M1 Mac Users Report Excessive SSD Wear

[gank41]

Where do you check those numbers?

You can also use SmartMonTools in HomeBrew to show these numbers via Terminal. I know there’s been plenty of pages of comments, but it’s been covered a few times now.

How to check your Mac’s SSD health using Terminal

Learn how to set up the Terminal in macOS so you can install and run smartmontools, a utility that provides data on the health of your SSD.

www.macworld.com

 

[jazz1]

Using the app DriveDx from binaryfruit.com

Thanks for the tip. I've purchased and installed. My M1 MacMini's SSD seems to be in the green. This MacMini was purchased within the first month of release.

 

[toke lahti]

Using the app DriveDx from binaryfruit.com

Does DriveDx work with Monterey?

I have used SMARTReporter with Mojave before and now with Monterey, I tried to insstall SATSMARTDriver-0.10.3.macOS11_and_AppleSilicon.zip, but it leads to bootloop so long that the OS disables it.
I even tried with disabling the SIP, but then I can't boot to Monterey at all.

I boot with external drives with my mini2018 and if I can't read SMART from external disks, it's pretty useless to me...

 

[opeter]

I boot with external drives with my mini2018 and if I can't read SMART from external disks, it's pretty useless to me...

I can only give you information for MacOS Mojave (10.14.x) and High Sierra (10.13.x), where DriveDX does show SMART data on external USB drives too...

 

[Cyprusian]

Does DriveDx work with Monterey?

I have used SMARTReporter with Mojave before and now with Monterey, I tried to insstall SATSMARTDriver-0.10.3.macOS11_and_AppleSilicon.zip, but it leads to bootloop so long that the OS disables it.
I even tried with disabling the SIP, but then I can't boot to Monterey at all.

I boot with external drives with my mini2018 and if I can't read SMART from external disks, it's pretty useless to me...

Yes - DriveDx runs on Monterey on my Mac Mini M1.

 

[toke lahti]

Yes - DriveDx runs on Monterey on my Mac Mini M1.

But does it run with my mini, since I boot from external...?

 

[toke lahti]

I can only give you information for MacOS Mojave (10.14.x) and High Sierra (10.13.x), where DriveDX does show SMART data on external USB drives too...

I've used SMARTReporter with this same mini in Mojave with Binaryfruit's signed satsmart-kext.
Worked just fine.
Does not work with Monterey.
There's not a single word in DriveDx's site about Monterey.

 

[Cyprusian]

I've used SMARTReporter with this mini in Mojave with Binaryfruit's signed satsmart-kext.
Worked just fine.
Does not work with Monterey.
There's not a single word in DriveDx's site about Monterey.

DriveDx runs on Monterey on my Mac Mini M1

 

[Cyprusian]

But does it run with my mini, since I boot from external...?

I don’t see why not as it will monitor all internal and external drives

 

[Maximara]

But does it run with my mini, since I boot from external...?

In theory it should but while it will run on Catalina on my Intel iMac it won't give me any information but on the Internal platter:
➜ ~ smartctl -a disk0
smartctl 7.2 2020-12-30 r5155 [Darwin 19.6.0 x86_64] (sf-7.2-1)
Copyright (C) 2002-20, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Device Model: APPLE HDD HTS541010A9E662
(...)
➜ ~ smartctl -a disk1
smartctl 7.2 2020-12-30 r5155 [Darwin 19.6.0 x86_64] (sf-7.2-1)
Copyright (C) 2002-20, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Device Model: APPLE HDD HTS541010A9E662

➜ ~ smartctl -a disk2 (disk4)
smartctl 7.2 2020-12-30 r5155 [Darwin 19.6.0 x86_64] (sf-7.2-1)
Copyright (C) 2002-20, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
Smartctl open device: disk2 (disk4) failed: Operation not supported by device

(disk2/disk4 is the Samsung Portable SSD T5 Media I now use as my boot drive)

It is disk2 for the drive itself and disk4 for the container:

 

[opeter]

I've used SMARTReporter with this same mini in Mojave with Binaryfruit's signed satsmart-kext.
Worked just fine.
Does not work with Monterey.
There's not a single word in DriveDx's site about Monterey.

Sorry, I would like to help, but don't use any of the newer macOS versions.

 

[toke lahti]

I don’t see why not as it will monitor all internal and external drives

I see few reasons:

#1
There's no mention at all about macOS 12 compatibility in DriveDX's specs at all.

#2
To monitor external drives' SMART, it has to use SATSMART-kext and installing that totally destroyed my system, as I wrote.

#3
To read external drives' SMARt, you have to disconnect them at the boot, like it is written in instructions. Otherwise you can't read those drives' SMART, which are connected at the time of the boot.
Obviously, you can't disconnect the boot drive at the time of the boot.

#4
I asked Binary Fruit via e-mail a week ago about this and got no answer.

Possible explanation, of course is, that Drive Dx is a hobby of it's maker and the maker is busy doing something that it financially or otherwise important.
Because of that, there might be updated version of SMARTSAT-kext in the paid version of DriveDx or the installation of that kext is handled in the installation of DriveDx in a way, that it does not destroy the system.
Anyway the old support page does not work for me in macOS 12: https://binaryfruit.com/drivedx/usb-drive-support

Btw, I noticed that I have asked something else from Binary Fruit also in 2020 and got no answer.
I'm not eager to buy something from that level of support.
Their responsiveness is no wonder, since they seem to have monopoly for macOS SMART reporting in their price category.

 

[toke lahti]

I don’t see why not as it will monitor all internal and external drives

There is certainly few differences between intel and M1 processrs...

 

[Maximara]

I see few reasons:

#1
There's no mention at all about macOS 12 compatibility in DriveDX's specs at all.

The guts of DriveDX, smartmontools, is open source and free. Someone took that and rewrote it using Apple's own SMART APIs so unless they did something really silly, Apple's API are wonked, or the drive in question doesn't support SMART through the connector smartmontools should work (It may not like USB because I can't get it to give my any information on any drive connected on my 2013 iMac via USB)

Side note, according to alternativeto, there are 8 free alternatives to Drive DX

My rule of thumb is - see if there is a free open source alternative and after gathering information regarding its safety use that that.

That is why I laugh when people about about using MS Office when LibreOffice exists - odds are for what most people want to I does the job and they are throwing away money for the label (reminds me of a PSA done in the Schoolhouse Rock style about someone who gets clothes just for the label and not checking if they fit)

 

[gank41]

The guts of DriveDX, smartmontools, is open source and free. Someone took that and rewrote it using Apple's own SMART APIs so unless they did something really silly, Apple's API are wonked, or the drive in question doesn't support SMART through the connector smartmontools should work (It may not like USB because I can't get it to give my any information on any drive connected on my 2013 iMac via USB)

Side note, according to alternativeto, there are 8 free alternatives to Drive DX

My rule of thumb is - see if there is a free open source alternative and after gathering information regarding its safety use that that.

That is why I laugh when people about about using MS Office when LibreOffice exists - odds are for what most people want to I does the job and they are throwing away money for the label (reminds me of a PSA done in the Schoolhouse Rock style about someone who gets clothes just for the label and not checking if they fit)

I think what's great about smartmontools is that you only need to type 'smartctl -a disk0' in a terminal window. No need to install DriveDX at all.

 

[MareLuce]

I see few reasons:

Many thanks for posting and the heads-up.

 

[toke lahti]

I think what's great about smartmontools is that you only need to type 'smartctl -a disk0' in a terminal window. No need to install DriveDX at all.

To get SMART from externals, you need SATSMART kext.
So far the only SIGNED satsmart kext I've found is from Binary Fruit.
Isn't un-signed kexts banned in macOS12?

 

[toke lahti]

The guts of DriveDX, smartmontools, is open source and free. Someone took that and rewrote it using Apple's own SMART APIs so unless they did something really silly, Apple's API are wonked, or the drive in question doesn't support SMART through the connector smartmontools should work (It may not like USB because I can't get it to give my any information on any drive connected on my 2013 iMac via USB)

There are doubts about smartmontools working right with macs.
I just read the smart from my internal ssd, which I never use and it has only 2 maintenance accounts for emergencies.
From report:

Power On Time                        : 198 hours (8 days 6 hours)
Power Cycles Count                   : 505
Current Power Cycle Time             : 0.2 hours

7 Data Units Written                           24 403 928 (12.5 TB)

12.5 terabytes of writing in 200 hours for system I have ever logged in just few times...
What an earth the mac has written to it with speed of 62.5Gbytes/h? ie. 140Mbit/s for straight 200 hours...

 

[toke lahti]

Side note, according to alternativeto, there are 8 free alternatives to Drive DX

Side note to the side note:
1 is smartmontools, no GUI.
GSmartCotrol, not macOS app, runs with homebrew. Working in macOS12 unknown. Monterey not mentioned in https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/gsmartcontrol
Stats: no mention that it even has SMART.
Eul: same thing.
Stats panel: same thing again.
ZetaWatch, mayby it has, but focus is WAYYY different.
RunCat: no mention about SMART either.
Beaconly: shows SMART as nicely as Textedit.

So, there you have it, EIGHT great FREE options!

You know, I've searched this thing for years and decades...

 

[gank41]

To get SMART from externals, you need SATSMART kext.
So far the only SIGNED satsmart kext I've found is from Binary Fruit.
Isn't un-signed kexts banned in macOS12?

Ahh, well I'm only using it to monitor my internal drive.

 

[Maximara]

Side note to the side note:
1 is smartmontools, no GUI.
(...)
Stats: no mention that it even has SMART.

Stats ties into the Activity Monitor which while it is does not have SMART does have this:

 

[Maximara]

There are doubts about smartmontools working right with macs.
I just read the smart from my internal ssd, which I never use and it has only 2 maintenance accounts for emergencies.
From report:

Power On Time                        : 198 hours (8 days 6 hours)
Power Cycles Count                   : 505
Current Power Cycle Time             : 0.2 hours

7 Data Units Written                           24 403 928 (12.5 TB)

12.5 terabytes of writing in 200 hours for system I have ever logged in just few times...
What an earth the mac has written to it with speed of 62.5Gbytes/h? ie. 140Mbit/s for straight 200 hours...

Did you cross check these numbers with Activity Monitor (Disk Tab)?

Also there are several key details missing:
1) The programs you use
viewing 4k videos via nearly any browser without making sure the cache is turned out is a bad thing even with Safari. If for some reason you are using Chrome...nearly any other browser is better. Anything that has to use Rosetta 2 is another suspect. Electron is another 'let's write like crazy to SSD' nightmare.
2) Amount of RAM - more RAM generally results in less writes - barring scratch files and Rosetta 2 translations.
3) Size of SSD and its free space - an SSD that is near full with have problems implementing wear leveling and will wear out faster as explained in a video referenced several posts back.

Side note regarding kernel_task, as explained back in a 2017 thread: "kernel_task is a core part of the OS that is sort of like the traffic police for many different processes. So apps that write to the disk do it through kernel_task."

In fact, Apple Communities has several threads how several third party programs or hardware were causing kernel_task to go nuts with regards to CPU usage (which on the M1 could translate to disk writes)

* "zoom causing kernel_task to use more than 1000%"
* "Microsoft Teams and Zoom cause kernal_task to use lots of CPU and make my system unresponsive"
* "Kernel_task 1000% CPU and USB webcam usage" ("In my case the problem was fixed changing the usb-c connector")
* "kernel_task up to 1000% CPU consumption when doing video conference with MS Teams"

TL ; DR - just because it is kernel_task going nuts doesn't mean it is Apple's fault as apps use that process to write to the disk.

 

[toke lahti]

Stats ties into the Activity Monitor which while it is does not have SMART does have this:
View attachment 1957867

You DO know, that Activity Monitor (Disk Tab) shows you numbers only from last boot?
Isn't very useful if you want data about ssd's wear level.

On the other hand, it would be really nice to have an app, that would gather all daily usage to a database and showed them nicely.

 

[toke lahti]

Also there are several key details missing:
1) The programs you use

Like I wrote: I don't use the internal ssd at all. I have been logged in to an account in it maybe less than an hour in it's whole life. There might have been some browser open etc. but that doesn't matter.

BUT now that I think about the history, there was big problems to migrate data in 2019 from my old mini2012. I had idea to put system to the internal ssd and home folders to external and Mail migration did not work and Apple's support told me to repair permissions, which ran for days and still didn't work.
Maybe those times in 2019 the internal ssd had several terabytes of writes...

Home Folder in external disk "not supported" by Apple

Here's the problem: Home Folder in ext disk "not supported" by Apple diskutil resetUserPermissions / `id -u` Long story short: I tried to avoid apple tax by buing mini with small int ssd. Seems to be that at least for 10.14., You have to have your home folder in startup drive, otherwise you...

forums.macrumors.com

2) Amount of RAM - more RAM generally results in less writes - barring scratch files and Rosetta 2 translations.

I have an intel mac mini (2018).

3) Size of SSD and its free space - an SSD that is near full with have problems implementing wear leveling and will wear out faster as explained in a video referenced several posts back.

My internal ssd is small and quite full. Hence the reason to use externals to boot.

 

[Maximara]

Like I wrote: I don't use the internal ssd at all. I have been logged in to an account in it maybe less than an hour in it's whole life. There might have been some browser open etc. but that doesn't matter.

BUT now that I think about the history, there was big problems to migrate data in 2019 from my old mini2012. I had idea to put system to the internal ssd and home folders to external and Mail migration did not work and Apple's support told me to repair permissions, which ran for days and still didn't work.
Maybe those times in 2019 the internal ssd had several terabytes of writes...

Home Folder in external disk "not supported" by Apple

Here's the problem: Home Folder in ext disk "not supported" by Apple diskutil resetUserPermissions / `id -u` Long story short: I tried to avoid apple tax by buing mini with small int ssd. Seems to be that at least for 10.14., You have to have your home folder in startup drive, otherwise you...

forums.macrumors.com

That could be a cause. I have found Apple's Catalina OS to be a temperamental little OS beginning with Catalina Security Update 2020-001. To boot off the external SSD on my 2013 iMac I have to unhook all other drives and I am not the only one to have this issue. And for some gonzo reason the machine will just cut out (I suspect kernel panic but I really don't want to deal with my insanely slow internal platter drive).

I am reminded of a Superfriends scene regarding Bizzaro Cyborg: "I learn about technology. Watch me interface with computer" (slams head into monitor) only it is more along the lines of 'I learn about technology. Watch me program computer (repeatably slams head into keyboard)'

I have an intel mac mini (2018).

My internal ssd is small and quite full. Hence the reason to use externals to boot.

As I mentioned having a near full SDD can cause write issues. While I got a 1TB external SSD I keep it as empty as sanely possible with all documents on an external platter drive: