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

[xboxbml]

New to the forum and need some advice on the qquipment needed to do an upgrade on a 2017 MacBook Air A1466.
I have seen a few different video tutorials with different ssd makes and models. I was just wondering if there are any recommendations of what combinations of ssd’s and adapters work well. I’m kind of new to making upgrades and this is my first foray into upgrading a Macbook but have been tinkering with computers for some years now. I am mainly going to use this MacBook Air for some DAW (recording, sampling, sequencing) using GarageBand and Logic Pro. I can do with around 1TB.
Any recommendations on SSD’s that will be stable and fairly easy to install and format?
Also which adapter would I need if any?

Thanks!

See my sig. I've got 2015 MBA and I believe they're almost identical. I like my ADATA 2TB with short Syntec adapter.. a couple others are more affordable and possibly more power efficient, but I've never had an issue. I forget which one others have been recommending lately.. maybe go back about 20 pages or so and read.. I thought like the first page had a table in it with data.. Good luck.

 

[Bobbins20]

Just for reference:
2014 MacBook Pro 15' i7 16gb (soldered) RAM
11,2 256gb flash drive
firmware version 432.60.3.0.0
upgraded with:

Timetec 512GB MAC SSD NVMe PCIe Gen3x4 3D NAND TLC​

Won't work OCLP Monterey, persistent kernel panics, Bootcamp Windows 10 persistent crashes (about every 10-15mins, event viewer doesn't record why)
However Big Sur works fine which, by a curious coincidence, is the last version supported by Apple.
Soon after purchase the sales Web page changed to not suitable for Win 10 Bootcamp, well folks its not good for OCLP Monterey but is really quick and stable with Big Sur and Catalina in my testing.
I purchased a used 500gb Apple drive and all is well, roomy, both Monterey and Win10 run quite happily and not a great degredation in performance and considerably cheaper.
Hind sight is a wonderful science. Hope this of some help to anyone wishing to upgrade

 

[bykim5]

2015 15" Macbook Pro 11,5
1TB SK Hynix P31 with Sintech Adapter
OCLP with lilu nvme ssdpmenabler kexts
Getting 2600/2300 write/read
working great!

 

[chrickers]

Has anyone with a Kingston A2000 succesfully performed a firmware update using Bootcamp? The Update Utility is only available for Window…

 

[Brad_C]

I don't have an A2000, but I did a Crucial P2 and a Kingston KC2500.
The P2 I did with Bootcamp. For the KC2500 I created a WinToGo Windows 10 USB on another machine, and booted the Mac off that because it didn't have Bootcamp.

 

[CatNinja27]

FYI, NVMeFix seems to have fixed the 'Loss of MMIO space' kernel panic for me. My SSD was working fine for a couple of years, but after upgrading to Monterey, I was getting almost daily crashes, especially when my Macbook Pro was sleeping overnight. Since installing NVMeFix, it's been up for 2 weeks now, knock on wood. My setup, for reference:

MacBookPro11,4 (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015)
Sabrent 2TB Rocket NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 Internal SSD
Sintech NGFF M.2 nVME SSD Adapter Card (Long)

The main difficulty I had was that it's not obvious how to install NVMeFix. Searching this forum had vague references to use Hackintool, so I downloaded it, but for the life of me, I couldn't figure out how to use it install NVMeFix. All I managed to do clicking around the various menu options was to get a NVMeFix.kext built in Hackintool_Kexts directory.

The Hackintool docs say 'Knowledge is required on how to patch before using it'.
The NVMeFix docs say 'NVMeFix requires at least Lilu 1.4.1'
The Lilu docs has prebuilt binaries, but no instruction on how to install it.

So here's how I got it to work, in case it'll help someone out.

1. Hackintool is for building and upgrading patches, after you patched it. So you need to patch the system first using Clover or OCLP.

2. For Monterey (basically Majave and later), you can't use Clover (default for Hackintool). You have to use OCLP.

3. Download OCLP from https://github.com/dortania/OpenCore-Legacy-Patcher/releases
I use the TUI instead of GUI app, because I'd rather use the terminal than the GUI.

4. Make sure you back up your computer first. That said, I had no issues with my drive getting corrupted with OCLP.

5. When you run it, if you have a late model Mac like me, you would get an erro 'Your model is not supported by this patcher for running unsupported OSes!
Pick '5. Patcher Settings'
Pick '7. Allow OpenCore on native Models: Currently False'
Pick 'Allow OpenCore on all Models(y/n/q): ' y
Pick 'Q. Quit'
Pick '1. Build OpenCore'
You should see:
- Adding Lilu.kext 1.6.0
- Adding NVMeFix.kext 1.0.9
Pick '2. Install OpenCore to USB/internal drive'
Note: your disk number may be different, but it should be the only choice availble if you have no other drives (like USB) attached.
Pick '0. disk0: Sabrent (2.0 TB)'
Pick '1. disk0s1: EFI (209.7 MB) *'
Pick 'Q. Quit'
Reboot

6. Optional. If you want to disable the OCLP boot picker that shows you multiple drives to boot from on startup, so it automatically boots up to the apple logo like normal.
Pick '5. Patcher Settings'
Pick '5. Miscellaneous Settings'
Pick '1. Set ShowPicker Mode: Currently True'
Pick 'Show OpenCore Picker by default(y/n/q): ' n
and rebuild and install

That's it!

 

[aaddixx]

Hello, can anybody tell me if I should take sn550 or sx8200 pro, 1tb. I have so tech adapter but I’m stuck while choosing ssd. Power consumption and temperature are very important for me… I know that somebody already wrote about it but who have the time to check 421 pages. Thank you in advance

 

[MacFever]

Hi All,

I have a Mid 2015, 15" retina MBPro with 16 Gb RAM, i7 2.8Ghz

Would a "Samsung 980 Pro SSD 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe Gen 4 Gaming M.2" work with the "Sintech NGFF M.2 nVME SSD Adapter" ?


Thanks for any advice.

​

​

 

[Kaida]

Hi All,

I have a Mid 2015, 15" retina MBPro with 16 Gb RAM, i7 2.8Ghz

Would a "Samsung 980 Pro SSD 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe Gen 4 Gaming M.2" work with the "Sintech NGFF M.2 nVME SSD Adapter" ?


Thanks for any advice.

​

​

yes but overkill and the samsung 980 pro/970 evo plus runs hot.

 

[RedTomato]

FYI, NVMeFix seems to have fixed the 'Loss of MMIO space' kernel panic for me. My SSD was working fine for a couple of years, but after upgrading to Monterey, I was getting almost daily crashes, especially when my Macbook Pro was sleeping overnight. Since installing NVMeFix, it's been up for 2 weeks now, knock on wood. My setup, for reference:

MacBookPro11,4 (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015)
Sabrent 2TB Rocket NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 Internal SSD
Sintech NGFF M.2 nVME SSD Adapter Card (Long)

The main difficulty I had was that it's not obvious how to install NVMeFix. Searching this forum had vague references to use Hackintool, so I downloaded it, but for the life of me, I couldn't figure out how to use it install NVMeFix. All I managed to do clicking around the various menu options was to get a NVMeFix.kext built in Hackintool_Kexts directory.

The Hackintool docs say 'Knowledge is required on how to patch before using it'.
The NVMeFix docs say 'NVMeFix requires at least Lilu 1.4.1'
The Lilu docs has prebuilt binaries, but no instruction on how to install it.

So here's how I got it to work, in case it'll help someone out.

1. Hackintool is for building and upgrading patches, after you patched it. So you need to patch the system first using Clover or OCLP.

2. For Monterey (basically Majave and later), you can't use Clover (default for Hackintool). You have to use OCLP.

3. Download OCLP from https://github.com/dortania/OpenCore-Legacy-Patcher/releases
I use the TUI instead of GUI app, because I'd rather use the terminal than the GUI.

4. Make sure you back up your computer first. That said, I had no issues with my drive getting corrupted with OCLP.

5. When you run it, if you have a late model Mac like me, you would get an erro 'Your model is not supported by this patcher for running unsupported OSes!
Pick '5. Patcher Settings'
Pick '7. Allow OpenCore on native Models: Currently False'
Pick 'Allow OpenCore on all Models(y/n/q): ' y
Pick 'Q. Quit'
Pick '1. Build OpenCore'
You should see:
- Adding Lilu.kext 1.6.0
- Adding NVMeFix.kext 1.0.9
Pick '2. Install OpenCore to USB/internal drive'
Note: your disk number may be different, but it should be the only choice availble if you have no other drives (like USB) attached.
Pick '0. disk0: Sabrent (2.0 TB)'
Pick '1. disk0s1: EFI (209.7 MB) *'
Pick 'Q. Quit'
Reboot

6. Optional. If you want to disable the OCLP boot picker that shows you multiple drives to boot from on startup, so it automatically boots up to the apple logo like normal.
Pick '5. Patcher Settings'
Pick '5. Miscellaneous Settings'
Pick '1. Set ShowPicker Mode: Currently True'
Pick 'Show OpenCore Picker by default(y/n/q): ' n
and rebuild and install

That's it!

Excellent! Could you add that to the first post in this thread? (Maybe in a section at the bottom.) it’s open for editing by all.

Thanks!

 

[RedTomato]

Possible issue with Disk Utility First Aid?

Hi, I have found that Disk Utility’s First Aid fails with my NVME SSD upgrade.

I advise anyone seeing this to check that First Aid works with their upgraded SSD. If it works then all is fine.

In my case I was getting a ‘keybag’ error, but you might see other issues.

I tried reinstalling macOS from the Recovery app (Command-R on startup) but that did not work.

What works:
Full backup with Super Duper or Carbon Copy Cloner (both have free trial versions which will work for this) - NOT Time Machine.

Restart to Internet Recovery (Command-Option-R on startup).

Wipe your entire physical SSD (change view to ‘show all devices’)(this will delete Windows partition if you have it), then install macOS from internet Recovery. This will take a couple of hours.

Then once Setup hands over to you, use Migration Assistant to do a full transfer from the backup HDD. This will take several more hours. Your mac will be slow for a couple of days while it’s optimising.

Do this as a last resort if you haven’t been able to otherwise fix the issue.

 

[aaddixx]

yes but overkill and the samsung 980 pro/970 evo plus runs hot.

What about Adata sx8200 pro or Wd sn550? Both with older controller

 

[macpro_mid2014]

What about Adata sx8200 pro or Wd sn550? Both with older controller

My experience with SN550 (2TB) could not be better. It is comparable with the Silicon Power A80 (1TB) I had before (if you search for my posts here there is more info about the A80).

Consumption at idle is 0.31A for the SN550 and temperatures are at around 32C.

I don't know about battery life because I keep my MBP plugged in at all times.

I remember seeing a post here about the sx8200 some time ago (maybe last year or so).

 

[ortiga10]

What about this drive? will it work without adapter?
Kingspec 256GB 512GB 1TB M2 PCIe NVME SSD For 2013 2015 Macbook Pro Retina A1502 A1398 Macbook Air A1465 1466 SSD iMac A1419 SSD
Is Kingspec a reliable brand?

 

[Kaida]

i prefer sn550 myself, never a fan of adata

What about Adata sx8200 pro or Wd sn550? Both with older controller

 

[johnbranches]

Hello,
First of all, thanks so much for all the information included in this thread, that was absolutely helpful.
I'm writing here my own experience with refreshing my MacBook Pro 11,4 (Mid 2015 15", i7 2.2Ghz, only Integrated Graphics).

I installed the following parts:
- Adapter from AliExpress (the one specified in the main thread)
- CDX High Quality Battery
- Samsung SSD 980 NVMe 500GB

Current setup:
- Lilu
- NVMeFix
- ssdPMEnable
- FeatureUnlock
I added to change the boot-args="keepsyms=1", otherwise the system would not boot.

With this setup, even though Samsung 980 doesn't have DRAM and macOS doesn't support Host Memory Buffer (HMB), I still get pretty decent values:
- Min. Consumption: 0.03A
- Peak Consumption, during tests: 1.00A
- Write Speed: (1000.5 MB/s - BlackMagic, 2191.66 MB/s AmorphousDiskMark)
- Read Speed: (1514.6 MB/s - BlackMagic, 2454.69 MB/s AmorphousDiskMark)

Before any kext, I used to get minimums of 0.12A.
With ssdPMEnable only, I got minimums of 0.07A.

Before installing NVMeFix, I got a kernel panic during sleep at night. Now I'm testing if this fixed the issue.

Besides this, I'm now testing Volta for undervolting (-80mV), disabling TurboBoost and limiting the CPU power, and AlDente to limit the battery charging at 80%.

Please let me know if you need more details. I hope to contribute to this community as well.

 

[xboxbml]

Hello, can anybody tell me if I should take sn550 or sx8200 pro, 1tb. I have so tech adapter but I’m stuck while choosing ssd. Power consumption and temperature are very important for me… I know that somebody already wrote about it but who have the time to check 421 pages. Thank you in advance

I like the ADATA.. been running a couple years on my MBA.. Not sure what machine you have.. The other SSD may be better with power consumption, not sure. Maybe someone else has better info. I believe first page has a table in it showing.. good luck.

 

[kvic]

Please let me know if you need more details. I hope to contribute to this community as well.

Very good tests and summary. Added to my curated database.

 

[chrickers]

Problem solved

 

[CatNinja27]

Hello,
First of all, thanks so much for all the information included in this thread, that was absolutely helpful.
I'm writing here my own experience with refreshing my MacBook Pro 11,4 (Mid 2015 15", i7 2.2Ghz, only Integrated Graphics).

I installed the following parts:
- Adapter from AliExpress (the one specified in the main thread)
- CDX High Quality Battery
- Samsung SSD 980 NVMe 500GB

Current setup:
- Lilu
- NVMeFix
- ssdPMEnable
- FeatureUnlock
I added to change the boot-args="keepsyms=1", otherwise the system would not boot.

With this setup, even though Samsung 980 doesn't have DRAM and macOS doesn't support Host Memory Buffer (HMB), I still get pretty decent values:
- Min. Consumption: 0.03A
- Peak Consumption, during tests: 1.00A
- Write Speed: (1000.5 MB/s - BlackMagic, 2191.66 MB/s AmorphousDiskMark)
- Read Speed: (1514.6 MB/s - BlackMagic, 2454.69 MB/s AmorphousDiskMark)

Before any kext, I used to get minimums of 0.12A.
With ssdPMEnable only, I got minimums of 0.07A.

Before installing NVMeFix, I got a kernel panic during sleep at night. Now I'm testing if this fixed the issue.

Besides this, I'm now testing Volta for undervolting (-80mV), disabling TurboBoost and limiting the CPU power, and AlDente to limit the battery charging at 80%.

Please let me know if you need more details. I hope to contribute to this community as well.

Thanks for posting your experience. I'm very interested in your setup because it's almost exactly the same as mine. I have a few questions for you.
1. Where did you get CDX battery? I couldn't find a good quality battery replacement that will ship to HI, so I ended up with a cheap clone from ebay. So far so good (107% with 9 cycles), but I'm concerned about long term reliability.
2. Why did you install ssdPMEnable in addition to NVMeFix. My understanding was that they do the same thing (set SSD to L1 state).
3. Thanks for mentioning AlDente. Didn't know something like this existed. It's exactly what I was looking for. I also found another similar tool called bclm. Trying it out now and will update on how it worked out for me.
4. Thanks for mentioning Volta. I'm debating on whether to install it as it requires disable SIP kext. I'm having overheating issues compiling large projects, even after replacing the heat sink compound. Please do update on your experiences.
5. What do you use the measure SSD consumption and read/write speeds?

 

[kvic]

2. Why did you install ssdPMEnable in addition to NVMeFix. My understanding was that they do the same thing (set SSD to L1 state).

I never directly address numerous such claims in the past half year or so. Perhaps I should take this chance to have some clarification from NVMeFix users for myself.

The last time I tried NVMeFix was back in something like Dec 2020 (?). After the first time screen goes blank, then you wake it up. Whatever extra power saving you get with NVMeFix is gone until you reboot the system (or perhaps resume from hibernation?).

Take the power consumption levels in #10516 as an example. On new startup, you see idle at 0.03A. After first time screen going blank, wake up and you see idle at 0.07A.

So to me on my family member's setup, NVMeFix was considered redundant. LOL. This was documented in one of my previous posts around that timeframe.

Lots may have changed in NVMeFix and I haven't tried since. So some tests and input from users may help to clear it up.

 

[chrickers]

I don't have an A2000, but I did a Crucial P2 and a Kingston KC2500.
The P2 I did with Bootcamp. For the KC2500 I created a WinToGo Windows 10 USB on another machine, and booted the Mac off that because it didn't have Bootcamp.

For anyone interested: I managed to update the Firmware with Bootcamp and the Flasing Tool from Kingston. It was a pain in the ass to install Windows though (at first the installer just mapped external drives, then the Bootcamp error mentioned in the OP, kernel panics when the power cable was disconnected, and for some Reasion creating an extra Partition for the OCLP didn't work as well as just having everything in the EFI partiton)

 

[johnbranches]

Thanks for posting your experience. I'm very interested in your setup because it's almost exactly the same as mine. I have a few questions for you.
1. Where did you get CDX battery? I couldn't find a good quality battery replacement that will ship to HI, so I ended up with a cheap clone from ebay. So far so good (107% with 9 cycles), but I'm concerned about long term reliability.
2. Why did you install ssdPMEnable in addition to NVMeFix. My understanding was that they do the same thing (set SSD to L1 state).
3. Thanks for mentioning AlDente. Didn't know something like this existed. It's exactly what I was looking for. I also found another similar tool called bclm. Trying it out now and will update on how it worked out for me.
4. Thanks for mentioning Volta. I'm debating on whether to install it as it requires disable SIP kext. I'm having overheating issues compiling large projects, even after replacing the heat sink compound. Please do update on your experiences.
5. What do you use the measure SSD consumption and read/write speeds?

Hello again. I'll try to answer all your questions as much as I can:
1. I'm living in Europe, so I got it directly from the manufacturer. In CocoNut, I also have >100% capacity, but I only have 3 cycles yet. So no long-term information, but the manufacturer seems to provide a good warranty, if anything bad happens.
2. This was a coincidence, but I started with ssdPMEnable. As the consumptions were still quite high, I tried NVMeFix and got good results. Might have a try with NVMeFix only, maybe I get the same 0.03A consumption.
3. AlDente seems to work fine, but I had to adjust it to ~83% to charge the battery to ~80% (visible on CocoNut).
4. I had to disable SIP kext for any of these patches (including ssdPMEnable). If I remember well, only AlDente didn't require to. Anyway, I'm now using voltageshift as it's free.
5. I'm using iStats Menu.

Some more updates:
- 980 confirmed to be a bad choice when disk is under high usage. The random speeds are even slower than the original SSD.
- Undervolting is really good to decrease temperature and improve battery life. But... I use this computer in a live music band, and it was interfering with the music clock. Sometimes, it was causing delays and some sound glitches. So I opted to remove Volta at least during these critical situations. Computer is heating again, but at least I can use it

Edit:
- Overheating was due to OneDrive and MEGA syncing. It seems to be stable now

I'll keep you updated.

 

[aaddixx]

Ok, story update. I ended with 2TB 970 evo plus and sintech adapter. Temperatures are really ok, I am surprised. 35c while using normally. Power consumption is around 0,4-0,5A, pretty high but I will try to fix it by kext changing.

One problem is that I have higher write speed than read. Write 2800 and read just 1800-2000. Before with adata sx8200 1tb I also had slower reading. I have the latest boot and ssd firmwares… maybe adapter is fake ? MacBook 11,5, pcie 3 so should around 3000/3000 with 970 evo plus.

 

[johnsawyercjs]

Download OCLP from https://github.com/dortania/OpenCore-Legacy-Patcher/releases
I use the TUI instead of GUI app, because I'd rather use the terminal than the GUI.

Note that with both the GUI and TUI versions of OpenCore-Patcher, after you make changes to their settings and reboot the Mac, if you run OpenCore-Patcher again, you may find that the settings they display may be back to their defaults, and not reflect any of the changes you've just made, but your changes will actually be in effect. This is a bug I've seen anyway, on my Late 2013 Macbook Pro 15 Inch running Monterey 12.5 beta installed by OCLP 0.4.5. I plan to report this bug to Dortania.