Some advanced users have reported an excessive use of the SSD to write and read data on newly launched Macs with M1, Apple’s first computer chip based on the ARM architecture. The problem may eventually affect the life of the internal SSD used on M1 Macs – not to mention the machine itself.
As noted by users on Twitter and also on Linus Tech Tips Forums, macOS indicates that the internal SSD of M1 Macs recorded “extremely high drive writes in a relatively short time”. One user points out that, in some extreme cases, the SSD has already consumed about 13% of the maximum guaranteed bytes written (TBW).
Some more professional users of the new M1 Macbooks are experiencing extremely high disc writes in a relatively short time. The most serious cases “consumed” about 10-13% of the maximum guaranteed TBW value of SSDs (considering their capacity and use values for equivalent NVMe units available on the market).
Since SSDs are based on chips and not mechanical parts, they all have a predetermined life based on how much they are used to write and read data. The more you write data to an SSD, the faster it shows bad behavior, such as slowness or even data corruption. As the internal storage of M1 Macs is soldered to the logic board, users will have to replace the entire computer if it is affected by an SSD defect.
With regular use, this can take up to 10 years to take effect, but today’s reports suggest that the internal SSD life of the M1 Mac may be reduced to just 2 years due to the behavior of macOS. Another user says that a MacBook Pro M1 with 2 TB of storage and 16 GB of RAM has already registered 3% of total internal SSD usage after just 2 months.
Unfortunately, the reasons behind this problem are still unknown. It could be the M1 chip constantly using the Mac’s internal storage to exchange memory (which basically uses the SSD as virtual RAM) or just another bug found in macOS Big Sur.
Apple has yet to comment on this issue, but I hope the company will fix it with a future update of macOS.
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