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

[nicolodo]

if in a 2013 macbook pro (without BigSur updated EFI) i install an ssd sata m2.2 with the connector and with ahci i should have no problem with hibernation as they use the AHCI protocol, am I wrong? (I need the answer for a logical reasoning, the easiest way is to install BigSur, I know)

3) The answer is no, the mac use ssd stock with pcie AHCi not ssd m2 AHCI.
I would have been curious to know if with the firmware preceding the update of bigsur, the AHCI native ssd like the transcend 820 would have worked or not with hybernate ... but I have scrolled almost all the pages and nobody has ever done this test

4) i see in the first post that many people have had problems with windows (bluescreen etc ..) are these problems still common? and do they also exist on Linux? Because i used to do a three-boot: ArchLinux, w10, Catalina.

not update

2) i have see the initial list with the different Average power Consumption of the ssd. But i can't report it on the real "life". If i buy the first ssd ( MyDigitalSSD SBX) how bad the battery will be in one day, about 10%? 15%? Or i see the drain only in sleep mode? I don't need a precise measurement, but I can't understand the implications in real life of battery. Where is the temperature sensor of ssd?

Not update

 

[olindacat]

I used Time Machine to create a backup of my original drive, installed the new drive and adapter, booted into internet recovery, used disk utility to format the new drive, and restored from my time machine backup.

If you MacBook is not running the latest boot rom, you might want to create the backup, upgrade to the latest OS if the latest OS has a bootrom update, then install and restore.

I have 10.14.6 Mojave. Is that high enough? I noticed some people have Bootrom versions very high numbered. Mine is: Boot ROM Version: 199.0.0.0.0. Is this high enough?

 

[olindacat]

how does one got from 199 to 457? That's a big numerical difference!

 

[Earl Urley]

That's actually 427..



I have friends with different models, waiting to hear back from CMD+Q to see if the .fd files work as well as the .scap files, especially since some models don't have .scap and only .fd.. did anyone else use an .fd file as the blessed file?

The terminal command is great since it doesn't require you to install Big Sur to get the benefits of the new BootROM; I myself am continuing to use Mojave build 18G6042 with the new BootROM and power doesn't drop during hibernation unless it's overnight, and even then only a few percent..

I would also say it depends on what condition your battery is in as well.

 

[Pametfisher]

That's actually 427..

View attachment 1680391

I have friends with different models, waiting to hear back from CMD+Q to see if the .fd files work as well as the .scap files, especially since some models don't have .scap and only .fd.. did anyone else use an .fd file as the blessed file?

The terminal command is great since it doesn't require you to install Big Sur to get the benefits of the new BootROM; I myself am continuing to use Mojave build 18G6042 with the new BootROM and power doesn't drop during hibernation unless it's overnight, and even then only a few percent..

I would also say it depends on what condition your battery is in as well.

Thanks, I put in a new battery a couple weeks before my display issue. I can see that your Boot Rom did update.

I'm unfamiliar with how to use Terminal to update only the Bootrom, I'll have to look into that.

 

[danielPro]

I have 10.14.6 Mojave. Is that high enough? I noticed some people have Bootrom versions very high numbered. Mine is: Boot ROM Version: 199.0.0.0.0. Is this high enough?

I believe it is fine. I have used the Sabrent Socket with the BootRom 191, and it works fine. I did not see any noticeable difference between 191 and 427.

 

[xboxbml]

When I downgraded from Catalina to Mojave a year ago, I had to get rid of the Data partition. Mojave does not understand the Data partition. I suspect Catalina/Mojave does not understand the updater- partition (cloned system partition mounted RW).
You will have to reformat the SSD before downgrading to Mojave.

Right! I saw that updater partition when I went to blow away my original 128gb SSD to put Mojave 10.14.2 TM backup back on.. I made sure I blew everything away first..

 

[nicolodo]

SO

3) The answer is no, the mac use ssd stock with pcie AHCi not ssd m2 AHCI.
I would have been curious to know if with the firmware preceding the update of bigsur, the AHCI native ssd like the transcend 820 would have worked or not with hybernate ... but I have scrolled almost all the pages and nobody has ever done this test

NO. The apple SSD AHCI have a custom firmware not pubblic. Impossible to have a perfect power management, and the deepsleep without the update at BigSur or other EFI update.
END.

---

let's move on to another point, I hope someone hears me, because it seems to me to speak to myself


I was looking at the various ssd to get an idea on what consumes less. And it appears to be the sabrent rocket. There are currently many update of the sabrnet rocket, many other version.
But i don't know where to look and whether to choose the updated version or the version in the table.
The various consumption are not easy to find in the web.

And i don't know why, when i found the consumption on some page, they don't Correspond to the consumption in the table. I have a lot of confusion. Help.

In the example i report the consumption of KINGSTON A1000 ( original site) that is different from the consumption report on the table in the first page.

 

[otosan]

For everyone who plan to update their firmware (BootRom) to BigSur version without installing the OS itself,

kindly try to download and run this Firmware Updater installer https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zG1teqRenzksqZW6tT0s5zijDiUKrANa/view?usp=drivesdk (i extract the .scap file from BigSur install .app and modify the content of dosdude's firmware installer to make it updated with files from BigSur)

and if possible give me feedback whether it successfully update your firmware or not.

Installation step is :

1. make sure you are plugged to charger
2. enable installation from anywhere in security setting in system preferences
3. run the .pkg file and continue until finish
4. shutdown your mac and turn it back on right away
5. apple with progress bar should appear, if it works, it should progressing lil slower compared to when you do normal boot. and it will reboot itself.
6. check your bootrom version

 

[otosan]

I have 10.14.6 Mojave. Is that high enough? I noticed some people have Bootrom versions very high numbered. Mine is: Boot ROM Version: 199.0.0.0.0. Is this high enough?

Try the installer i post above. It should theoritically update your BootRom to 4xx if your macbook support it

 

[otosan]

SO


NO. The apple SSD AHCI have a custom firmware not pubblic. Impossible to have a perfect power management, and the deepsleep without the update at BigSur or other EFI update.
END.

---

let's move on to another point, I hope someone hears me, because it seems to me to speak to myself


I was looking at the various ssd to get an idea on what consumes less. And it appears to be the sabrent rocket. There are currently many update of the sabrnet rocket, many other version.
But i don't know where to look and whether to choose the updated version or the version in the table.
The various consumption are not easy to find in the web.

And i don't know why, when i found the consumption on some page, they don't Correspond to the consumption in the table. I have a lot of confusion. Help.

In the example i report the consumption of KINGSTON A1000 ( original site) that is different from the consumption report on the table in the first page.

it almost impossible to find the perfect ssd in term of consumption, since there are so many factors affect it,

what i can say is that the one with phison and silicon motion controller tend to play nicer than the one which for example has WD proprietary, samsung polaris or realtek controller.

bottomline is, just find the one most available for you and knownly working with macOS. Sleep and hibernate issues seems gone since BigSur update anyway.

 

[Matthias Borremans]

I've used Sabrent Rocket 1TB in 2015 MBPr 13", definitely got more than 7hrs of battery life just for browsing (LCD 50% brightness), check istatmenu for power draw.

View attachment 862799View attachment 862800

hi, to be clear, did you use this one? https://www.amazon.de/-/en/gp/product/B07ZZYWTBP/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A1ES4VU2ZYV0RM&psc=1

 

[chrickers]

I'm wondering if the Bootrom itself may be what causes some MBPr 2013 - 2014 to brick… is that naive?

However, I'm super excited to update the Bootrom without upgrading the OS. Just for clarification: Is it safe to do this with the NVMe drive or do I have to swap it for the original Apple SSD?

Also, has anybody done the trick since Apple stopped the rollout of Big Sur on older machines? Does the installer in the MAS still contain the necessary files for my MBPr 13" late 2013?

Sorry, if some of these questions are redundant or noobish… I just managed to save my good old machine from a water damage, so I'd really hate to flash it to death now 🙈😅

 

[vince22]

hi, to be clear, did you use this one? https://www.amazon.de/-/en/gp/product/B07ZZYWTBP/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A1ES4VU2ZYV0RM&psc=1

no, this is what i have, its a double sided version, as low as 0.1A.

 

[xboxbml]

no, this is what i have, its a double sided version, as low as 0.1A.
View attachment 1681175View attachment 1681176View attachment 1681177View attachment 1681178

Nice! I've got the SX8200 Pro 2tb. I'm seeing about 0.21. Does Sabrent have a 2tb that operates similar?

 

[Abbbby333]

Hello! I am looking for a recommendation of a 1TB SSD to go into my 2015 11" Macbook air. I'm sure there are plenty of recommendations through this thread, but I am a relative newbie to all of this and 311 pages is really daunting, especially since big sur seems to have cleared up some earlier issues. I am looking for something that will provide as seamless a transition as possible and feel as close to an authentic apple ssd as possible. I was looking at the OWC Aura X2 SSD, but it seems as thought it is more expensive and that it doesn't function as well as some other options. I am hoping to buy something today to take advantage of the black friday deals. Thank you in advance for the advice!

 

[Cmd+Q]

Is there a prereq BootROM version? I did not check beforehand, but after I applied this, I checked and I am at Boot ROM Version: 157.0.0.0.0

Your system firmware was not updated unfortunately. This is another data point that appears to confirms our suspicion that you have to be on some yet to be determined system firmware version (160.0.0.0 and higher on MacBookPro11,1?) that came with macOS Catalina 10.15.x. To update the system firmware to the minimum version, you will have to use an Apple SSD.

Hey CMD+Q, what if I want to flash a MacBook Pro whose identifier ends in .fd? [...] Will the .fd files work the same way? Just bless them and power down/boot?

Yes, I do not have access to a newer system to try this myself; however, these "Secure Capsule" files (Pre-2015 Intel MacBooks?) and "Firmware Descriptor" files (Post-2015 Intel MacBooks?) are functionally equivalent for our purpose.

how does one got from 199 to 457? That's a big numerical difference!

The system firmware update is typically initiated by a macOS update; but can also be started outside of that process via /usr/libexec/efiupdater which in turn uses /usr/sbin/bless with the 'private' firmware update function. See post https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...ook-pro-ssd-to-m-2-nvme.2034976/post-29249031 for that process. Those instructions assume you extract the firmware files from the Big Sur installer and place them on your desktop. I know @otosan prepared another method in post# 7760, but I am always careful with third-party payloads; no offense.

I'm wondering if the Bootrom itself may be what causes some MBPr 2013 - 2014 to brick… is that naive?

Last time I checked the support article on this issue, it sounded like the MacBooks were not bricked but were rather hanging in some stage after the firmware upgrade. I could be wrong.

However, I'm super excited to update the Bootrom without upgrading the OS. Just for clarification: Is it safe to do this with the NVMe drive or do I have to swap it for the original Apple SSD?

It appears that whether you are able to upgrade with a third-party SSD in place depends on your system firmware version; per the last few comments on this issue: Some people have been successful, some have not.

Also, has anybody done the trick since Apple stopped the rollout of Big Sur on older machines? Does the installer in the MAS still contain the necessary files for my MBPr 13" late 2013?

I have updated your exact model to system firmware version 427.0.0.0.0 that came with the the macOS Big Sur 11.0.1 (20B29); while still running macOS Catalina. From what I can see in the respun build 20B50 of Big Sur, the updated MacBookPro11,1 firmware is still included (same version number) but the macOS upgrade itself appears to be blocked.

 

[xboxbml]

Hello! I am looking for a recommendation of a 1TB SSD to go into my 2015 11" Macbook air. I'm sure there are plenty of recommendations through this thread, but I am a relative newbie to all of this and 311 pages is really daunting, especially since big sur seems to have cleared up some earlier issues. I am looking for something that will provide as seamless a transition as possible and feel as close to an authentic apple ssd as possible. I was looking at the OWC Aura X2 SSD, but it seems as thought it is more expensive and that it doesn't function as well as some other options. I am hoping to buy something today to take advantage of the black friday deals. Thank you in advance for the advice!

I would stay away from OWC. I was going to do the same thing for quite some time but couldn't get myself to pull the trigger. I'm glad I didn't. After a fair amount of research, I decided to go with the 2tb XPG ADATA SX8200 Pro and small Sintech adapter on this 13". Others will most likely give better recommendations for other drives. I've had a good experience with this one. No issues. Not sure if there is a better one for the 11", or a different physical drive size.. Perhaps someone else can comment. Good luck.

 

[Earl Urley]

Yes, I do not have access to a newer system to try this myself; however, these "Secure Capsule" files (Pre-2015 Intel MacBooks?) and "Firmware Descriptor" files (Post-2015 Intel MacBooks?) are functionally equivalent for our purpose.

I have confirmed this is the case (.fd and .scap files both work) as I was able to update an Early MacBook Pro 13" 2015 with the MBP121.fd image to 424.0.0.0.0 successfully.

Also can confirm this can be done in Mojave and Catalina successfully, and even with a protected FileVault boot volume.

It appears that whether you are able to upgrade with a third-party SSD in place depends on your system firmware version; per the last few comments on this issue: Some people have been successful, some have not.

I've done this on a rMBP with a Samsung 860 and an Inland Premium successfully.

I wonder if I could flash a 2012 Mac Mini to a 2014 this way.. hmm.

 

[crystalwonders]

Before I start this process do I need to upgrade my mac to the latest macOS version? Right now I'm on mojave, so should I update to BigSur? or I can proceed without updating, because I read somewhere that upgrading to the latest macos ensure I have the latest boot ROM firmware loaded.

 

[Abbbby333]

I would stay away from OWC. I was going to do the same thing for quite some time but couldn't get myself to pull the trigger. I'm glad I didn't. After a fair amount of research, I decided to go with the 2tb XPG ADATA SX8200 Pro and small Sintech adapter on this 13". Others will most likely give better recommendations for other drives. I've had a good experience with this one. No issues. Not sure if there is a better one for the 11", or a different physical drive size.. Perhaps someone else can comment. Good luck.

Thanks for the recommendation! Why did you end up going with that one specifically?

 

[chrickers]

Last time I checked the support article on this issue, it sounded like the MacBooks were not bricked but were rather hanging in some stage after the firmware upgrade. I could be wrong.

Interesting! Because to me it sound far more critical/dangerous to flash a new bootrom than to install a new OS…

It appears that whether you are able to upgrade with a third-party SSD in place depends on your system firmware version; per the last few comments on this issue: Some people have been successful, some have not.

My Macbook is on 162.0.0.0.0, which should be the latest version that came with Catalina (so far), right? Since you seem to have a very good overview: What happened to those who weren't successful? 🙈 Does the machine just boot with the old one like nothing happened?

Thank you for your help! Really appreciated!

 

[nicolodo]

At at the end, i have read almost all the pages of this thread and i can resume this:

-NvmeFix many power and battery drain problems .... when the SSD is compatible with APST.
( but also in windows, without apst would consume a lot of energy?)

-BigSur is not compatible with NvmeFix

-we must carefully choose an SSD considering also its dissipate temperature.

---

---

I am therefore undecided between: Barracuda 510 and Adata sx8200.
I know for sure the second is faster, but about the battery can you give me any advice?


I must also consider that I will not be able to upgrade to BigSur, as the kext Nvme is not compatible.
Do you think it will be ported or is it a dead project?.



Finally, I think it would be better to include in the wiki at the top of the page the guide for installing NvmeFIx (& Lulu) and the list with the APST compatible ssd. I think it would be very useful indeed

 

[herb2k]

At at the end, i have read almost all the pages of this thread and i can resume this:

-NvmeFix many power and battery drain problems .... when the SSD is compatible with APST.
( but also in windows, without apst would consume a lot of energy?)

-BigSur is not compatible with NvmeFix

-we must carefully choose an SSD considering also its dissipate temperature.

---

---

I am therefore undecided between: Barracuda 510 and Adata sx8200.
I know for sure the second is faster, but about the battery can you give me any advice?


I must also consider that I will not be able to upgrade to BigSur, as the kext Nvme is not compatible.
Do you think it will be ported or is it a dead project?.



Finally, I think it would be better to include in the wiki at the top of the page the guide for installing NvmeFIx (& Lulu) and the list with the APST compatible ssd. I think it would be very useful indeed

I have had both ADATA and Barracuda 510. If you are concerned about battery life and runtime, get the Barracuda 510. ADATA uses a lot of power.


I expect LiLu/NVMeFix will be updated eventually, but no guarantees... that said, on BigSur with the Barracuda 510, I get close to the same runtime as I did with NVMeFix installed (so it's not as necessary on BigSur).

 

[nicolodo]

I have had both ADATA and Barracuda 510. If you are concerned about battery life and runtime, get the Barracuda 510. ADATA uses a lot of power.


I expect LiLu/NVMeFix will be updated eventually, but no guarantees... that said, on BigSur with the Barracuda 510, I get close to the same runtime as I did with NVMeFix installed (so it's not as necessary on BigSur).

Can you tell me the difference in read / write speed ( not the speed reported in the technical sheet but the true speed )and how much battery differ 5%? 10%?
So ... in BigSur maybe they have introduces in the BootRom the ATPS...🤔...mha!
Or maybe BigSur natively introduces some kind of power management for nvme drivers, natively 🤔 🤔