It looks like some owners of M1 powered Macs are having issues with the health of their SSDs or at least the health reading of the devices.
There are a number of reports of users having these issues and it is not clear as yet on what may be causing the problem.
16GB M1 MBP, 2TB SSD, 2 months in. pic.twitter.com/SaSmieaT1s
— David (@david_rysk) February 15, 2021
Some of these devices are apparently reporting around 10 to 13 percent of the maximum warrantable bytes written (TBW) of their SSD. Once a hard drive reaches its maximum TBW, they can become unstable, as they are only designed to be written to a certain amount of times.
Understanding SSD Wear and Tear
Solid State Drives (SSDs) have a finite number of write cycles, which means that over time, the cells within the SSD can wear out. This is measured in terms of Terabytes Written (TBW). For example, if an SSD has a TBW rating of 600TB, it means that the drive can handle writing 600 terabytes of data before it may start to fail. The issue with the M1 Macs is that some users are seeing unusually high TBW readings in a short period of time, which is concerning.
It is not clear as yet how many users this may be affecting and why these drives would be reporting such high usage. It is possible that this is due to a bug. As yet, there does not appear to be any official word from Apple on the issue.
Potential Causes and Solutions
There are several theories about what might be causing these high TBW readings. One possibility is that the M1 Macs are performing excessive background tasks that involve a lot of writing to the SSD. This could include things like indexing files for Spotlight, caching data, or other system processes. Another theory is that there might be a bug in the firmware or the macOS itself that is causing the SSD to be written to more frequently than necessary.
For users experiencing this issue, there are a few steps that can be taken to mitigate the problem. First, it’s a good idea to monitor the SSD health using tools like DriveDx or SMART Utility. These tools can provide more detailed information about the SSD’s health and usage. Additionally, users can try to minimize the number of write-intensive tasks they perform, such as large file transfers or video editing.
In the meantime, it is advisable for users to back up their data regularly. Using Time Machine or another backup solution can help ensure that data is not lost if the SSD does fail. Users should also keep an eye out for any updates from Apple that might address this issue.
The M1 Macs have been praised for their performance and efficiency, but this SSD health issue is a significant concern for users who rely on their devices for critical tasks. It remains to be seen how widespread the problem is and whether Apple will provide a fix.
Source MacRumors
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