, as long as your writes are <5GB/hour overall (your whole overall use including the mac sleeping), I believe there is nothing to worry about and you should just enjoy your mac So it’s up to you whether you choose to turn standby off or on.

 

[Ektachrome]

1. Buy and use the machine normally. After 7-10 days, check your disk usage to see if you are affected.
2. If you are, change to Edge or Firefox for browsing and turn off browser caching. This alone will bring you (at minimum) to utilization that will assure your disk is good for 10 years+.
3. Enjoy!

Same advice if you’re buying an M1 largely for Lightroom, rather than web browsing, etc.?

https://feedback.photoshop.com/conv...080c8848d35d&replyId=60608697da18080c8848d4cc

I’m just a little concerned, having read a fair bit of the thread now, that it became a bit focused on one or two particular use cases being mitigated, wheras others might still be problematic, even very problematic, and haven’t been satisfactorily been remedied as yet?

 

[TheSynchronizer]

Same advice if you’re buying an M1 largely for Lightroom, rather than web browsing, etc.?

https://feedback.photoshop.com/conv...080c8848d35d&replyId=60608697da18080c8848d4cc

I’m just a little concerned, having read a fair bit of the thread now, that it became a bit focused on one or two particular use cases being mitigated, wheras others might still be problematic, even very problematic, and haven’t been satisfactorily been remedied as yet?

I do some fairly heavy / memory intensive Java software development, on both M1 native and Rosetta 2 IDE's, and essentially of all the tweaks I did to reduce my SSD writes from being in the hundreds to 25GB a day or less, the most significant one was changing from Safari to Edge with a good tab discarding schedule and caching turned off.

I initially had 20TB written to my SSD before realising and actively setting out to fix the issue. But the fixes are really simple. This M1 machine is truly beautiful and I'd buy it a million more times given the opportunity.

I truly think theres nothing to worry about anymore.

 

[leons]

Same advice if you’re buying an M1 largely for Lightroom, rather than web browsing, etc.?

https://feedback.photoshop.com/conv...080c8848d35d&replyId=60608697da18080c8848d4cc

I’m just a little concerned, having read a fair bit of the thread now, that it became a bit focused on one or two particular use cases being mitigated, wheras others might still be problematic, even very problematic, and haven’t been satisfactorily been remedied as yet?

Echoing @TheSynchronizer 's post above. In addition, if you look at the post just below the post that you linked to, you will see that the Lightroom issue is present on Intel/PC's as well. So, you will need to do a few tweaks no matter what you buy until Lightroom corrects it. But in the interim, you will have no problems with a few easy tweaks. And you will be amazed at how well Lightroom works on this machine.

 

[Ektachrome]

Echoing @TheSynchronizer 's post above. In addition, if you look at the post just below the post that you linked to, you will see that the Lightroom issue is present on Intel/PC's as well. So, you will need to do a few tweaks no matter what you buy until Lightroom corrects it. But in the interim, you will have no problems with a few easy tweaks. And you will be amazed at how well Lightroom works on this machine.

To be fair, though, I don’t have to do those ‘easy tweaks’ on my 8-year old 15” MBP Retina, nor do I have to avoid Safari with goodness knows how many tabs open at the same time as using LR.

By definition, if users are having to use LR in such a way that it reduces the performance load to the extent that older Macs would fly, how is that LR running amazingly well on an M1?

What I’ve actually realising is that, unless you want to risk your SSD failing prematurely, you absolutely can’t use the M1 as you want at the moment - you have to either not use perfectly ordinary apps like Safari, or not utilise the exact power which is attractive about the M1 in applications which require them, like Lightroom.

Happy to be convinced this is not the case, but nothing I’m seeing here or on the Lightroom forum so far has convinced me as yet.

I do really want one of these if and when the issue is resolved, but I think at this point Id be foolish to chance it when I’m not yet invested in one. Might just have to make my MBP continue to be my main machine for a while longer I think.

Thanks for the replies, appreciated.

 

[gank41]

Interesting this might not be a universal issue. I wonder if there’s some difference in you’re setup somehow?

Also, is there any correlation to what resolution of screen/monitor people are using?

Do you use Lightroom or Photoshop or any more heavy processing apps?

I use Logic Pro often and Final Cut Pro not quite as often. I do a lot of audio & video file conversions.

 

[Tev11]

When doing a time machine backup onto an external SSD, it doesn't write locally as well right? If it's writing to the external SSD only, then why are people turning off Time Machine?

 

[k-hawinkler]

When doing a time machine backup onto an external SSD, it doesn't write locally as well right? If it's writing to the external SSD only, then why are people turning off Time Machine?

Doesn’t it also write a Snapshot locally?

 

[Tev11]

Doesn’t it also write a Snapshot locally?

Oh, I didn't realize that!

 

[leons]

To be fair, though, I don’t have to do those ‘easy tweaks’ on my 8-year old 15” MBP Retina, nor do I have to avoid Safari with goodness knows how many tabs open at the same time as using LR.

By definition, if users are having to use LR in such a way that it reduces the performance load to the extent that older Macs would fly, how is that LR running amazingly well on an M1?

What I’ve actually realising is that, unless you want to risk your SSD failing prematurely, you absolutely can’t use the M1 as you want at the moment - you have to either not use perfectly ordinary apps like Safari, or not utilise the exact power which is attractive about the M1 in applications which require them, like Lightroom.

Happy to be convinced this is not the case, but nothing I’m seeing here or on the Lightroom forum so far has convinced me as yet.

I do really want one of these if and when the issue is resolved, but I think at this point Id be foolish to chance it when I’m not yet invested in one. Might just have to make my MBP continue to be my main machine for a while longer I think.

Thanks for the replies, appreciated.

Nothing needs "convincing". Lightroom runs better/faster/cooler on an M1....BUT, if the benefits for you of upgrading your 8YO MPB are overshadowed by the tweaks which have already been worked out by others, then by all means wait. For me personally, the great all-around pleasure of this revolutionary M1 upgrade (and I still have 4 older MBPs) FAR exceed any of the small adjustments made. In fact, in doing them I learned a lot I didn't know before. And that's coming from someone who (as far as I know) was the worst affected by this problem @ 1 to 1.5 TB/day. Now, down to about 25GB/day If I lost this machine tomorrow, I would buy another the same day.

 

[Piggie]

I don't know about anyone else, but putting aside any excuses and/or workarounds, to me this whole issue harks back to the statement I made (and others also) before the actual launch of the new M1 Macs

To remember what pretty much always happens with a new Apple Gen1 product.
This is where all the initial problems are.
Gen 2 is to sort out all the issues that were not able to be done in time
Gen 3 is where often the nice spot is, as it's a nice shine and polish to what Gen 2 was.

 

[Marty_Macfly]

Nothing needs "convincing". Lightroom runs better/faster/cooler on an M1....BUT, if the benefits for you of upgrading your 8YO MPB are overshadowed by the tweaks which have already been worked out by others, then by all means wait. For me personally, the great all-around pleasure of this revolutionary M1 upgrade (and I still have 4 older MBPs) FAR exceed any of the small adjustments made. In fact, in doing them I learned a lot I didn't know before. And that's coming from someone who (as far as I know) was the worst affected by this problem @ 1 to 1.5 TB/day. Now, down to about 25GB/day If I lost this machine tomorrow, I would buy another the same day.

Well said Leons!


Sure teething issues.

One way to look at it - Is - This a real bonding experience, both with the new Mac, and also with others on this forum going through the same issues.

Like you say, learning loads of new stuff, and hell, this is ground breaking stuff, great to be part of it.

Nothing is perfect, and if it was it would probably be boring in a very short time



Best wishes
Martin

 

[Ektachrome]

Nothing needs "convincing". Lightroom runs better/faster/cooler on an M1....BUT, if the benefits for you of upgrading your 8YO MPB are overshadowed by the tweaks which have already been worked out by others, then by all means wait. For me personally, the great all-around pleasure of this revolutionary M1 upgrade (and I still have 4 older MBPs) FAR exceed any of the small adjustments made. In fact, in doing them I learned a lot I didn't know before. And that's coming from someone who (as far as I know) was the worst affected by this problem @ 1 to 1.5 TB/day. Now, down to about 25GB/day If I lost this machine tomorrow, I would buy another the same day.

Well, yes and no.

Yes, absolutely LR currently runs better and faster on an M1 if you accept that in running it this way, you’ll likely shorten the lifespan of your (non-user replaceable) SSD considerably. The users on the Adobe forum are still finding this is a big issue which is not yet resolved.

If you don’t want to shorten your SSD lifespan, it seems you currently have to use a workflow which reduces the processing power to a degree that one could no longer say it needs a powerful machine to run it at all. Essentially you are then using offline proxies rather than full res files. To put that into perspective, I didn’t even have to do that on a mid-range laptop from 12 years ago.

So, yes, I would need convincing as to why, currently, I would be parting with £1299 in order to have to either trash my investment to get the performance I should have with no damage if things were working as they should, or as to why I’m forced to work in a way even my older MBP could easily handle right now.

 

[Ektachrome]

I don't know about anyone else, but putting aside any excuses and/or workarounds, to me this whole issue harks back to the statement I made (and others also) before the actual launch of the new M1 Macs

To remember what pretty much always happens with a new Apple Gen1 product.
This is where all the initial problems are.
Gen 2 is to sort out all the issues that were not able to be done in time
Gen 3 is where often the nice spot is, as it's a nice shine and polish to what Gen 2 was.

Agreed. Hence my decision to wait until at least the current issues are sorted before parting with hard-won cash!

 

[Ektachrome]

Question:

Is anyone using an external SSD as a boot drive?

If so, does this shift the SSD swap file behaviour issue to the external drive?

 

[Tev11]

Doesn’t it also write a Snapshot locally?

Theoretically speaking, if my external SSD is always connected to my Mac, then local snapshots are avoided?

Is the automatic time machine behaviour abnormal compared to that of an Intel Mac?

I love the automatic backups, it has saved me multiple times.

In case anyone wants to know: I use an M1 Air connected to an LG 24" Ultrafine with thunderbolt 3-USBC and I taped my Time Machine SSD to the Monitor. I spend most of the time connected to the monitor, so.

 

[leons]

Nothing needs "convincing". Lightroom runs better/faster/cooler on an M1....BUT, if the benefits for you of upgrading your 8YO MPB are overshadowed by the tweaks which have already been worked out by others, then by all means wait. For me personally, the great all-around pleasure of this revolutionary M1 upgrade (and I still have 4 older MBPs) FAR exceed any of the small adjustments made. In fact, in doing them I learned a lot I didn't know before. And that's coming from someone who (as far as I know) was the worst affected by this problem @ 1 to 1.5 TB/day. Now, down to about 25GB/day If I lost this machine tomorrow, I would buy another the same day.

So, yes, I would need convincing as to why, currently, I would be parting with £1299 in order to have to either trash my investment to get the performance I should have with no damage if things were working as they should, or as to why I’m forced to work in a way even my older MBP could easily handle right now.

No, you don't. You have validated the "BUT" side of my equation above. For me, the enjoyment that has been added to my computing life by the performance of this wonderful machine makes me wonder how I did without it before. In your case, the equation is based on your Lightroom issue (a large part of which, as validated by the Adobe Forum), is also an Adobe problem. If it were me in the same situation (now that I've seen all this computer can do to improve my computing life), I would get it now (life is short), use it for everything else, and run my Lightroom later when Adobe ports to M1 and Apple has made OS adjustments. But, based on your needs/wants as you've expressed them, waiting is good.

 

[leons]

I don't know about anyone else, but putting aside any excuses and/or workarounds, to me this whole issue harks back to the statement I made (and others also) before the actual launch of the new M1 Macs

To remember what pretty much always happens with a new Apple Gen1 product.
This is where all the initial problems are.
Gen 2 is to sort out all the issues that were not able to be done in time
Gen 3 is where often the nice spot is, as it's a nice shine and polish to what Gen 2 was.

I am "anyone else". I agree with everything you say. But there is NOTHING they could do in Gen2 or Gen3 that would make me want to miss everything I am getting from this Gen1 M1. If I REALLY wanted to, (and the changes are that significant), I can sell the GEN1 and only pay the delta at the time. However, I can't EVER buy back the time between now and then. As I said in an earlier post, if this computer were lost/stolen, I will buy another the same day.

 

[wirtandi]

I guess after checking this thread daily for the past 1 month+....I finally decide Im gonna get it anyway. Reasons:

-I am in need of a laptop and I have had enough postponing my purchase, checking this thread daily, while Apple remains 100% silent.
-No one is absolutely sure if this is an issue, or just a reporting issue like DriveDx, or maybe a real problem indeed. No one is sure. This thread is pretty much 70 pages of speculations and experiments, nothing official nor confirmed.
-This is likely a software issue so apple should be able to release a software update or so.
-Cant waste time always worrying. I mean if the issue is real and proven, sure, it would be dumb of me to go ahead and buy this. But the thing is, it is not (see point 2).
-My usage is most of the time going to be Office and web browsing.
-If something happens, then so be it and I will face it. Wasting time worrying is far worse.

Opinions/feedback?

 

[k-hawinkler]

I guess after checking this thread daily for the past 1 month+....I finally decide Im gonna get it anyway. Reasons:

-I am in need of a laptop and I have had enough postponing my purchase, checking this thread daily, while Apple remains 100% silent.
-No one is absolutely sure if this is an issue, or just a reporting issue like DriveDx, or maybe a real problem indeed. No one is sure. This thread is pretty much 70 pages of speculations and experiments, nothing official nor confirmed.
-This is likely a software issue so apple should be able to release a software update or so.
-Cant waste time always worrying. I mean if the issue is real and proven, sure, it would be dumb of me to go ahead and buy this. But the thing is, it is not (see point 2).

Opinions/feedback?

Congratulations. Which configuration memory/storage Will you get?
I got M1 Mac mini 16 GB/2 TB, such an enjoyable computer.

 

[Mr Screech]

Question:

Is anyone using an external SSD as a boot drive?

If so, does this shift the SSD swap file behaviour issue to the external drive?

Not sure if I'm understanding your question, but yes I'm using an external thunderbolt drive as boot drive and the internal drive had barely any writes since then (smartctl is halting at 9.15TB written but shows about 2k in data units written since 5 days).

// Beware, you can't lower security settings on an external drive, so some drivers can't be installed. In my case my audio interface doesn't work with an external boot drive.

 

[wirtandi]

Congratulations. Which configuration memory/storage Will you get?
I got M1 Mac mini 16 GB/2 TB, such an enjoyable computer.

I am going for 16/512 MBA M1

 

[k-hawinkler]

I am going for 16/512 MBA M1

Great choice.
Once you have it, you may want to keep an eye on TBW to develop a feel for it.
Other than that enjoy and don’t look back.
My daughter has an M1 MBP and loves it. No issues so far.

 

[Ektachrome]

No, you don't.

Well, I do, or I'd have already bought one by now!

Believe me, I'm totally into the idea of an M1, based on the extreme performance people are getting out of them.

What I can't afford, literally in monetary terms, though, is to risk burning through the investment with this SSD issue until it's mitigated with the software I would be buying it for - sadly right now LR seems to be probably the worst affected, which sucks.

I'm getting there, though, I think there might be a possibility I could run the OS on an external TB3 SSD for the moment, so at least I'm not trashing the internal SSD until there's a proper fix. This might work well for me as I was always going to invest in an external TB3 NVMe enclosure anyway for external storage in LR (larger than Apple are able to put in these, around 4TB).

I'm still looking into the caveats for this, but IF it were possible, it would mean I could use a low-capacity NVMe just for the boot drive, just until this is fixed. This would be a relatively low-cost drive, and I wouldn't care if it got thrashed as it's not part of the SOC and won't bugger up the whole machine out of warranty in a few years time.

So I think it'll happen. Just deciding whether to get a MM or a MBP13. But I might get a MM now and then upgrade my MBP15 to a 14 when the M1 14s appear...

All first world problems!