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

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I am thinking about upgrading my storage on my Macbook Pro. Ive read what needs to be done however I am not a "technical person". My Macbook Pro is a 13 inch 2015 Macbook Pro retina Model No. > A1502 EMC > 2385. It has 250gb of storage however I would like to upgrade from this to at-least a 2tb storage. My current OS is Monterey 12.7.6.

How can I do this? I do not know which ssd's are good so can someone suggest very good/reliable SSD's. Once the ssd is installed, is it ready to use or must I do something to "migrate" the OS onto the drive or do something to the firmware? I am not a technical person so apologies if I am not making sense. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Here are some links relating to the SSD I may buy >> https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/315112751198?_skw=Macbook+Pro+2015+SSD&itmmeta=01JHEFVJ34BFHDVFPB6732KV0K&hash=item495e2f005e:g:OJEAAOSwS6NmVpaw&itmprp=enc:AQAJAAAA0HoV3kP08IDx+KZ9MfhVJKl4jvmmJxZByBFcdqq8O0AIAFFTZ+eLsRuMr1h5ZAh0WvlG+dezDmabY8JjU8YWepsOrOok5YnsipaoE4g9eoF+UPqZDkq58DwkuQzHIVxGNLoBwU/KzV4Yk9HzXumDY50D8e/3Slfzuguj4txYDXRXJ3UsSjfkE8nJA0g1JLBv3hLjfaQac4+U5azSwzEgEN55fYUQ9+QN8BrSbyNaUNksZqfcTZV4rWxIpcjsWMFTsEDZlhbwGzBEx0Pot+rQvyo=|tkp:BlBMUNqh7s-LZQ&var=613589034015

There is this one aswell >> https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/315164792658?_skw=fanxiang+SSD&itmmeta=01JHEFXWW1GT02ENKXRXSZRETX&hash=item4961491752:g:eek:yYAAOSw7YFli5Eg&itmprp=enc:AQAJAAAA0HoV3kP08IDx+KZ9MfhVJKmHrXKv0+vbNueYBRLGaCztNubEyQryQdPx5lzwPxkBls6q7tMp/2glh6OCAU+wFjGeXMvXKAB3qi/WQTo9KOF/4M7yCk4l0/BNBsnp0rOae90mV2IFTBqqXCdM1v+CDvT6LHG2vnj7Ujy/jhLEflELecF6IoOyW2uLz0kfkTPdjYr9rDMd8WPEZstSb1x5t48k4Zc50fIGGK3gGuTZ55sUpz1/nmTkiCGpE23asW4QZa7ULCr3gl0LP6Wgm8VnasU=|tkp:BlBMUJbO98-LZQ&var=613640886544

And this One >> https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/315104502666?_skw=fanxiang+SSD&itmmeta=01JHEFXWW1AT70154QKNFMVPZY&hash=item495db1238a:g:cIoAAOSwza1nGJuJ&itmprp=enc:AQAJAAAA8HoV3kP08IDx+KZ9MfhVJKkq5ClKmMp/cLwTUzBsxdX8yCqmLon9qstfTl4SCaQQyI75j32gZ9ibLmskCLP629V15iMC+Fai1Pr5t0LbxsJ+TRBilpxrquXDmeOP0lvDuqq6yHPmShFg6eUXqg+6j/p1p0R4wD5AekxSGGQGP/XsPTH7JxJ5qBlfMj4VjZ1tZ8jPyNRIqkAJTKVDJW39ugDm50iPVTa2yKzefqTf/QBJNsxrV1fkbSLDTQsCbaaRn6Dqup64epqKytelDlsAfS2R9W6Z5KlzIZJcnt/0AVL1jf7FwYoXyN6Y8aPISFq4gw==|tkp:Bk9SR5jO98-LZQ&var=614026905634
 
Update: Confirmed, Samsung 990EVO works in the MBA7,2 with the adapter, been using it for hours and seems stable and is noticeably snappier. Roughly doubled read and write speeds. With the drive in an external enclosure I could not duplicate the system drive over to it, using DD, SuperDuper, or Samsung Magician, so I had to install the system from scratch on the new drive, hence the differences in background, dock, menu bar, etc.
 

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LongReach_2910 said:
I am thinking about upgrading my storage on my Macbook Pro. Ive read what needs to be done however I am not a "technical person". My Macbook Pro is a 13 inch 2015 Macbook Pro retina Model No. > A1502 EMC > 2385. It has 250gb of storage however I would like to upgrade from this to atleast a 2tb storage. My current OS is Monterey 12.7.6.

How can I do this? I do not know which ssd's are good so can someone suggest very good/reliable SSD's. Once the ssd is installed, is it ready to use or must I do something to "migrate" the OS onto the drive or do something to the firmware. I am not a technical person so apologies if I am not making sense. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
I have the 15 inch.. Check my sig.. that's what I have. Works well.
 
LongReach_2910 said:
I am thinking about upgrading my storage on my Macbook Pro. Ive read what needs to be done however I am not a "technical person". My Macbook Pro is a 13 inch 2015 Macbook Pro retina Model No. > A1502 EMC > 2385. It has 250gb of storage however I would like to upgrade from this to at-least a 2tb storage. My current OS is Monterey 12.7.6.

How can I do this? I do not know which ssd's are good so can someone suggest very good/reliable SSD's. Once the ssd is installed, is it ready to use or must I do something to "migrate" the OS onto the drive or do something to the firmware? I am not a technical person so apologies if I am not making sense. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Here are some links relating to the SSD I may buy >> https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/315112751198?_skw=Macbook+Pro+2015+SSD&itmmeta=01JHEFVJ34BFHDVFPB6732KV0K&hash=item495e2f005e:g:OJEAAOSwS6NmVpaw&itmprp=enc:AQAJAAAA0HoV3kP08IDx+KZ9MfhVJKl4jvmmJxZByBFcdqq8O0AIAFFTZ+eLsRuMr1h5ZAh0WvlG+dezDmabY8JjU8YWepsOrOok5YnsipaoE4g9eoF+UPqZDkq58DwkuQzHIVxGNLoBwU/KzV4Yk9HzXumDY50D8e/3Slfzuguj4txYDXRXJ3UsSjfkE8nJA0g1JLBv3hLjfaQac4+U5azSwzEgEN55fYUQ9+QN8BrSbyNaUNksZqfcTZV4rWxIpcjsWMFTsEDZlhbwGzBEx0Pot+rQvyo=|tkp:BlBMUNqh7s-LZQ&var=613589034015

There is this one aswell >> https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/315164792658?_skw=fanxiang+SSD&itmmeta=01JHEFXWW1GT02ENKXRXSZRETX&hash=item4961491752:g:eek:yYAAOSw7YFli5Eg&itmprp=enc:AQAJAAAA0HoV3kP08IDx+KZ9MfhVJKmHrXKv0+vbNueYBRLGaCztNubEyQryQdPx5lzwPxkBls6q7tMp/2glh6OCAU+wFjGeXMvXKAB3qi/WQTo9KOF/4M7yCk4l0/BNBsnp0rOae90mV2IFTBqqXCdM1v+CDvT6LHG2vnj7Ujy/jhLEflELecF6IoOyW2uLz0kfkTPdjYr9rDMd8WPEZstSb1x5t48k4Zc50fIGGK3gGuTZ55sUpz1/nmTkiCGpE23asW4QZa7ULCr3gl0LP6Wgm8VnasU=|tkp:BlBMUJbO98-LZQ&var=613640886544

And this One >> https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/315104502666?_skw=fanxiang+SSD&itmmeta=01JHEFXWW1AT70154QKNFMVPZY&hash=item495db1238a:g:cIoAAOSwza1nGJuJ&itmprp=enc:AQAJAAAA8HoV3kP08IDx+KZ9MfhVJKkq5ClKmMp/cLwTUzBsxdX8yCqmLon9qstfTl4SCaQQyI75j32gZ9ibLmskCLP629V15iMC+Fai1Pr5t0LbxsJ+TRBilpxrquXDmeOP0lvDuqq6yHPmShFg6eUXqg+6j/p1p0R4wD5AekxSGGQGP/XsPTH7JxJ5qBlfMj4VjZ1tZ8jPyNRIqkAJTKVDJW39ugDm50iPVTa2yKzefqTf/QBJNsxrV1fkbSLDTQsCbaaRn6Dqup64epqKytelDlsAfS2R9W6Z5KlzIZJcnt/0AVL1jf7FwYoXyN6Y8aPISFq4gw==|tkp:Bk9SR5jO98-LZQ&var=614026905634
Click to expand...

Preparation is important for a system drive swap. It's not difficult to remove the bottom panel of your MacBook Pro or the drive once you're inside of the system, but you do need to do a few things first.

The new drive comes with no format or data on it, so you have to format it, and then you can use a program like SuperDuper to duplicate your current system drive onto the new drive. That requires putting your new drive in an NVMe external drive case and plugging it in over USB so you can format and copy the drive. This is the most straightforward option but requires the external case for the drive, so it's something else you have to buy unless you have one. Once the drive is copied successfully, you can shut it down, remove the old drive from the laptop and install the new one, and it should boot up exactly the same, but with lots more space.

The other option is to backup your personal data using Time Machine or by uploading everything to iCloud, then putting a macOS installer on a USB stick, opening up the laptop, swapping out the old drive for the new drive, and then booting the system with that USB stick and installing macOS from scratch. You would then restore your data from Time Machine or iCloud after the install finishes. This doesn't require an external NVMe drive case but is takes much longer to do and is a more complicated process. This is the process I used when I upgraded my MacBook Air but that's because I could not get SuperDuper or the DD terminal command to duplicate my system drive. I've also done this a million times in the last 20 years so I have the experience to handle things as they come up.

In addition to the SSD, you need an adapter to convert the proprietary Apple SSD interface to a standard M.2 PCIe connector. The only adapter that works reliably according to many here is the Sintech adapter, which you can find on Amazon here. Insert the drive's interface into the adapter and then push the drive + adapter into the socket on your Mac's logic board, and secure it with the T5 screw that you would have had to remove to get the old drive out.

You'll need a T5 screwdriver for the screw securing the SSD and a P5 screwdriver for the screws holding the bottom cover in place. iFixIt sells these in kits with a number of other useful drivers if you don't have a set.

If you've never worked inside of a computer before, I would highly recommend having someone go through the process with you that can help you in person directly if you run into trouble.
 
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Confirm my case: Macbook pro mid 2014, WD Blue SN580 1TB, running Sequoia 15.2 with Opencore 2.2. The speed is around read and write are about 1300 to 1400 MB/s.
 
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Hello,

I have a Macbook Pro (13-inch, 2017, Two Thunderbolt 3 ports - 1708), bought an NFHK adapter for my ssd and installed a WD SN740. I'm running under Venturo and i experience battery draining a lot faster than with the original Apple SSD. Is there a way to correct it? I installed Mac OS without any third library.
 
Only replaced my stock internal Apple AHCI 256GB SSD a couple of hours ago. It was a pretty non-eventful experience.

My (new to me) early 2015 MacBook Air 7,2 which has current firmware ...

System Firmware Version: 489.0.0.0.0

... is now booting from an internal NVME, a 1TB TeamGroup MP33 ...

Generic SSD Controller:
TEAM TM8FP6001T:
Capacity: 1.02 TB (1,024,209,543,168 bytes)
TRIM Support: Yes
Model: TEAM TM8FP6001T
Revision: H240226a

Sequoia 15.2 installed from an OpenCoreLegacy 2.2.0 prepared USB boot stick.
I used the recommended "short" Sintech NGFF M.2 nVME SSD Adapter Card.

If I have problems, I'll post that.
 
132terry said:
Only replaced my stock internal Apple AHCI 256GB SSD a couple of hours ago. It was a pretty non-eventful experience.

My (new to me) early 2015 MacBook Air 7,2 which has current firmware ...

System Firmware Version: 489.0.0.0.0

... is now booting from an internal NVME, a 1TB TeamGroup MP33 ...

Generic SSD Controller:
TEAM TM8FP6001T:
Capacity: 1.02 TB (1,024,209,543,168 bytes)
TRIM Support: Yes
Model: TEAM TM8FP6001T
Revision: H240226a

Sequoia 15.2 installed from an OpenCoreLegacy 2.2.0 prepared USB boot stick.
I used the recommended "short" Sintech NGFF M.2 nVME SSD Adapter Card.

If I have problems, I'll post that.
Click to expand...
 

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132terry said:
Only replaced my stock internal Apple AHCI 256GB SSD a couple of hours ago. It was a pretty non-eventful experience.

My (new to me) early 2015 MacBook Air 7,2 which has current firmware ...

System Firmware Version: 489.0.0.0.0

... is now booting from an internal NVME, a 1TB TeamGroup MP33 ...

Generic SSD Controller:
TEAM TM8FP6001T:
Capacity: 1.02 TB (1,024,209,543,168 bytes)
TRIM Support: Yes
Model: TEAM TM8FP6001T
Revision: H240226a

Sequoia 15.2 installed from an OpenCoreLegacy 2.2.0 prepared USB boot stick.
I used the recommended "short" Sintech NGFF M.2 nVME SSD Adapter Card.

If I have problems, I'll post that.
Click to expand...
Never heard of Team Group.. Are those reliable?.
 
xboxbml said:
Never heard of Team Group.. Are those reliable?.
Click to expand...
These are lower cost SSDs. They have TLC Nand chips (3 bits stored per cell) as opposed to the cheaper QLC Nand (4 bits per cell). Most good SSDs are QLC where the very high end SSDs have 2 bits stored per cell and are often labelled MLC (BUT YOU HAVE TO BE CAREFUL HERE, SOME COMPANIES label their SSDs as MLC even though they store 3 bits per cell).
The MP33 does not have onboard DRAM for caching. This is a good/bad scenario as onboard cache can help with apparent write speed - which is good - but DRAM chips are an extra energy draw which is bad for a useful laptops time on a battery.
The MP33 is a 4 lane PCIe 3 SSD compatible with PCIe 2. My 2015 MacBook Air with the upgraded firmware works as an AHCI OR 4 lane PCIe 2 device (as opposed to just an AHCI device with the original firmware) so the MacBook Air is the slow link here.

Tom's Hardware gives a favourable review ... https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/team-group-mp33-m2-nvme-ssd

TechPowerUp gives a favourable review ... https://www.techpowerup.com/review/team-group-mp33-512-gb-m2-nvme-ssd/7.html

I purchased it through Amazon Canada which posted that few returns are made of this SSD

I was waiting for the Sy Hynix P31 - which seems to be the gold standard on this website - to go on sale, but I gave up waiting.
 
132terry said:
I was waiting for the Sy Hynix P31 - which seems to be the gold standard on this website - to go on sale, but I gave up waiting.
Click to expand...
That's what I put in my 2015MBP. My Air has the ADATA SX8200Pro. Never had an issue with either. Had the ADATA for over 5 years. P31 not quite a year yet, but works well.
 
Can I get any RELIABLE 4TB or 8TB NVMe recommendations for a 2015 15 inch that won't drain the battery super fast, please? Obviously Hynix Gold P31 is the best choice but that only has a 2TB option if I'm not mistaken.
 
Last edited:
Nanashi_ said:
Can I get any RELIABLE 4TB or 8TB NVMe recommendations for a 2015 15 inch that won't drain the battery super fast, please? Obviously Hynix Gold P31 is the best choice but that only has a 2TB option if I'm not mistaken.
Click to expand...
I'd like to know as well.. I've never seen one mentioned here that works. If there was one I'm sure it would be well over 300$.
 
Good day everyone ive been reading for quite some time already and appreciate all your help in this thread! I just want to ask some help i recently got a MBP 13 early 2015 3.1ghz with 16gb ram and 512ssd. I plan to upgrade to 1tb and found Hynix Gold P31 as one of the top brands being used. Are these two items correct? What enclosure can i use for my ssd 512? Any link on how to transfer all files? Thank you and much appreciated! Im no techy and just trying to learn this all! Also would you recommend to go 2TB straight?
 

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Teamjm7788 said:
Good day everyone ive been reading for quite some time already and appreciate all your help in this thread! I just want to ask some help i recently got a MBP 13 early 2015 3.1ghz with 16gb ram and 512ssd. I plan to upgrade to 1tb and found Hynix Gold P31 as one of the top brands being used. Are these two items correct? What enclosure can i use for my ssd 512? Any link on how to transfer all files? Thank you and much appreciated! Im no techy and just trying to learn this all! Also would you recommend to go 2TB straight?
Click to expand...
The very first post pretty much lays out what you have to do to successfully get the Mac OS running on your MBP. The only thing that is out of date is the list of SSDs that play well with our laptops and the ones that do not. The other thing I can add is there is no need to download something to verify the laptops firmware version. "System Information" displays the current firmware version of your laptop on its opening page. AS the first post implies, DO NOT proceed with hardware swap until your laptop has the current firmware and hence knows how to use NVME SSDs. When that's done Use Open Core Legacy to make a bootable USB stick. Before you make the swap, boot up from the USB stick as a test to make sure you can (understand and know how to) get to Disk Utility as the first step after the swap is to boot in to Disk Utility, and format the drive as an APFS drive. After you are running on the new SSD you will have to install Open Core if you want to boot up without the USB stick attached. Open Core puts some software needed at boot time in the (small) EFI partition of the boot up disk.

By the way, the SY Hynix P31 and Sintech short adapter afaik should be fine.
 
mslilyelise said:
Update: Confirmed, Samsung 990EVO works in the MBA7,2 with the adapter, been using it for hours and seems stable and is noticeably snappier. Roughly doubled read and write speeds. With the drive in an external enclosure I could not duplicate the system drive over to it, using DD, SuperDuper, or Samsung Magician, so I had to install the system from scratch on the new drive, hence the differences in background, dock, menu bar, etc.
Click to expand...

Are you positive this model works? I tried the Samsung 980 Pro a while back and while it initially seemed to work fine, I discovered some issues after activating Filevault that made the system very unstable and haven't dared to try any newer samsung drive since.

For people looking for a more recent model, I confirm that the WD BLACK SN850X works great, but unless you find it at a very good price or are looking for a capacity > 2TB, the WD BLUE SN580 is still my goto for a fairly recent drive that gives you the best value for money up to 2TB.
 
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danielristic said:
Are you positive this model works? I tried the Samsung 980 Pro a while back and while it initially seemed to work fine, I discovered some issues after activating Filevault that made the system very unstable and haven't dared to try any newer samsung drive since.

For people looking for a more recent model, I confirm that the WD BLACK SN850X works great, but unless you find it at a very good price or are looking for a capacity > 2TB, the WD BLUE SN580 is still my goto for a fairly recent drive that gives you the best value for money up to 2TB.
Click to expand...
Nice to know the WD-Black SN850X works. Hoping to save up for the 8TB for my 2014 MacBook Pro.
 
Considering a 1tb PCIe card, for a 2014 MBA
Have read the the 2015 MBA & MBP use 4x PCIe storage, while earlier models used 2x.

Question #1
can the 4x be used in a 2014 but perhaps run at a slower speed
If so, might as well just look for 2x PCIe:

Question #2
Apple 1TB SSD SSUBX is 4x?
Apple 1TB SSD SSUAX is 2x?
both I believe by Samsung

Apple indicates the MBA has a 512gb cap.
OWC tells me THEIR own 1tb PCIe will work in a 2014 MBA but could not tell me if an Apple 1tb would or not.

Thanks for reading!
 
Yes, 16x, 8x, 4x, 2x, 1x can be used in a 16x, 8x, 4x, 2x, or 1x slot.

I don't think there's a NVMe or AHCI or SATA cap for Intel Macs, regardless of brand.

SSUAX is PCIe 2.0 x2.
SSUBX is PCIe 3.0 x4 which would make it up to four times faster than SSUAX.

The following article refers to SSUAX as generation 3 and SSUBX as generation 4. Generations in this context refers to Apple SSDs.
https://beetstech.com/blog/apple-pr...ngr2eR60BlKxTRMFrPi72E8z0J5Tnd-5DDJb-RAJoRc1I
 
The shorter adapters are much better because the longer ones can add a bit too much of overall thickness to the upgrade, many switched from longer to shorter adapters.

Me personally I bought the direct replacement SSDs for two MBA 2015 and an MBA 2013 because overall it was the lesser expensive solution (the adapter is not for free).
 
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