Was I wrong? Apple Silicon and SSD Upgrades 

It’s a tool, like a hammer for me at the end of the day. I use it, and replace it if it breaks. People need to stop pretending they will be using the same computer in 20 years.

@@thejpkotor Not everyone is well off enough to be able to do that. Besides, creating tons of potentially toxic e-waste doesn't seem like the smartest move either.

@@thejpkotor I agree. A business should be on about a 3-5 year upgrade cycle depending on what the users are doing anyway.

@@steveballmersbaldspot2.095 Ideally, as much as possible gets recycled. I don't know anyone who just throws away a computer.

@@thejpkotor computers don’t just break. I have a 2015 mac book air and upgraded it last year with a 500 Gig SSD. No need for me to buy a whole new laptop just because I’m running out of space. Also have you ever swung a hammer before? It’s so hard to break a good quality hammer. Going to last years. No one thinks they will use a computer for 20 years😅

Preaching to the choir here: there are PCs that use hardware encryption on NVMe SSDs. The other claim is performance although Apple’s SSDs are just upper-average performers, in random 4k read/write at high Q depths you’ll find them lacking below other performance minded drives.

Yup. It's to support Apple's monolithic vertical market and for no other reason. I defy anyone to give me a real-world (not hypothetical sci-fi) consumer benefit of this.

@@Blitterbug Again, security is pretty tight on Apple's computers, although the threat of someone removing the SSDs from Mac Studio strikes me very edge case. For traveling business types, I imagine the MacBook being effectively a brick if stolen is comforting as data theft won't be a thing. Over time, MacBooks may become a "low value" target like how locked iPhones are becoming. The average person won't bother to steal a lost iPhone as they know they can't unlock said device. That's the silver lining I see for consumers. It's not much but it's something.

@@dmug Mmm, I s'pose govmnt / CEO use possibly, yeah...

@@dmugall Apple devices are effectively aluminum bricks the moment someone accidentally iCloud lock themselves or more likely someone stolen an Apple device.

The apple tax is pretty harsh, if you want the ultra with the full gpu and max ram it’s like near $6k, the base models of apple silicon are strong buys but man, the PC that you’d afford at that price point steam roll it

Probably the most insightful comment I’ll get ever

Oh the good old days of MacOS classic. Steve was the best thing to ever happen to Apple, but the worst thing to ever happen to the Mac.

It's been a trend with Apple post iPhone, they learned a lot from it and took away some bad lessons. I suppose you don't become the world's richest company by being generous.

Always has been…now just over the top now

To be fair, they don't market to the self upgrade/hobbyist/tinkerer market. Every company that sells things wants people to buy more of the things they sell. My wife's laptop from work (Dell) doesn't appear to be terribly upgradeable either.

It’s gotten so much worse.

They've always been like that and I wouldn't touch anything Apple with a stick, but the damn M1 (and M2) MacBooks are so power efficient. Once the general laptops catch up in power efficiency, I'll switch back I guess. I'd prefer a Linux system and Asahi Linux doesn't cut it yet (though they're awesome).

Ha, that's what I'm here for. Getting things wrong and then making vids about what I learned.

I've had to eat a lot of humble pie over the years writing the Mac Pro Upgrade Guides, I'd rather be factual than "right" as it doesn't do anyone good if I double down or pretend/ignore things I got wrong.

@@dmug well said bro

@Phillip Banes Which is fine for desktops but not for mobile devices and Apple knows this very well. Also you still are fucked if the internal disk breaks because you can't boot from an external system without having the bootloader loading from the internal. And external is always slower. I can get PC systems that are now 3 times faster then Apples system at around 20GByte/sec.

@Phillip Banes Well and that "more then fast enough" is why Apple totally lost the server and workstation market. Because it can never be fast enough. And big enough. But only having 5% on an M1 Ultra compared to a 4090 Nvidia in GPU computing power says it all where Apple is positioning it's market.

@Phillip Banes So because stupid cumbersome external SSDs exist, it justify preventing people from adding internal ones ?

The old proprietary SSDs were NVMe where the storage controller/cache/NAND were self contained hence why a NGFF to M2 adapter was feasible. The controller is part of the SOC now so there won’t be any solutions that aren’t specifically engineered to the Mac Studio. We never saw third party for the iMac Pro or Mac Pro 2019, which used similar so it seems unlikely.

@@dmug there is zero intrinsic reasons (aside from corporate greed and inertia), certainly no engineering reasons why Apple does not add an internal user accessible secondary m.2 NVMe slot, that can utilise industry standard NVMe. The performance of which would be at least the equivalent of the internal SSD’s of m2 series devices, LOL. And in most cases would be capable of saturating the PCIE lanes devoted to the socket. Say roughly twice the speed of externally attached thunderbolt3 devices, and a darn sight more secure and reliable (no cables to dislodge). There is no inherent need to encrypt a secondary bill storage SSD attached to a m.2 bus, so no need for it to be part of Apples Secure Enclave. It merely requires the same level of security offered to external devices, i.e., entirely optional. Indeed this would actually increase the security of user data, -if used by the consumer, because then more of them would secure their family photos on the drive that can ultimately be removed when the Mac computer eventually shits it’s self. Why? Because the encryption key (if user encrypted) would be extrinsic to the Mac SoC, because it would be software driven. My 6TB of source project video & ProRes proxies would be better served off an internal M.2 NVMe, leaving the SoC ssd for boot, applications, and secured documents. Windows PC users can have this why can’t Apple deliver? Ohhh, that’s right corporate greed, inertia, and apparently engineers incapable of holding their own in the board room, or in the bathrooms where design decisions are made. (Clearly Apple has embraced shitty decisions that inherently kneecap the performance of the Mac platform).

Um, no

@@Blitterbug Maybe in few years time someone will FPGA through custom controller.

Thank you!!

I posted on the previous video calling the title a little 'dramatic'. Honestly I agree with the premise that the apple silicon system simply put is not up-gradable in any sort of practical sense. When you need skills equal to those possessed by those with two years post secondary education and professional equipment, when the process itself risks destroying the whole logic board with the smallest of errors, when you have to go on a deep dive to source new NAND from china no that's not upgradable. Repairable, when you can go to your local apple authorized repair shop that have that stuff and that know how I would say that's repairable. It's becoming painfully obvious that basic NVME SSD's would be just as fast with silicon as their impossible for all but 99.9 percent of us to replace or upgrade would have been just as effective.

It’s also made to make devices permanently inoperable at the slightest hint of being digitally or physically compromised for what it’s worth. 🤷🏾‍♀️

It seems to me it hurts bad actors and good actors alike. It's my understanding that thieves when they steal your stuff don't usually try to take that device and make it operable again, but rather they break it down and sell the parts. Making it so screens and keyboards are firmware locked from the factory discourages this. At the same time if you break the screen on you laptop you can't just buy one on ebay for parts anymore and fix it yourself...

There’s a few non English vids, and just the handful of Mac RU-vidrs who are technical enough (Snazzy labs where are you bro?)

Make sense because every try will cost you thousands of dollars. Not everybody can afford it.

Thanks for watching!

That’s the hope. Maybe in the future there’ll be specialist who can do it for average users like myself who can’t solder.

Indeed, a National treasure

Yeah I saw Louis Rossman’s rant on that. Just awful.

Ha. Accurate .

Thats the Apple after Steve Jobs way.

It's interesting hearing from places with totally different tech scenes as this is pretty much unheard of in the States.

@@dmug just a bunch of internal apple software pirated copies make life much easier :)

I think that’s most of us, I can barely ball joint solder let alone BGA…

It has more to do with power usage, not just latency. RAM directly on the SoC incurs significantly less power than standard DDR5 ram.

@@RunForPeace-hk1cu would be good argument if RAM was non upgradable in MacBooks only, but it isn’t even upgradable in desktop Macs, where ultra low power consumption is not that really important

@@RunForPeace-hk1cu I dont think so. How much miliwats would eat a chip outside.?

@@renascence239I think that’s because Apple uses very similar logic boards for their new iMacs that they use for their laptops. Everything is soldered to get the device as thin as possible.

Thanks!

so if I get somebody to swap the sand In my 15 2018, I use DFU to reinstall it?

What I’m interested the most in would be replacing the RAM instead, which is indeed the most expensive add-on option in Apple Silicon based Mac’s configuration.

@@frankfeng98 since the ram is soldererd to the soc, you would need some insane soldering to even swap it

Ram a common upgrade in china.

@@ThePlayingJs And i have seen a youtube video on insane soldering actions but yeah, the time it takes even with professional lab technolgy at your hand is higher then buying it from Apple.

The problem is this: if Apple will give the end user an option in any form to buy a SSD from another company than Apple, then Apple will sell less. Now Apple got a monopoly for both RAM and (internal) SSD on all Macs. Of course this is about money. I've prayed so many times that Apple gonna become "the good old Apple" that allowed us end users to buy RAM and internal SSD/HDD from other companies. So I guess that Apple's architecture (Apple Silicon) is so much about control and profit/revenue. To do so, they have to show us end users that it's actually worth it. Mac Studio would not have been possible with the latest "Xeon W" CPUs and the extreme GPUs from AMD/Nvidia. Apple could def have made a Mac Pro 2023 with "Xeon W 2023" and the latest cards from AMD/Nvidia. But Mac Studio would not have been possible. But when you think about it, just compare the physical size of Mac Studio vs Mac Pro 2019-2023 and Mac Pro 2006-2012! Mac Studio will take occupy only a fraction of the space which is a huge win! It's at least possible to upgrade any Mac when-buying-it-on-applestore. It's expensive yes, and that's what we all dislike. We have to pay for "that upgrade" NOW for "400 dollar" instead or waiting 2-3 years to buy it for "100-200 dollar" and if we really need "that upgrade". So this behaviour from Apple means that too many customers must "overspec" their new Macs and pay too much. Many end users feel that they wanna future proof their Mac so they will upgrade Mac Studio to 64 GB RAM and 2-4 TB SSD while they probably only need 32 GB RAM and 1 TB or 512 GB SSD which is way cheaper. I cannot see anything in the pipeline that will make Apple change their Macs so the end user can upgrade RAM and/or internal storage. The only hope is that EU (European Union) gonna require that it must be possible to upgrade RAM and storage very easy. Maybe also the GPU. But how will Apple meet that requirement with their SoC architecture? Personally I often propose like you did: a M.2 PCIe NVMe slot. Exactly how Sony did with PS5. That would be so good! But I cannot see that happen. I pray for it but I cannot see that happen...

Almost certainly not, other T2 macs will not boot if the ssds are removed or not functioning, see the iMac Pro and Mac Pro 2019

Realistically most people, self included won’t be upgrading the SSDs but at least there’s a way to keep them out of landfills.

​ @dmug Which is why I installed the OS of my mini in an external SSD, and have a script run an unmount the internal storage as a login item. I think people will check for SSD health for resale value in the future, just like they do on battery for iPhone nowadays, at least I would. I purchased the 256GB model thinking I can save everything else on a separate drive, like I do on windows, but apple suspiciously changed the cloud storage API (one drive, dropbox..) so that it needs to be in the main drive. This forced me to install the OS in an external SSD.

@@dmug I watched the iBoff channel, and now it makes a lot more sense. The only thing we need are clean NANDs. And, yes, the land fill needs to be free of hardware that can be used. It may not always be in the "rich" American countries.

There’s a video by iBof that shows the entire process now for t2 and apple silicon Macs.

Yeah, I've heard of people parting out iCloud locked devices, makes sense the NANDs and RAM would be looted besides the obvious like the screen, keyboard, battery etc.

Just like an iCloud-locked iPad

Yeah but you have no idea how much life is left in these NANDs once they have been reprogrammed

That's the iFixIt teardown, linked in the description

I made in Apple Motion that for this video, but I'll export a version later tonight.

Here you go: blog.greggant.com/posts/10-10%20mountain.jpg

@@dmug oh thank you really much! and by the way, nice video!

Nope, doesn’t change anything regarding boot options.

About the same shot I have with Allison Brie

Thanks for your input. For the majority of the internet it’s sooooo easy to blindingly throw rocks at apple but Macs are the only CONSUMER grade notebooks that have a commitment to security (at least above the rest of the industry) PS: upgrade prices are some bullshit. 200 bucks for a Nand module ? Cmon

Same. Camp Plebe. Population: me

Not sure what you mean about not supporting external boot. Apple does have support baked in for external boot, but it still requires the internal SSD to be working. I've done it on my M1 Max and it's similar to how my T2 equipped Mac Pro works. Here's two mainstream publications outlining the process on Apple Silicon. It's the more or less the same as T2 Macs. www.macworld.com/article/331916/how-to-start-up-your-m1-mac-from-an-external-drive.html appleinsider.com/articles/21/01/03/how-to-boot-an-apple-silicon-mac-from-an-external-drive I've seen most of the iBoff vid, and it corroborates my video. I'm not sure if I didn't make it clear enough in this video? But I talk extensively about using DFU mode to restore macOS onto replacement NAND modules. Apple is locking down the SSDs via authorization. I didn't really jump into the macOS boot rom aka iBoot, beyond mentioning the existence of the DFU mode being bootable without a functioning SSD as there's only so much info dump as I try and walk the line between technical and accessible. One of iBoot's key features is verifying the security integrity of the volume it's booting from, and thus it is part of the "system architecture" which is why swapping NANDs doesn't work without a DFU restore to initialize the proper keying for the drives. This is easily explored with the Mac Studios as it doesn't require soldiering to test. This isn't to say iBoff's video wasn't enlightening but I keep getting linked it and I'm not sure where the confusion is. I'm more than willing to admit when I'm wrong and issue corrections. If there's a particular phrasing or passage that I said, please let me know.

Yep.

I would say you could probably use an external ssd to boot macOS, but without the iCloud information if the previous user set up with iCloud, you can't do much with the internal ssd. If you bought the machine from someone, I would try to ask for their information to unlock the device, or if they don't wish to give you that info, get them to pay for shipping to and from your address to get them to properly unlock the device. It definitely makes sense... of course, in a hypothetical sense I would go to the seller and ask them to release the device from their iCloud account. There is the chance they never set up Find My, so you could reinstall the OS to see can you get in this way. You can also install other OSes such as Ubuntu or Asahi Linux to get some usability if the seller is unable to release the device. I would request a refund if they can't fix your issue. I believe Apple can unlock the device if you can prove the death of an individual. If it is your loved one you can request Apple directly. You could also contact the seller if it is their loved one, and follow this link --> support.apple.com/en-ie/HT208510

@@evanhearne4020 hey thanks. This was a hypothetical because i have heard it is impossible from an end user perspective on all current macs if your internal ssd goes you can not boot into OS x even from an external ssd. Now in sure apple can probably do something but so fir they have not released any information officially that even they can. Then booting info Is on them dead ssd. Not just the password or apple id. So you buy that uses m1 mac and the drive is dead or dies your are screwed. Older macs allowed me or you your or I to simply hook up a old drive external or swap out they internal and bout directly from that without t2 chip security enclave on a drive that's over now. I believe even the intel mac pro will refuse to boot if your take the internal drive out. Apple believes the machine is still theirs after you buy it d I they van lick you out it will. .remember the backlash they g it when they said they would scan photos in icloud and lock users out of their macs phones pads and call the fbi on them all without your knowledge. Basically you never own your apple product. They do.

@@Tigerex966 I am pretty sure you can boot into macOS from an external drive. I could be mistaken. Also, if you live in the States, then yes, they own your device. If you live in the EU, you own your device.

Wouldn't the person who set it up just give you the information so you can use it? How would you log into the machine after reboot?

I made a video on sepOS, that's the only other macOS security specific video I've made.

@@dmug Thanks! Will see🤗

Beyond me as I’m only a UX dev, but I’m sure the Asahi dudes have been poking around for awhile now.

It might not be a code even, just data - like a "personality identification". If anybody has some samples or source of that nand programmer jig, share and we'll analyze it.

@@dmug Yeah, there’s several rootkits floating around now that completely compromise the entire security platform of Apple’s. In general people are just trash.

You can but Apple does not sell them nor has apple shown any interest in letting 3rd parties make them.

@@dmug what about other 3rd parties. Can you upgrade the size

@@ryanzmuda3167 Apple has not show any interest in letting 3rd parties make NAND upgrades for it's products: See the iMac Pro and Mac Pro 2019. The NANDs are Apple specific.

@@dmug ok what about the mac studio

I don't know what else to say here. I already stated Apple does not sell upgrades for the Mac Studio; this is something you can verify by going to Apple's website. They haven't shown any interest in previous computers letting 3rd parties make SSDs for the only other two computers using NANDs similar to the Mac Studio. Apple could tomorrow let 3rd parties make upgrades. They could decide to give every Mac Studio owner free 8 TB upgrades. They also could throw me a big birthday party with pizza and balloons. Based on the history of not giving away SSDs and throwing me birthday parties, we can safely say they won't do either of these things and probably won't allow 3rd parties to make SSD upgrades.

I’m hoping apple keeps support for some time to come for my 2019. :/

It's just to justify the vendor lockin from more progressive governments like the European Union. Just look at the insane security holes MacOS had in the past.

If your machine is in the hands of someone else it's already compromised, this seems like a convoluted solution to a non-problem.

For the Mac Studio?

@@dmug ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-rjQoTwm9PAA.html

@@dmug you can just upgrade nand flash on existing storage module.

@Arvind Bakshi that’s the current speculation. I haven’t seen anyone do that though on a Mac studio

Apple configurator is able to rebuild SSD drive in some circumstances and it is widely used by the repair community. I replace NAND chips if needed and there are tools to transfer service information from one nand chip to another. Also if you source clean NAND chips you can upgrade m1 machines and do DFU restore to rebuild an SSD.

Which vid?

@@dmug the sep os video

@@Dave102693 Interesting, didn't see that debate, so many comments though. I see two sides to the ability to brick devices as its one hell of a theft decentiviser, and but also creates ewaste.

@@dmugagree it’s a deterrent to device thefts, but so many people stupidly iCloud lock their own devices and don’t know how to fix it and Apple themselves don’t even bother to fix it most of the time; it’s more worth it to get a replacement from them, thus more ewaste.

And yet Apple consumers constantly go back and keep Apple's business going. Go do something better with your time than spewing hate.

@@Gmon750 do i hate them ..? i kind of ... Are they making decisions based on their greed and changing the world not for the better ( you'll see...) ? for sure Answer me this: Are you an apple user ? ;)

I’m sure this isn’t news to him

In the previous vid I said you couldn’t upgrade the ssds in apple silicon

@@dmug oh ok I missed that. Would be nice to see shops in America doing that soon ram as well. Where there is a well and parts three is a way

Thanks, this on my watch list but haven’t made it to it. It’s great to see but completely out of reach for average people.

@@dmug Sadly true

That's just the thing, the "numerous" successful replacements mostly went back to a singular social media post. That's not exactly confidence inspiring. After digging deeper (credit to viewers who assisted) I had enough confirmation.

@@dmug there is nothing wrong in questioning and self verification and takes a man to ack a mistake. Just saying there is nothing dubious about claiming you can upgrade a tiny component. Nothing much to gain from faking it.

Probably the least likely upgrade with the unified memory architecture. Apple filed patents about using iGPUs and dGPUs. It’s super sad that we’re here. I can bump my 2019 CPU and will do so at some point but if I were to get a apple silicon Mac Pro, that wouldn’t be the case.

I hope so. The EU might give us a USBc iPhone.

I haven’t taken the time to watch this entirely but what did I say that was incorrect? As I understand he goes through the process of replacing individual NANDs. I never said that wasn’t possible.

Finally got around to watching it, everything said there reaffirms what I stated in the video, it require sourcing and soldiering NANDs and some NAND configurations. I don’t know what to say. I’m always open to being wrong but there nothing contradictory there.

Sure, but encryption doesn't prevent ID theft nor do you need a specialized integrated controller in the SOC. The MS Surface uses hardware encryption. Only requirement is NVMe drives that support. While correct, you can't just easily pop out the SSD when the device is stolen and read all the data, the same is true on modern Windows with TPM2.0. The far far more common way people nab personal info off a device is from malware, which doesn't require breaking any encryption, just getting a user to install said software as the OS already has write access to drive. Both Apple and MS recognized that encryption ≠ security when networking, thus we have System integrity protection and MS has UAC/WRP, indows Defender and so on.