Upgrading 2013-2015 Macbook Pro SSD to M.2 NVMe

[Earl Urley]

If you live near a MicroCenter, you can get the Inland Premium M.2 NVMe drive for $119.99.

https://www.microcenter.com/product...80-pcie-nvme-30-x4-internal-solid-state-drive

Show them this coupon: https://instore.thread.co/retailmenot/microcenter.com/offer/XR5LE4ZL3NC7JNZU5ZL6OSUCJM

For an additional $5.00 off, brining the total before tax to $114.99. So, a 1 TB SSD for $115!

Already have this in my Late 2013 rMBP with the Sintech B adapter and it works great.

You could also order it through their Web Store, but they have some weird checkout process that looks for your address from a known database and if it isn't in there, they will just tell you to go to the nearest MicroCenter that has the part in stock.

 

[aphirak]

I recently opened up a bug ticket with Apple, the engineering team requested a system diagnosis for the crash on the 2013 and 2014 models using NVME SSDs. I don't know what will come from this but maybe they will resolve the issue, who knows. I don't know how many people have opened bugs for this and if it has been ignored by them.

I also mentioned that the bootrom does not get updated when using apple certified/non certified NVME drives to expand storage and gave the 149.0 -> 151.0 example that just happened with mojave 10.14.4

I did bug report. The apple development said "No, there is no plan to support NVMe based SSDs internally on legacy systems. We consider this issue closed."

 

[Colin0317]

I just upgraded my 13” MacBook Pro mid 2014 with a 512GB SX8200PRO. I’m a little confused as to what terminal command I need to type for the hibernation issue. I tried 25, but it locks up after I type my credentials...

Any help would be appreciated.

On a side note, does the MacBook hibernate when on ac power? I use mine plugged in almost exclusively.

Thanks!!

Can anyone help me with this?

Thanks

 

[Audit13]

Can anyone help me with this?

Thanks

Look at the first post for the commands.

 

[zjummx]

Thanks to the authors and participants of this thread. I have a Late-2013 13" MacBook Pro Retina, 8GB + 256G, and the SSD was broken recently. I found this discussion, and went for a WD Black SN750 1TB NVMe M.2 drive + short Adapter, and they work perfectly! Read and write bandwidth almost doubled, no obvious thermal issue (web surfing + office suite).

As for the sleep wakeup issue, I did my test (all with SMC/PRAM cleared) for your reference:
1. OSX 10.13.6 High Sierra
a) With default pmset settings, can't wake up after sleeping overnight. Just a blank screen, no sound, no display. I had to force reboot by long pressing the power button.
b) With recommended pmset settings (hibernatemode 0 standby 0 autopoweroff 0), no sleep issue but battery drains 6% overnight (60% -> 54%)
c) Tried hibernate mode 25, but got the same sleep issue as a).

2. OSX 10.14.4 Mojave
a) With default pmset settings (hibernate mode 3), my MacBook Pro CAN wake up normally after overnight sleep. When I open the lid, login window pops up instantly. No loading bar. But the battery still drains 5~6%.
b) If I set hibernate mode to 25, and shorten the standby delay low and high to 1/2mins, the MacBook went into hibernate mode normally. And when I open the lid, I can hear power up sound (duang~) twice, then Apple logo with loading bar. Everything went back normally.

So I am thinking maybe Apple did something to improve the NVMe sleep compatibility in Mojave, but not on the BootROM (because the bootrom version didn't change after I installed Mojave). The NVMe SSD is still draining more power during sleep, but I think it's more of a problem with the NVMe flash drive itself (higher sleep current in low power mode).

 

[zjummx]

Regarding the effect of 'standby' 'hibernate mode' 'standby delay*' parameters of pmset command, here is what I got from my tests:
(On fresh new Mojave, battery powered, Late-2013 MacBook Pro Retina 13", WD Black 1TB NVMe SSD)
1. Standby = 1, hibernatemode=3, standby delay low = 1(sec) high=1(sec). close the lid for a few minutes to make sure it settles down completely. when I open the lid, I saw black screen, then twice 'duang' sound, then apple logo with loading bar.
2. Change hibernatemode to 25. Got the same result.
3. Change hibernatemode to 0. No loading bar, login interface showed up instantly.
4. Standby = 0, hibernatemode=3/25. No loading bar, login interface showed up instantly.

Here below is my understanding, please correct me if I am wrong:
1. When you close the lid, your MacBook enters 'sleep mode' immediately. Which means display off, CPU/RAM/Flash still powered but in low power state.
2. If standby = 1, a timer will be enabled. When the preset delay time is reached (low for low battery and high for high battery power), your MacBook will enter 'standby mode' which is supposed to be a lower power state than 'sleep'. Depending on the 'hibernatemode' setting, you enter 0=similar state as 'sleep', 3=safe sleep(a memory image is written to disk but memory is still powered), or 25=full hibernate (a memory image is written, then power down)
3. If standby = 0, hibernatemode and standbydelay* are ignored. Force hibernation when battery power is very low.

 

[dobrink]

I did bug report. The apple development said "No, there is no plan to support NVMe based SSDs internally on legacy systems. We consider this issue closed."

What is this supposed to mean. What if people would want to upgrade their MB 2013-2014, or iMac 2013-2015 storage with 1TB/2TB original Apple SSDs which are NVMe... And all this done by an authorized Apple personnel?
By not implementing legacy systems support (which is as simple as decompressing the NVMe dXE driver and including it into the bootrom's firmware updates), do they mean that those supper expensive drives will be with sleep issues just because Apple does not want to lose money by giving that NVMe support to the public?

 

[owbp]

What is this supposed to mean. What if people would want to upgrade their MB 2013-2014, or iMac 2013-2015 storage with 1TB/2TB original Apple SSDs which are NVMe... And all this done by an authorized Apple personnel?
By not implementing legacy systems support (which is as simple as decompressing the NVMe dXE driver and including it into the bootrom's firmware updates), do they mean that those supper expensive drives will be with sleep issues just because Apple does not want to lose money by giving that NVMe support to the public?

Best thing to do is everyone who has "legacy" MBP's with replaced SSD to submit the same bug report.

The MacPro(09-12) guys did the same thing on several occasions, and now they have NVMe boot support, among other things. And that's a BIG win, since NVMe booting on LGA1366 motherboards is non-existent in PC world.

 

[souko]

I have set hibernate mode to 25 and standbydelaylow 1800 and standbydelayhigh 10800. Somoene knows, please, why my Mac did not go to hibernate after 5 hours of not using?

lidwake 1

autopoweroff 1

standbydelayhigh 10800

autopoweroffdelay 28800

proximitywake 0

standby 1

standbydelaylow 1800

ttyskeepawake 1

hibernatemode 25

powernap 0

gpuswitch 2

hibernatefile /var/vm/sleepimage

highstandbythreshold 50

displaysleep 4

sleep 4 (sleep prevented by sharingd, useractivityd)

acwake 0

halfdim 1

tcpkeepalive 1

disksleep 10

 

[jackqueenking]

What is this supposed to mean. What if people would want to upgrade their MB 2013-2014, or iMac 2013-2015 storage with 1TB/2TB original Apple SSDs which are NVMe... And all this done by an authorized Apple personnel?
By not implementing legacy systems support (which is as simple as decompressing the NVMe dXE driver and including it into the bootrom's firmware updates), do they mean that those supper expensive drives will be with sleep issues just because Apple does not want to lose money by giving that NVMe support to the public?

This is pathetic, its typical of Apple to perform such a stunt. Not happy with your current MBP and can't find Apple OEM parts to upgrade -> buy a new and more recent mac for 2k. Oh look those new macs have soldered SSD and Memory so if you cheap out the first time you're screwed, better buy a new mac if you want more memory or space since you can't modify the one you bought already. They consider systems legacy after 5 years and so those systems don't get updated anymore.

Here in Canada they are apparently pushing for a law that will force companies to provide support and not discontinue products because people have realized that these products can last well beyond the manufacturers EOL date, this is the same reason why iPhone sales have declined, because they are so damn expensive so people try to hold on to their phones for longer than 2 years but eventually apple stops providing updates.

 

[Audit13]

This is pathetic, its typical of Apple to perform such a stunt. Not happy with your current MBP and can't find Apple OEM parts to upgrade -> buy a new and more recent mac for 2k. Oh look those new macs have soldered SSD and Memory so if you cheap out the first time you're screwed, better buy a new mac if you want more memory or space since you can't modify the one you bought already. They consider systems legacy after 5 years and so those systems don't get updated anymore.

Here in Canada they are apparently pushing for a law that will force companies to provide support and not discontinue products because people have realized that these products can last well beyond the manufacturers EOL date, this is the same reason why iPhone sales have declined, because they are so damn expensive so people try to hold on to their phones for longer than 2 years but eventually apple stops providing updates.

I don't think any such law will pass any time soon. There are a lot of issues facing the Trudeau government as well as the upcoming election.

Apple Canada, based on my own experience, will not upgrade any SSD for a MacBook after the unit has been sold. They will replace like for like while under warranty; otherwise, they will not do anything for you.

 

[jackqueenking]

I don't think any such law will pass any time soon. There are a lot of issues facing the Trudeau government as well as the upcoming election.

Apple Canada, based on my own experience, will not upgrade any SSD for a MacBook after the unit has been sold. They will replace like for like while under warranty; otherwise, they will not do anything for you.

Correct, but now its soldered so even if you wanted to do it yourself you couldn't. Also yes Trudeau is taking a lot of heat, maybe it will pass one day or maybe it will go province by province, who knows. But if it does pass it would be glorious.

 

[gilles_polysoft]

Let me rephrase my question. Has anybody actually swapped a SSUBX drive in a MBP 15" mid 2015 in favor for an Apple SSPolaris drive (e.g Model KKW1T00) and can comment on their experience regarding power consumption, battery running time etc.?

You have not seen but Polaris drives have already been tested for a while (as far as post #23 in this thread).

They figure in the tables of post #1 with the ref. SM0512L / MZ-KKW5120/0A2
(all NVMe drives tested have a 512 GB capacity so that comparisons are on a equal basis).

The SM0512L consumes a lot during writes (5W) but has a very low idle consumption (0.3W) so in average Polaris are very good at perfs/power consumption, although they are the worst regarding perfs/price...

 

[halexber]

Bad news for me, sx8200 pro died after a week, bad luck I think because all posts here and out here said it was reliable. I could ask Amazon for a replacement, but I was wondering another brand like Sabrent. Any suggestion?
Thank you for all your advice.

 

[jackqueenking]

Bad news for me, sx8200 pro died after a week, bad luck I think because all posts here and out here said it was reliable. I could ask Amazon for a replacement, but I was wondering another brand like Sabrent. Any suggestion?
Thank you for all your advice.

Same thing happened to my regular sx8200, i switched it for an intel 760p, haven't noticed a difference but into seems to have the more robust drive.

 

[halexber]

intel 760p here in Spain is a little bit more expensive almost twice as Sabrent. Does anyone know for sure how reliable is Sabrent? I have read a lot of o comments in Amazon.com, but have my doubts?
Thank you for your prompt response.

 

[RedTomato]

Bad news for me, sx8200 pro died after a week, bad luck I think because all posts here and out here said it was reliable. I could ask Amazon for a replacement, but I was wondering another brand like Sabrent. Any suggestion?
Thank you for all your advice.

Inform amazon ASAP and get a replacement. My 1TB SX8200 has been fine for several months in my heavily used daily driver MBA 2013.

Components fail on a bathtub curve. Either they fail immediately (or almost so) or they’re fine for years before failing.

 

[The_Moves]

Hello guys,
I've just upgraded my MBP 15" mid-2015 (MacBookPro11,4) with SX8200Pro and I have couple of questions:
- I have long SinTech adapter, obtained via Amazon.de, and it comes with foam on which disk can lie + metal connectors are covered by some material that SinTech installed. My questions are how tight should be disk tighten? It bends a little and this scares me. Another thing is that SX8200Pro comes with small radiator so should I install it? Would be there any space for it?

- Disk Utility claims my drive is not supporting SMART, while DriveDx (for which I have to pay for) is reading all attributes without any issues. Is this normal with PCI-E Drives?

- To upgrade FW in the future I should have bootcamped Windows, don't I?

I have the long SinTech adapter and mine flexes too. I imagine the bed does put some stress on the connector, but i'm not sure how much. I was considering cutting the long adapter down to make it a "short" adapter. But input from others would be appreciated.

SMART doesn't work

Yes FW update from Windows, i know my MyDigitial SSD BPX requires Windows and complete reinstall.

 

[TokMok3]

I have achieved ~2000MB/s write and 3000MB/s read BUT it is probably due to SLC cache. Let me what tests you are interested in and I could provide something

Great performance! Thank you!

 

[x34]

I did bug report. The apple development said "No, there is no plan to support NVMe based SSDs internally on legacy systems. We consider this issue closed."

and i wont buy a new MBP for another couple of years then.

 

[rbmanian75]

hi
i am trying to upgrade mid 2014 MBP. trying to choose between corsair 510 2tb 362 euros and sabrent rocket 2tb 308 euros. which is a good choice in terms of endurance and performance.

 

[djangoreinhardt442]

hi
i am trying to upgrade mid 2014 MBP. trying to choose between corsair 510 2tb 362 euros and sabrent rocket 2tb 308 euros. which is a good choice in terms of endurance and performance.

They are essentially the SAME SSD but sold by different manufacturers
Pick the one with the better warranty.
"The Sabrent Uses the Phison E12 with Toshiba's 64L 3D TLC NAND, like many other drives: Corsair MP510, MyDigitalSSD BPX Pro, Addlink S70, and Seagate BarraCuda/FireCuda 510"

Here is a discussion (above quote is from there) on the Sabrent from Reddit.
User /NewMaxx sure sounds like he knows what is talking about

https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapcsales/comments/anwfj2/ssd_sabrent_1tb_rocket_nvme_pcie_m2_2280_ssd/

DO read the FlowChart from NewMaxx here, GREAT READ!!!

https://www.reddit.com/user/NewMaxx

 

[dobrink]

I did bug report. The apple development said "No, there is no plan to support NVMe based SSDs internally on legacy systems. We consider this issue closed."

Could you please explain in detail how you did the bug report (by email, phone, or other...), what reasoning did you provide for them to do something about the NVMe support, and who exactly the reply was from?
This is in order for other people to be able to repeat the bug report, but with changing the parameters, so possibly the outcome could be more positive. As, for example, planning to upgrade MBP's storage to 1TB/2TB Apple certified Polaris NVMe SSDs. I am from Europe and here are plenty of certified Apple stores that would perform the service, so the profit of one such upgrade still goes to Apple, and there is no logic that they won't offer firmware support for these procedures. (of course that is only the version of the story that we present to them, we won't use Apple's upgrade services, or their SSDs, we just need the NVMe support implementation).

 

[gilles_polysoft]

Could you please explain in detail how you did the bug report (by email, phone, or other...), what reasoning did you provide for them to do something about the NVMe support, and who exactly the reply was from?
This is in order for other people to be able to repeat the bug report, but with changing the parameters, so possibly the outcome could be more positive. As, for example, planning to upgrade MBP's storage to 1TB/2TB Apple certified Polaris NVMe SSDs. I am from Europe and here are plenty of certified Apple stores that would perform the service, so the profit of one such upgrade still goes to Apple, and there is no logic that they won't offer firmware support for these procedures. (of course that is only the version of the story that we present to them, we won't use Apple's upgrade services, or their SSDs, we just need the NVMe support implementation).

I don't want to be pessimist, but I already submitted the two following bug reports back in 2018 :
- bug report #43005090, submitted on August 7 2018, regarding wake up from hibernation with NVMe drives on 2013-2014 models
- bug report #43023110, submitted on August 8 2018, regarding BootRom updates not working with NVMe drives on all 2013-2015 models, which is a security issue.


As I am a manager of an authorized Premium Service Provider, I did talk about those two bug reports to my local apple representatives.
They did try to help, and Apple Developper relations did ask for more informations (in august 2018)
I then did provide more informations (sysdiagnose reports, and I also explained that as for hibernation, only decompressing the NVMe DXE driver solved the problem).


Nothing moved since (it has been 9 months ago).
The current updates don't provide NVMe uncompressed DXE driver, and the BootRom update security issue is still there with NVMe drives.


Note that I properly mentioned Apple NVMe drive (SM2048L and AP032) in the bug report (I myself use on a daily basis a SM2048L for 2 years, since summer 2017 !).

Maybe I should even not have mentionned other tiers SSDs to not deserve the purpose of the bugreport.
I also can give and ship Apple NVMe AP032 drives (I have plenty in spare) to anyone who want to make tests and eventually fill bug reports...

The answer given to user "aphirak" doesn't give lot of hope.


As for comparing with what occurred with the Mac Pro 5.1, I'm not sure.

I was the first to mod a logic board to include NVMe support into (in march 2018), but I never submitted bugreports and have no clue why Apple did include NVMe driver in the BootRom of the Mac Pro.

It could be by pressure of the users, but I'm not sure.

But may either be a totally unrelated thing :

Apple is used to support booting a mac from the drive of another Mac in Target mode.
In order to do that, they regularly update BootRoms to let Target Mode support new devices.

It's pure supposition from me, but Apple may have included the NVMe DXE driver in the BootRom of the 2013-2014 macs (and also in the Mac Pro) *only* in order to support booting on another device in target mode (being it a 12" MacBook with NVMe drive or a 2016-2018 MacBook pro).

This would explain why they include NVMe support in the BootRom : they may not have done this in a way to support upgrade/replacements with NVMe drive, but only to support Target mode.




Bug report #43005090

summary:
Since macOS 10.13, the BootRom of every supported mac have been updated.
The update brought APFS boot support, but it also brought NVMe boot support, with a NVMe DXE driver incorporated in the BootRom.
But on a limited number of Mac models, all models made between late 2013 and late 2014, the NVMe dxe driver include in the BootRom is incomplete and doesn't allow resuming from deep sleep / hibernation.

Those 2013-2014 models hang at wake up from hibernation when they have a NVMe SSD as boot drive (being it an Apple genuine SSD, or a tiers Transcend 850 or OWC Aura pro X).

Steps to Reproduce:
- install in a 2013-2014 Mac any NVMe SSD of any brand: Apple SM2048L, AP032H, Transcend 850)
- put it to sleep for more than 10800s

Expected Results:
the Mac should wake up.

Actual Results:
the Mac doesn't wake up. Backlight of the LCD display powers on, but system doesn't resume from hibernation.

Version/Build:
any macOS >= 10.13.0
any BootRom

Configuration:
any Macintosh notebook with upgraded NVMe SSD from late 2013 to late 2014 :
MacBookAir6,1
MacBookAir6,2
MacBookPro11,1
MacBookPro11,2
MacBookPro11,3​

Bug report #43023110

Summary:
If booted from a NVMe SSD only, some Macs made between 2013-2015 fail to update their BootRom at each macOS Update.

Steps to Reproduce:
- take a 2013-2015 with outdated BootRom and macOS (ex: MacBookPro11,4 with BootRom MBP114.0177.B00 and macOS 10.13.5)
- it it is booted from an AHCI PCIe SSD, the update from 10.13.5 to 10.13.6 will update the BootRom to MBP114.0184.B00
- if it is booted from any NVMe SSD (tested : AP0032H, SM2048L and tiers NVMe SSD like Transcend 850), the BootRom upgrade fails and BootRom stays outdated.


Expected Results:
BootRom should be updated at each macOS update, even while booted on a NVMe SSD. Here BootRom should be MBP114.0184.B00 after macOS 10.13.6 update.

Actual Results:
BootRom stays outdated (MBP114.0177.B00) after macOS 10.13.6 update while booted on a NVMe SSD

Version/Build:
macOS 10.13.5

Configuration:
MacBookPro11,4 with BootRom MBP114.0177.B00 and NVMe SSD​

 

[dobrink]

Thank you for your detailed input. Could you guide us to the webpage/link/form for such bug reports? Perhaps we can do similar reports with only mentioning Apple NVMe drives being installed by Apple authorized service providers, and possible reclamations in case this issue isn't fixed in the near future.

How serious do they take such bug reports? Do they always reply? Did you have to write your device's serial number, or only state the model? There are people here from different continents, thus different Apple departments are going to handle the issues, so perhaps if we play it right, we can inspire a change.

Even if they give us the "Legacy" card again, we can be smart and switch the focus to similar issue that iMacs face. iMacs 27" Late 2015 also have the NVMe dXE driver compressed and this causes inability to wake from normal sleep, thus they have to always use hibernation, or they crash. Those iMacs are NOT legacy, they are 1.5 - 3.5 years old.

P.S.: Can you give us the names of other Apple NVMes (like your SM2048L and AP032), preferrably high capacity 1-2TB, so that we can complain that we paid €800 for the drives and €200-300 for the installation and they have issues waking up.