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

[Charbs20]

Mind you that 15" model has better thermal & cooling, not to mention the ssd position has much better space and airflow as well compared to 13"

so it might experience difference temp/ perf.

But as he said, any 2013-2014 models with newer firmware should not facing overnight battery drain, unless battery itself is deteriorated or there's short to the board (example, if your screw or ssd component are touching the base cover). During trial, i left one 2014 macbook with upgraded SSD in sleep/hibernation state for a week. It only lost 3% of battery.

Hi. Curious which SSD you used that only lost 3% battery. Im trying to decide which SSD to buy for mid 2014 macbook pro.
Thanks.

 

[otosan]

Hi. Curious which SSD you used that only lost 3% battery. Im trying to decide which SSD to buy for mid 2014 macbook pro.
Thanks.

I don't think the ssd i use on that trial is available outside my country,

i attached the picture of it.

Other recommended SSD is Kioxia Exceria.

 

[Charbs20]

I don't think the ssd i use on that trial is available outside my country,

i attached the picture of it.

Other recommended SSD is Kioxia Exceria.

Ok thanks. Im in Canada and was leaning towards the SN570 but ill check out those others you suggested.

People seem to have good success with the SN570 tho, unless you have found it not as good as your suggestions.

 

[austinuser]

is there a market for this laptop still? I don't use my 2014 MBP that I upgraded to the Apple Polaris 1tb SSD.

 

[Charbs20]

is there a market for this laptop still? I don't use my 2014 MBP that I upgraded to the Apple Polaris 1tb SSD.

Im still using a 2011 macbook pro every day for work. Years ago I maxed out the ram and upgraded to a 500GB Samsung EVO SSD. It's been a great machine for basic work.

My wife just bought a brand new M2 Max Macbook Pro. So Im gonna take her old 2014 and use that after i upgrade the hard drive. Will be more than enough for what i need it for.

I just want to make sure I dont waste any money on an SSD that will cause me problems.

 

[RedOctober]

- The 970 Evo Plus and 980 series are not compatible.

I dunno about the 980 series but the 970 Evo Plus is working nicely for me. Paired it with a Sintech adapter.

 

[theMarble]

I dunno about the 980 series but the 970 Evo Plus is working nicely for me. Paired it with a Sintech adapter.

What OS are you running? They work great on Big Sur or earlier. Monterey+ is the trouble area.

 

[otosan]

Ok thanks. Im in Canada and was leaning towards the SN570 but ill check out those others you suggested.

People seem to have good success with the SN570 tho, unless you have found it not as good as your suggestions.

It's not that i do not recommend WD. But i had several tricky situation in the past with SN550. It works, but then would suddenly fail S.M.A.R.T ,

most of the time can be solved by updating firmware.

And it doesnt play nice with bootcamp (due to S.M.A.R.T as well)

Exceria so far never fail me

 

[RedOctober]

What OS are you running? They work great on Big Sur or earlier. Monterey+ is the trouble area.

Monterey 😊

 

[theMarble]

Monterey 😊

TRIM enabled?
Drive health status?

 

[RedOctober]

TRIM enabled?
Drive health status?

TRIM is enabled, S.M.A.R.T. status verified.

 

[mossimossimossi]

I've just updated my wife's MBA7,1 from a Silicon Power A80 500GB to 1TB. I bought the SSD on Amazon.ca for CAD$82.99.

It is not my first experience with the A80, though. You can find my old posts here (this thread) for more info, including my use of the A80 on my MBP11,2 and the MBA7,1.

@macpro_mid2014 Just curious - any reason why you chose to stick to the same brand/model? Also I saw your Link Width double from x2 to x4. Could that have helped out with disk speeds?

 

[mossimossimossi]

It is, but I think it's not worth for a limited PC like ours. After all it's going to work at near half the speeds due to the PCIe 2.0 4x connector.

@Charbs20 I have the P31 and can confirm you'll only get 1/2 the model's speed and, for whatever reason, it feels so wasteful to me. The max speed you'll get is 1300-1440/MBs unless you happen to have a 2015 15" MBP. So if you find another brand that you like for cheaper and is compatible, I would go for that one instead. You can take a look at recent success posts and go from there.

 

[Charbs20]

@Charbs20 I have the P31 and can confirm you'll only get 1/2 the model's speed and, for whatever reason, it feels so wasteful to me. The max speed you'll get is 1300-1440/MBs unless you happen to have a 2015 15" MBP. So if you find another brand that you like for cheaper and is compatible, I would go for that one instead. You can take a look at recent success posts and go from there.

Ya I’m leaning towards the WD SN570. People seem to have success with it. And it seems like a great deal at Canada computers.

WD Blue SN570 1TB M.2 NVMe PCI-E SSD

WD Blue SN570 1TB M.2 NVMe PCI-E Read:3500 MB/s Write:3000 MB/s Solid State Drive (WDS100T3B0C)

www.canadacomputers.com

 

[leftarrowchain3]

Ya I’m leaning towards the WD SN570. People seem to have success with it. And it seems like a great deal at Canada computers.

WD Blue SN570 1TB M.2 NVMe PCI-E SSD

WD Blue SN570 1TB M.2 NVMe PCI-E Read:3500 MB/s Write:3000 MB/s Solid State Drive (WDS100T3B0C)

www.canadacomputers.com

thats a great deal but i see that the WD SN570 is under "SSD known to not work" in the OP, is this info out of date? Has there been anyone with success with the Macbook Pro 11,1? Im looking or a 2tb SSD at the moment

 

[houseofgremory]

Hi everyone,
Macos Ventura RC2 and OCLP 0.50n smooth upgrade from Monterey 12.6.1 with my unsupported 2015 13"MBP (12,1), to my surprised OCLP NVMe power management with default kext loaded works very well, iStat taken during idle only, Hynix P31 1TB installed. This will be my daily driver for now, together with IOS 16.1.

View attachment 2100505

Hey man I'm running OCLP with the same NVME but my machine had a sleep-wake failure. I'm trying to search the forum for an answer how to inject the kexts you listed but so far I got nothing. Any help is appreciated.

 

[Charbs20]

Hi all,
Thanks to you I've successfully upgraded my rMBP mid2014 with a 2TB WD SN570. On Monterey with OpenCore it works flawlessly like an original Apple SSD, but without any modification on Big Sur it drain the battery quite fast (3hours of battery life while idle). Unfortunately the Crucial P3 I bought before the SN570 didn't got recognized by the MacBook.

I think the fist post should be updated about the WD SN570 compatibility.

Did you ever find a fix for the battery issue with the SN570? I have the exact same rMBP as you and am considering the SN570.

 

[mossimossimossi]

@Charbs20 If you go to MrPhil17’s post that was quoted, they mention what they did a few posts down. If you haven’t heard of OpenCore, that’s another rabbit hole to go down into…

 

[Charbs20]

Has anyone successfully upgraded the SSD on their MacBook Pro and then use migration assistant to transfer everything from a separate MacBook to the newly updated one with new ssd?

I’m upgrading a 2014 rMBP with 1TB SN570 and then want to use migration assistant to move everything over from my old 2011 MBP. About 450gigs worth of stuff.

2011 MBP is running High Sierra and 2014 will have Big Sur after upgrading SSD.

I’m also considering using opencore on the 2014 to run the latest OS but not sure if that’s a good idea if I want to use migration assistant.

Would that cause any problems?

 

[bykim5]

drives are getting so cheap these days... already have P31 in my 2015 MBP running great.

What would be a great and cheap option for a late 2013 macbook pro? Assuming it'd be PCI 4.0x4 with probably no dram...

WD Blue?

I have been looking at intel 670p 2tb for $100 even though it's PCI 3.0 since the MBP only supports 2.0 anyways..

 

[job-vm]

Hi,

Clicked through a lot of pages and posts to search for the latest possibilities on upgrading my mid 2014 MacBook Pro A1502 13-inch to 1Tb SSD. Can anyone suggest the most stable solution on BigSur 11.7.2?

Is this still a Sintech NGFF M.2 nVME SSD Adapter Card + a SSD (for instance SAMSUNG 970 EVO Plus SSD 1TB NVMe M.2)?

Any suggestions?

 

[Charbs20]

So I successfully installed the 1TB WD SN570 with short Sintech adapter in my mid 2014 rMBP. Installed Big Sur from USB, then used migration assistant to move everything over from my old 2011 MBP. Worked perfectly, no issues except for a few apps that werent compatabile because they were old 32bit ones.

One thing I'm curious about is what happens when I close the lid when on battery. I seem to be losing 1 or 2 per cent of battery every hour that the lid is closed. Is this normal?

 

[mossimossimossi]

To reduce battery drain during sleep, check out my FAQ. Q1 is generic solution (not specific to ssdpmEnabler).

1. How to reduce battery drain during sleep?​

To reduce battery drain at idle, install ssdpmEnabler (and/or NvmeFix).

To reduce battery drain during read/write operation, don't be silly by picking "high performance" SSDs. Your old Mac laptops (except 2015 15-inch MBP) won't benefit a dime at the expense of higher power consumption. Folks here have tried and proven a couple of models that do well performance & power consumption wise. Some are better than others but in general won't be wrong with any of them. I would say don't punish yourself by trying something new unless you could manage it yourself.

With all the above THREE areas covered, you're in best shape: a 3rd-party NVMe SSD replacement with much larger capacity and higher performance in good old Mac's that outshine the Apple original's.

See if the above helps out with your battery drain.

 

[Charbs20]

See if the above helps out with your battery drain.

Thanks ill check that out. But i though those things were not needed anymore if the macbook had the newest boot rom from big sur, which i have.

or does it only work if i use opencore and upgrade to a newer MacOS?

Also it says this on Github.

"Note that MacBookPro11,1 and MacBookAir6,2 are not compatible with 3rd-party NVMe SSDs in lower power modes. Owners of these two models are not recommended to install ssdpmEnabler as it will result in crash."

 

[otosan]

Thanks ill check that out. But i though those things were not needed anymore if the macbook had the newest boot rom from big sur, which i have.

or does it only work if i use opencore and upgrade to a newer MacOS?

Also it says this on Github.

"Note that MacBookPro11,1 and MacBookAir6,2 are not compatible with 3rd-party NVMe SSDs in lower power modes. Owners of these two models are not recommended to install ssdpmEnabler as it will result in crash."

Since you are using migration assistant from an old 2011 macbook, you might want to reset your power management settings, (older macbook that come with spinning drive has different standby/sleep/hibernation value/settings)

open terminal,

run this command :

sudo pmset restoredefaults

enter

then run this command :

sudo pmset -a powernap 0 standbydelaylow 1500 standbydelayhigh 1500

enter again

that's it,

bar any hardware issue, you should experience no battery drain overnight

also, reset your SMC won't hurt either. I assume you unplug your battery during ssd installation, and any battery re-placement/installation should be accompanied by SMC reset.