Apple's New MacOS Update Reportedly Fixes SSD Wear Issue on M1 Macs

[Lightwreather]

Summary

Apple reportedly fixes a problem that only a handful of people ran into. The issue being, reported excess wear on SSDs due to excessive Pagefiling (swap) iirc

 

Quotes

Quote

The researcher who brought to attention an abnormal SSD wearout indicator on Apple M1-based Macs earlier this year believes that the company has resolved the issue with the release of its macOS 11.4 operating system. Apple has never acknowledged the problem, so the company hasn't provided any official information on the matter. Meanwhile, those who worry about their drives (which can only be replaced by swapping out the whole motherboard) can now update to the new operating system for some additional peace of mind.

I

n February, some owners of the latest Apple M1-powered Macs discovered that SSDs in their systems observed a higher-than-expected wearout rate, at least based on the SMART data that tracks SSD endurance. Some users reported 1% of wear after a few months of use, while others reported 3% after two months in use. In both cases, that means that abnormal levels of wear could potentially shorten a drive's lifespan to a few years.
Hector Martin, a technology researcher and a developer who ports Linux to Apple Silicon computers, attracted attention to the issue and did some additional investigation which demonstrated that endurance ratings were proportionate to drive size, but that was still bad news for Apple M1 owners.

 

Apple has neither confirmed there was a problem nor denied the issue. Furthermore, a source at Apple unofficially told AppleInsider that there were no problems with the SSD itself or its firmware (which in the case of Apple's latest PCs is a combination of a controller inside the M1, a couple of 3D NAND memory stacks, and custom firmware), but there was 'a data reporting error' within the SMART Monitoring Tools program used to discover SSD wear. In fact, not all M1 Mac users could replicate the issue.

"Update on the macOS SSD thrashing issue: It seems the issue is fixed in 11.4," Martin wrote in a Twitter post back in May. "It is going to be interesting diffing the XNU kernel source once it drops and seeing what the bug was."

 

 

My thoughts

 In my opinion, this issue was slightly overblown but whether or not the initial reports about the issue were overblown (as many users could not replicate it), updating the operating system is typically a normal part of using your system (unless you use windows ofc /s), so any 'fix' will work its way out into the ecosystem in time. Though, the thing I'm more interested in is... We're already in v11.4? So, is the next macOS version with a name v12?

Sources

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/apple-fixes-ssd-wear-out-reporting-issues
https://twitter.com/marcan42/status/1396374313591140357

 

[Video Beagle]

44 minutes ago, J-from-Nucleon said:

We're already in v11.4? So, is the next macOS version with a name v12

We got about 12 hours I think til we find out

[Lightwreather]

31 minutes ago, Video Beagle said:

We got about 12 hours I think til we find out

Haha, yea

 

[Spindel]

Quote

Furthermore, a source at Apple unofficially told AppleInsider that there were no problems with the SSD itself or its firmware (which in the case of Apple's latest PCs is a combination of a controller inside the M1, a couple of 3D NAND memory stacks, and custom firmware), but there was 'a data reporting error' within the SMART Monitoring Tools program used to discover SSD wear. 

So exactly what I suspected and said in the Macrumors thread back then (that has been going on for a frisking 100+ pages with the same 5 people posting in it).

 

I fairly early stated that the "SMART" reporting was off, temperatures the tools reported where off, power on hours the tools reported where off, GBs that wen to my NAS time machine back up showed up in the "SMART" tool reporting. The tools didn't record what was written to the internal SSD, they reported what the system wrote to any disk be it external or over network (at least in my case).

 

I was told I was wrong and a shill and that Apple was doomed. 

 

I kind of feel vindicated now. 

[maartendc]

More importantly, MacOS 11.4 also brings a ton of security patches. Some of which were pretty severe apparently.

[leadeater]

2 hours ago, Spindel said:

I was told I was wrong and a shill and that Apple was doomed. 

Same, I also said from the start the numbers were improbably high and needed more direct evidence of real time logging of writes to the SSD to prove to me one way or the other. Never got that of course but realistically not exactly an easy ask on someone to do that.

[WolframaticAlpha]

4 hours ago, Spindel said:

said in the Macrumors thread

bro, nuclear radiation is a much better way to lose braincells than going on macrumors. That place is fiilled with apple haters, and apple fans. You can't have an unbiased opinion there without being attacked by someone.

 

 

 

 

 

Funnily enough, I dreamt about this issue being resolved just the previous night. Don't ask why I dreamt that.

Edited June 7, 2021 by WolframaticAlpha

[Sauron]

Quote

We fixed a problem that didn't exist

- Apple, probably

6 hours ago, J-from-Nucleon said:

a source at Apple unofficially told AppleInsider that there were no problems with the SSD itself or its firmware (which in the case of Apple's latest PCs is a combination of a controller inside the M1, a couple of 3D NAND memory stacks, and custom firmware), but there was 'a data reporting error' within the SMART Monitoring Tools program used to discover SSD wear.

I wonder why they wouldn't just release a statement on this, it would be a lot better optically if they recognized a very small issue rather than let people theorize the worst.