SSD is dying, how to make it last longer?

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Level 1

27 points

SSD is dying, how to make it last longer?

my 2016 macbook pro's SSD is clearly dying, it recently started awaking with a kernel panic pointing to a faulty PCIe connection to the ssd as well as faliure to write to it, but then started up. this now happens every time the computer shuts down and read/write speeds are substantially low. i got it from a guy who bought it in january 2017 and had been using it as a server until i got it (september 2024). i know this model of macbooks tend to have faulty ssd's, and that they get worse with more uptime. considering it was being used as server it was reading and writing 24/7 for like, 7 years. i also keep it on overnight quite a bit and that also mightve contributed to it. ive backed up all of my data already, and i know i can't quite fix the ssd since the NAND cells themselves are dying, but is there any way i can make it last longer before it doesn't work and i have to replace the ssd?

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 15.3

Posted on Feb 20, 2025 9:33 PM

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Answer 1

HWTech

Level 9

64,082 points

Feb 21, 2025 10:09 PM in response to sadratime

It sounds like the SSD will fail completely at any time. There is nothing you can do about it.

If you feel like it is worth spending more money on this laptop, then you could replace that SSD with a third party OWC SSD. However, I really don't recommend spending any money on this laptop (or any Intel Mac with USB-C ports) for multiple reasons. The money spent is better put towards an M-series Mac if you want to remain in the Apple ecosystem.

I'm glad you have a backup of your data. I hope you already had backups before you noticed the SSD issue since there are a lot more new ways to permanently lose access to the data stored on the internal SSDs of the recent Macs due to all the hardware, software, and security changes.