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

[Superhai]

This is embarrassing...and I feel dumb but I really do not know so I thought the least I could do was ask for help and hope somebody answers...I am new here and not the most tech savvy.

What you should do is go to About this Mac (The Apple-logo menu in the top left corner, About this Mac, and then go to System report), and check the boot-rom version.

If it says 423.0.0.0 (eg. you have installed Big Sur and boot rom has been properly updated) or higher then you are good to go. Nothing more except the physical installation is required. If it is not, then you could note it here and so could tell what challenges you could face.

Nvmefix, lilu, ssdpmenabler and so on are for most SSds not a requirement, and only a convenience for lowering power usage. When your system is up and running again you could explore those options to see if they works or benefits you.

 

[Peet_B]

Well, I tried loads of things with my Mid-2014 15" MBP and a WD Black SN750 NVMe inside, but in the end I decided it was no good and put the old SSD back in place. I don't notice too much of a speed difference, but it's nice to know I can hibernate in peace now without waking up the next morning with a flat battery and a crashed laptop. The NVMe solution is great for when your original SSD is lost, broken or has a too small capacity, but when your original SSD works and is large enough, I wouldn't change it for an NVMe any time soon.

Next to the hibernation issues, I also noticed that my MacBook is way smoother with my original SSD, could that be due to the NVMe SSD?

 

[BitMac]

Mojave or Catalina with latest security updates would also give a recent enough Boot ROM update.

Correct, and I can even confirm my bootrom updated with my Adata SSD inside iso the original Apple SSD! And this was in Mojave, not Big Sur.

Good to know for people not wanting to upgrade to Big Sur.

 

[Dhunerz]

hi there, this will be my first post. Thanks everyone for contributing, learnt alot.

I have an early 2015 MacBook Pro 13' with 8gb ram with i5 2,7ghz processor and swapped the 128 gb apple ssd with the crucial p2 500gb using Sintech long adapter. Before that I updated the Apple SSD to Big Sur and bootrom is 425.0.0.0.0

What I ve done is formatting the p2 apfs and installing Mojave using a bootable usb.
My problem is slow write and read speed. In Blackmagic test write and read speeds are slower than Apple SSD and drops within seconds dramatically. Are these speeds normal or am I doing something wrong?

first

View attachment 1714307

after 20 seconds

View attachment 1714308

I have the Exact Same problem On Big Sur 11.2 Beta Have a 1TB original Drive from apple got 2TB Fetherdata one which is by ADATA SX600 Range Fetherdata have sent me a new one and a new Adaptor.

Not sure if im also doing something wrong, Maybe someone can help us both.

Im In the IT Field but can be a NOOB at times. sometimes miss the ovbious.

As im On Big Sur No problems crashes etc. Doing a restore now to the second Drive which has been sent to me.

Boot Room 429.000 Ill check incase theres another update

MBP mid 2014
I7 16GB ram was 1TB SSD now 2TB NVME with low speed. (Same speed as the original Drive)

Big Sur Solves all the hibernation issues etc.

 

[nos1609]

For those using/installing WD SN550 SSD

Mind updating the firmware to the version 211210WD prior installation of the macOS

SN550 with earlier FW versions suffer from hibernation detection issues, especially on MacBook Pro 13 2015 (Even considering the fact that the NVME DXE driver is totally OK with hibernation on custom SSDs)

My theory is that the startup delay of the ssd aka slow transition through power states causes timeout on Mac EFI and the system considers it as a physical drive disconnect. Somehow this should be corrected with the last FW.

PS You need a Windows machine to either make a live USB flasher or a Windows install and WD SSD Dashboard

 

[CosmicDust]

What you should do is go to About this Mac (The Apple-logo menu in the top left corner, About this Mac, and then go to System report), and check the boot-rom version.

If it says 423.0.0.0 (eg. you have installed Big Sur and boot rom has been properly updated) or higher then you are good to go. Nothing more except the physical installation is required. If it is not, then you could note it here and so could tell what challenges you could face.

Nvmefix, lilu, ssdpmenabler and so on are for most SSds not a requirement, and only a convenience for lowering power usage. When your system is up and running again you could explore those options to see if they works or benefits you.

Thank you for the info!!

 

[CosmicDust]

I've been testing my 13" MacBook Pro mid 2014 with 3 different SSDs and my choice is Crucial P2 1TB SSD. I'm afraid your Mac is 100% the same as my so highly likely you will not be able for now to install the SsdPmEnable kext so at this point the Crucial P2 SSD is on top of the list for Power efficiency (battery life) and Price.
Please read my post #8,245.
And Sintech short adapter is only right choice.
View attachment 1714996View attachment 1714998

@BoPl Thank you for the info! So I started reading the P2 reviews on Amazon and I noticed there were several people that mentioned they had received P2's with bad firmware and that they needed a firmware update and some people had trouble updating...did your's just work or did you have to update the firmware? Apparently the bad firmware was causing people's computers to restart because of some temperature reading error.

EDIT: Disregard, I just went to their website https://www.crucial.com/support/ssd-support/p2-support and see that they released a firmware update that only applies to the 250/500 GB drives so I'm assuming this problem isn't an issue with the larger 1 TB drives.

 

[CosmicDust]

For a 2017 Macbook Air, 13 inch, will any m.2 SSD work?

I would like great performance, but at the same time I do not want to sacrifice battery life / power consumption. I keep reading in all these posts about which SSD's work best for power consumption during idle/sleep etc, but most of what I'm reading seems to have to do with 2013-2015 models.

Do the 2017 MBA's have the same problem where the battery drains more during sleep/idle, etc when upgrading to a new SSD?

If not, then I would assume I would just want to look for a SSD that has the best read/write limits, correct? However, I know the 2017 MBA probably has a max read/write speed it is capable of reaching but I am not able to ID those stats (I only find online that the 2017 MBA's as shipped had an average benchmark of 612 write /1240 read. Does that mean this is the max, or that is just what it was shipped with and a newer SDD could do better? How would I know what the max is so I know what SSD to buy (without overpaying for higher speeds that it won't be a able to achieve)?

Thank you!!

 

[BoPl]

@BoPl Thank you for the info! So I started reading the P2 reviews on Amazon and I noticed there were several people that mentioned they had received P2's with bad firmware and that they needed a firmware update and some people had trouble updating...did your's just work or did you have to update the firmware? Apparently the bad firmware was causing people's computers to restart because of some temperature reading error.

EDIT: Disregard, I just went to their website https://www.crucial.com/support/ssd-support/p2-support and see that they released a firmware update that only applies to the 250/500 GB drives so I'm assuming this problem isn't an issue with the larger 1 TB drives.

CosmicDust,

Im using P2 1TB for a couple days and didn't have any issue with. I've seen Crucial released a firmware update for 250/500 GB SSDs. My P2 works just fine and even in case of new firmware for 1TB I won't update my drive.

 

[taario]

Hi all, wondering if anyone has any ideas regarding my predicament.

I have an OWC Aura Pro that I've been using since 2018 in my 13" Mid-2014 MacBook Pro. I'd recently updated macOS to Big Sur and wanted to do a fresh install because I read it solves the hibernation issue, and I only realized after the fact that my MBP was still on a very old bootrom (Mavericks-era, a version less than what is recommended in this thread, so it didn't get updated with Big Sur) and now I can't get the SSD to be detected no matter what I try. So Big Sur seemingly installed fine, but then the MBP kept boot looping into recovery mode because it can't detect the drive anymore.

I've since installed Big Sur on my original Apple SSD so the bootrom is the latest version now, but I still can't detect the OWC drive. I've tried it in the external enclosure in offline and internet recovery Disk Utility, within Disk Utility in macOS itself, and even in Windows (diskpart). It's not visible at all.

Am I out of luck or is there a way to salvage and wipe this drive clean so it can be detected?

 

[xboxbml]

Hi all, wondering if anyone has any ideas regarding my predicament.

I have an OWC Aura Pro that I've been using since 2018 in my 13" Mid-2014 MacBook Pro. I'd recently updated macOS to Big Sur and wanted to do a fresh install because I read it solves the hibernation issue, and I only realized after the fact that my MBP was still on a very old bootrom (Mavericks-era, a version less than what is recommended in this thread, so it didn't get updated with Big Sur) and now I can't get the SSD to be detected no matter what I try. So Big Sur seemingly installed fine, but then the MBP kept boot looping into recovery mode because it can't detect the drive anymore.

I've since installed Big Sur on my original Apple SSD so the bootrom is the latest version now, but I still can't detect the OWC drive. I've tried it in the external enclosure in offline and internet recovery Disk Utility, within Disk Utility in macOS itself, and even in Windows (diskpart). It's not visible at all.

Am I out of luck or is there a way to salvage and wipe this drive clean so it can be detected?

I believe OWC states explicitly you can't use their drives in an external enclosure.. Might want to double check me on that..but I think I'm right.. It may now be damaged depending on what you did when..

 

[taario]

I believe OWC states explicitly you can't use their drives in an external enclosure.. Might want to double check me on that..but I think I'm right.. It may now be damaged depending on what you did when..

Ah man you're right, I totally forgot the OWC enclosure was only for the original Apple SSD.

I just installed the OWC drive into the MBP and it's fine. Well that was a panick over nothing.

Thanks!

 

[BitMac]

Can someone please write a detailed procedure how to install this Lilu & Nvmefix, like Kvic did for his SsdPmEnabler? Including how to check if it is installed & how to delete it.
I'm sure many like me do not master all of these terminal commands.

Even it involves very similar steps, it's still pretty different. Two different kexts, some say to download "hackintools" as well?

The only thing I found in this thread like #7,395 is not detailed at all and still leaves me a lot of questions. Please include links to download pages as on GitHub I find Lilu & Nvmefix but both downloads did not include any kext.

Many thanks!

 

[Daniel1979]

Hi, I have anearly 2015 MacBook Pro 2.7ghz 128GB that I’m considering upgrading the SSD in.
I’d use the Sintech adapter and am thinking of maybe the 512gb Sabrent Rocket, which seems to fare well in the charts on the 1st page. Any likely issues with this?
Also am I likely to see any performance gains beyond the extra storage capacity?
Thanks in advance
Dan

 

[MauriceG]

For a 2017 Macbook Air, 13 inch, will any m.2 SSD work?

No. Please refer to page 1.

 

[mrsuxx]

alright guys, help me out.

the 1tb ssd's that are available in the market for me are.

1. WD SN550 1tb
2. Crucial P1/P5 (P2 is available in 500 gb only : /)
3. Kingston A2000 1TB
4. Seagate Barracuda maybe ?
5. Samsung evos (i dont they are good here)
6. silicon power stuff maybe?
7. Intel 660p (not so keen since they are QLC)

What would you guys choose, knowing what you know now ?

i'd probably be triple booting win / lin / mac if that matters?

 

[Lewenhaupt]

Hey,
I've bought SX8200 Pro 1TB hard drive and long black adapter. My question is - is the bending normal? Cause to have it flat i have to bend it together. I'm wondering if I can cut the long part of the adapter or does it have any electronics in it? Can someone help me? Thanks a lot

 

[mdgm]

Also am I likely to see any performance gains beyond the extra storage capacity?

Very low capacity SSDs tend to have slower performance than higher capacity ones, so I think you will see a performance improvement.

It's not just the difference when brand new, but also as the drive fills up over time.

 

[Chema]

Can the firmware be updated if I place the drive in an usb3 enclosure and plug it into a windows pc?

 

[macpro_mid2014]

Hey,
I've bought SX8200 Pro 1TB hard drive and long black adapter. My question is - is the bending normal? Cause to have it flat i have to bend it together. I'm wondering if I can cut the long part of the adapter or does it have any electronics in it? Can someone help me? Thanks a lot

Somewhere in this long thread, people recommend using the short adapter with SX8200 to avoid bending. If you cannot buy the short adapter in your region, trying to cut it won't hurt unless you damage the attaching interface in the process.

Also, there is no circuitry in the long part, just plastic.

 

[mdgm]

Can the firmware be updated if I place the drive in an usb3 enclosure and plug it into a windows pc?

That would depend on whether the USB enclosure supports the flashing commands one would think.

 

[ebutler1992]

I'm currently using 2015 11.6" MacBook Air that I'm wanting to switch to an NVMe + adaptor combo. The current BootRom is showing as 420.0.0.0.0 when I looked it up.

I know it's a bit overkill in terms of storage (I'd primarily be using it to condense for several external hard drives of video and photo files I have), but is it compatible with this Sabrent Rocket Q 4TB model, or should I look into a different brand?

 

[xboxbml]

Ah man you're right, I totally forgot the OWC enclosure was only for the original Apple SSD.

I just installed the OWC drive into the MBP and it's fine. Well that was a panick over nothing.

Thanks!

No prob! Yeah, good thing you asked... I hate panic too..lol. I panicked a bit a couple weeks ago... I doused my 2015 Air with red wine(and I'm soooo nuts about keeping things clean and new).. Fried it (and it turns out the new battery I just got).. Fortunately I found an exact replacement locally and bought it. Swapped in the 2tb SSD I got recently and it was NOT fried.. I did panic a bit, but the good thing was I did have a TM backup only a couple days old at that point, so it wouldn't have been the end of the world.. The worse impact was spending the additional $ on a replacement box.. I was a bit bummed. For months I was looking on and off at an OWC drive but couldn't get myself to spend the money. By last August I hadn't noticed that I could get a non-OWC with an adapter for half the price or better. I had read that OWC wasn't very reliable even out of the box. Also kernel panics on resume from deep sleep. Just curious, what has your experience been with it?

 

[saintmylife]

Just installed fresh copy of catalina using SN550 500gb,

Im trying to measure power wattage, what application should i use ?

 

[BoPl]

Just installed fresh copy of catalina using SN550 500gb,

Im trying to measure power wattage, what application should i use ?

iStat menus