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

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The first post of this thread is a WikiPost and can be edited by anyone with the appropiate permissions. Your edits will be public.
cah8429 said:
Hey everyone, I just did this surgery to my early 2014 MBA 11" and thought I'd share my experiences with this after a couple days.

I got a Samsung 960 Evo (250GB) and the long, black Sintech adapter. I also applied Kapton tape to the pins and a few mm on each side. So far, I've had no heating issues, I had to set:

hibernatemode 3 (which is apparently default) standby 0 autopoweroff 0 in pmset

when I didn't do that, after maybe a half hour my MBA would reboot while in sleep mode and suck A LOT of power. This resolved that issue and after 7 hours of being in sleep mode my macbook stayed at 100%

But, the downside right now is my battery life SUCKS. I think I'll be getting 4, maybe 5 hours of battery life which is downright pathetic. This laptop sat unused for about a year so I kinda forget what battery life it had in the recent past, so not sure if it's the new SSD really sucking the juice or if it's just an aging laptop at this point
Click to expand...
What's your cycle count?
[doublepost=1521053600][/doublepost][UPDATE 3-14-18]
Howdy y'all, I have been using these CableCC SSD Adapters for my customers with 2015 and later MBA/MBP flawlessly so I figured I'd post my testing results. Unfortunately it seems 2013/2014 MBA/MBP has a restart problem.

[UPDATE 3-14-18] I have re-tested all of these machines again with Sintech long black adapters, they just arrived from China.

[UPDATE 3-14-18]
The long black sintech adapters have resolved the restart issues.

Sintech Date Ordered: Wednesday 07 March, 2018
Sintech Date Arrived: Wednesday 14 March, 2018
Thats 7 day delivery from China!
  • Samsung 960 EVO 250GB / 500GB / 1TB SSDs
  • NGFF M.2 PCIe SSD Card as 2013 2014 2015 MacBook SSD
  • No Kapton Tape on pins
  • Using macOS High Sierra Latest Version
  • Using macs that have already been upgraded to macOS High Sierra Latest Version with original apple SSD

  • 2015 MacBookAir: Sleep and Restart works with High Sierra
    If you hold down option, you see a normal boot drive (grey)
  • 2013 MacBookAir: [UPDATE 3-14-18] Sleep does not work. Restart works with High Sierra
    You must use the terminal command sudo pmset standby 0 to avoid sleep issues
    If you hold down option, you see a external boot drive (orange)
  • 2014 MacBookAir: [UPDATE 3-14-18] Sleep does not work. Restart works with High Sierra
    You must use the terminal command sudo pmset standby 0 to avoid sleep issues
    If you hold down option, you see a external boot drive (orange)
  • 2013 MacBookPro: [UPDATE 3-14-18] Sleep does not work. Restart works with High Sierra
    You must use the terminal command sudo pmset standby 0 to avoid sleep issues
 
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Macbook 11,2
MacBook Pro Retina 13inch 2014
Bootrom MBP111.0142.B00
MacOS 10.13.3

iVY0B90.png


iVY0B90

I ordered an adapter on eBay.
I connected an Intel 600p 256GB SSD to the MBPr.

Everything was working.
f1xv1DK
k2ZIr26

k2ZIr26.png

f1xv1DK.png


Today, I turned the MBPr on, and the SSD is no longer detected. I can boot off a usb drive.
The SSD does not show up in Disk Utility, nor under system profiler>NVMe

I checked that the Bootrom was still the same, in case an update messed things up.
Any suggestions?
 
Last edited:
mrrobotatx said:
What's your cycle count?
Click to expand...

mrrobotatx my cycle count is 71...or 72 now that I just charged it again :) This MBA has seen incredibly light use in its lifetime. Used for a season then left in a closet until now...the SSD was brutally murdered in that time though haha. The SSD DEFINITELY got a workout in that time (bought in 2014)
 
cah8429 said:
mrrobotatx my cycle count is 71...or 72 now that I just charged it again :) This MBA has seen incredibly light use in its lifetime. Used for a season then left in a closet until now...the SSD was brutally murdered in that time though haha. The SSD DEFINITELY got a workout in that time (bought in 2014)
Click to expand...
Interesting, that's like new.

I've done extensive sleep testing with these adapters that will be posted soon, but to give you a glimpse, for 2013/2014 MBA/MBP with sudo pmset sleep 0 enabled I am seeing a 3-4% battery drop per 24 hours of sleep. Are you seeing a battery drop worse than that while sleeping with sudo pmset sleep 0 enabled?
[doublepost=1521089915][/doublepost]
dude18 said:
Macbook 11,2
MacBook Pro Retina 13inch 2012
Bootrom MBP111.0142.B00
MacOS 10.13.3

iVY0B90.png


iVY0B90

I ordered an adapter on eBay.
I connected an Intel 600p 256GB SSD to the MBPr.

Everything was working.
f1xv1DK
k2ZIr26

k2ZIr26.png

f1xv1DK.png


Today, I turned the MBPr on, and the SSD is no longer detected. I can boot off a usb drive.
The SSD does not show up in Disk Utility, nor under system profiler>NVMe

I checked that the Bootrom was still the same, in case an update messed things up.
Any suggestions?
Click to expand...
I see this a lot on the SSD Adapters from eBay, let me tell you they are not reliable.

Your data is fine. Just replace the adapter with a good one.

I only use MicroSataCables for the 2012 adapter. See link below:
M.2:
http://www.microsatacables.com/m2-ngff-ssd-to-macbook-pro-retina-a1398-a1425-adapter-m2-macp-ret
mSATA:
http://www.microsatacables.com/mini...-pro-retina-a1398-a1425-adapter-apl-msata-pro
 
Just curious, I am currently on the Sintech Large green adapter.

With the new long adapter from sintech, should I still kapton tape it like how it was with the large green adapter?
 
mrrobotatx said:
Interesting, that's like new.

I've done extensive sleep testing with these adapters that will be posted soon, but to give you a glimpse, for 2013/2014 MBA/MBP with sudo pmset sleep 0 enabled I am seeing a 3-4% battery drop per 24 hours of sleep. Are you seeing a battery drop worse than that while sleeping with sudo pmset sleep 0 enabled?
Click to expand...

What would the alternative be? 1? Using the hibernatemode 3 standby 0 autopoweroff 0 settings I got improved battery in sleep mode. I don't have concrete numbers, but with default settings I'd lose about 3% battery per hour. But I did 12 hours of sleep at one point with those new settings and it seems my battery life went back to what I expected. 12 hours kept battery life around 99/100%
 
luki343 said:
Hey,
I have MBA 13 mid2013 without SSD, i installed high sierra on external hdd, but my bootrom don't upgrade (still mba61.0099.b04). I tried manualy install update but without luck. Will it work if i buy ssd nvme and update bootrom later?
Click to expand...

You need absolutely the original Apple AHCI SSD... OWC have a loan system : it's $150, you update your bootrom and they refund you after you send it back!
[doublepost=1521177504][/doublepost]Hey everyone! First of all, thank you all for your investigative work and valuable information! I've been following this thread for some weeks and I am surprised to see how unstable are the experiences!!

Please correct me if I'm wrong:

I have a :
Retina MBP 15" late 2013 (DG) - A1398
Bootrom : MBP112.138B40
no SSD present but HS was clearly previsouly installed to have this bootrom (half yay!)
booting now with High Sierra on USB...

I have a few questions...

1) how come I saw late 2013 A1502 or late 2013 11,2 or early 2015 A1398? Mine is a A1398 - 11,3... are these people just wrong with the naming of their computer?

2) rMBP 15" late 2013 x2 lanes here :
https://everymac.com/systems/apple/...-graphics-late-2013-retina-display-specs.html

rMBP 15" late 2013 x4 lanes here :
https://apple.stackexchange.com/que...e-ssd-drives-via-the-use-of-a-sintech-adapter

@mrdoodle had a x4 lanes suddendly on a 11,1 2011 which was x2?

Some have x2 without kepton tape and some have x4 with it, how is this even physically possible if it was previously built as x2 lol?

even on the bootrom table @gilles_polysoft using it says 3.0 x4...
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-ssd-to-m-2-nvme.2034976/page-5#post-25116144

So does it means that my late 2013 11,3 is actually a Pcie 3.0 x4 lane and even Apple doesn't know ??

3) To use ANY NVMe SSD in my rMBP 15" late 2013 A1398 I need the long black Sintech adaptor $15.99
http://eshop.sintech.cn/ngff-m2-pcie-ssd-card-as-2013-2014-2015-macbook-ssd-p-1229.html

(I won't bother try the "large" green one since it's only few more dollars and looks super stable. I might still add a 3mm rubber line under it like @gilles_polysoft suggest !!)

Did this adaptor fixed the boot, the restart, the sleep/hibernate/idle, shutdown (ok everything that was previously suppose to work when you buy a computer lol)??

4) I am in between a couple of SSD NVMe :
- Kingston KC1000 250Gb
- Samsung sm961 960 Pro 256Gb
- Samsung SM951 256Gb
- Intel 760P 256Gb
- Adata XPG SX7000 512Gb

I don't need big drive, just 256Gb is suffiscient for me, I put everything on external mirrored raid hard-drives. Can you suggest me one that doesn't have known sleeping issues or things like that?

Well I hope it's not too much text xD sorry. See you and thanks a lot for your help and this thread is wonderful!!!
 
This working good for me in a MacBook Pro mid 2014.

Yesterday I did it!
Expanded my Memory I did not use the big adapter I used the small:

M.2(NGFF) SSD adapter - To replace the original 12+16 pin PCIe SSD of a 2013/2014/2015/2016

Just do not forget to update to the latest High Sierra so you get the latest firmware EFI (or whats it called) in the Mac before you remove the old M2-Ssd-card. Othervise it is difficult for the MacBook Pro to find the new card.

[doublepost=1521204321][/doublepost]Here my adapter i bought from England

8580A3D4-16ED-4196-BC40-A83EC80CC89E.jpeg
 

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That is a really good question? I do not know? To me it was a matter of space, 128 GB or 256 GB and I did not wanted a external driver? So I choose 256 GB instead of the original 128 GB
 
Bokblad said:
This working good for me in a MacBook Pro mid 2014.

Yesterday I did it!
Expanded my Memory I did not use the big adapter I used the small:

M.2(NGFF) SSD adapter - To replace the original 12+16 pin PCIe SSD of a 2013/2014/2015/2016

Just do not forget to update to the latest High Sierra so you get the latest firmware EFI (or whats it called) in the Mac before you remove the old M2-Ssd-card. Othervise it is difficult for the MacBook Pro to find the new card.

[doublepost=1521204321][/doublepost]Here my adapter i bought from England

View attachment 754643
Click to expand...
The new ssd is recognized as internal or external? Have you tried to install windows with boot camp with the nvme ssd ?
 
Bokblad said:
That is a really good question? I do not know? To me it was a matter of space, 128 GB or 256 GB and I did not wanted a external driver? So I choose 256 GB instead of the original 128 GB
Click to expand...

Can you please check this property from system info.

c927fa3bd629336414affb1059904562.jpg
 
I do not have any SATA/SATA Express. This is what I got:

Apple SSD Controller:



SAMSUNG MZVLW256HEHP-00000:



Capacity: 256,06 GB (256 060 514 304 bytes)

TRIM Support: Yes

Model: SAMSUNG MZVLW256HEHP-00000

Revision: CXB7401Q

Serial Number:

Link Width: x4

Link Speed: 5.0 GT/s

Detachable Drive: No

BSD Name: disk0

Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)

Removable Media: No

Volumes:

EFI:

Capacity: 209,7 MB (209 715 200 bytes)

File System: MS-DOS FAT32

BSD Name: disk0s1

Content: EFI

Volume UUID:

disk0s2:

Capacity: 255,85 GB (255 850 758 144 bytes)

BSD Name: disk0s2

Content: Apple_APFS
 
Bokblad said:
I do not have any SATA/SATA Express. This is what I got:

Apple SSD Controller:



SAMSUNG MZVLW256HEHP-00000:



Capacity: 256,06 GB (256 060 514 304 bytes)

TRIM Support: Yes

Model: SAMSUNG MZVLW256HEHP-00000

Revision: CXB7401Q

Serial Number:

Link Width: x4

Link Speed: 5.0 GT/s

Detachable Drive: No

BSD Name: disk0

Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)

Removable Media: No

Volumes:

EFI:

Capacity: 209,7 MB (209 715 200 bytes)

File System: MS-DOS FAT32

BSD Name: disk0s1

Content: EFI

Volume UUID:

disk0s2:

Capacity: 255,85 GB (255 850 758 144 bytes)

BSD Name: disk0s2

Content: Apple_APFS
Click to expand...
If you press alt when you press the power button, the ssd is orange or grey in the boot menu ?
 
[doublepost=1521223672][/doublepost]
dinath said:
If you press alt when you press the power button, the ssd is orange or grey in the boot menu ?
Click to expand...
The SSD is orange!

Is it good or bad? :)
[doublepost=1521224402][/doublepost]Mabe I in the wrong "thread" :)
 
Bokblad said:
[doublepost=1521223672][/doublepost]
The SSD is orange!

Is it good or bad? :)
[doublepost=1521224402][/doublepost]Mabe I in the wrong "thread" :)
Click to expand...
If it is orange you can’t install windows and your Mac has this ssd as external storage. This is not bad if you don’t want to install windows but if you want I think you can’t.
 
dinath said:
If it is orange you can’t install windows and your Mac has this ssd as external storage. This is not bad if you don’t want to install windows but if you want I think you can’t.
Click to expand...

That is very good to know.

I have built a Hackintosh some years ago but a PC is a PC with Window and a Mac is a Mac. But I have also tried to go Linux on Mac and that is OK and better than to do Windows on Mac.
 
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I'm considering a Samsung 960 (512GB) for a Macbook Pro 2015 13''. Any issues with sleep mode? Is the hibernatemode tweak necessary? Also are there any issues stability or heat wise?
 
Bokblad said:
That is very good to know.

I have built a Hackintosh some years ago but a PC is a PC with Window and a Mac is a Mac. But I have also tried to go Linux on Mac and that is OK and better than to do Windows on Mac.
Click to expand...
Yes a Mac is running better with macOS but some people want to use windows for several specific things but this is the wrong thread to discuss about this :).
I would like to know if someone is aware of what combination of nvme ssd and adapter must be done in order to install windows on a MacBook Pro 15 mid 2014.
 
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egalitarian said:
I'm considering a Samsung 960 (512GB) for a Macbook Pro 2015 13''. Any issues with sleep mode? Is the hibernatemode tweak necessary? Also are there any issues stability or heat wise?
Click to expand...

I did mine in a 11" MBA..but I am not having heat issues, and originally after 30 minutes or so of sleep mode my macbook would reboot. I solved it with these settings:

hibernatemode 3 (which is apparently default) standby 0 autopoweroff 0 in pmset. Apparently, standby 0 gives worse battery life in sleep? I haven't experienced that with my Air, I guess YMMV
 
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