{"id":51188,"date":"2026-03-06T16:12:31","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T21:12:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=51188"},"modified":"2026-03-06T16:12:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T21:12:31","slug":"how-long-will-my-macs-ssd-last","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2026\/03\/06\/how-long-will-my-macs-ssd-last\/","title":{"rendered":"How Long Will My Mac&rsquo;s SSD Last?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/eclecticlight.co\/2026\/02\/26\/how-long-will-my-macs-ssd-last\/\">Howard Oakley<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/eclecticlight.co\/2026\/02\/26\/how-long-will-my-macs-ssd-last\/\">\n<p>To work out how long you can expect your Mac&rsquo;s internal SSD to last before it reaches that cycle limit, all you need do is to measure how much data is written to it, and once that is 3,000 times the capacity of the SSD, you should expect it to fail through wear. Fortunately, SSDs keep track of the amount of data written to them over their lifetime. This can be accessed through better SSD utilities like <a href=\"https:\/\/binaryfruit.com\/drivedx\">DriveDx<\/a>, and I even have a feature in <a href=\"https:\/\/eclecticlight.co\/mints-a-multifunction-utility\/\">Mints<\/a> that will do that for most internal SSDs.<\/p>\n<p>[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>Unless you work with huge media files, by far your worst enemy is swap space used for virtual memory. When the first M1 Macs were released, base models with just 8 GB of memory and 128 GB internal SSDs were most readily available, with custom builds following later. As a result, many of those who set out to assess Apple&rsquo;s new Macs ended up stress-testing those with inadequate memory and storage for the tasks they ran. Many noticed rapid changes in their SSD wear indicators, and some were getting worryingly close to the end of their expected working life after just three years.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>Previously:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2026\/03\/04\/macbook-neo\/\">MacBook Neo<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/12\/26\/ssds-not-safe-long-term-for-archives\/\">SSDs Not Safe Long-Term for Archives<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/21\/spotlight-indexing-running-wild\/\">Spotlight Indexing Running Wild<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2021\/02\/26\/excessive-mac-ssd-wear\/\">Excessive Mac SSD Wear<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2018\/12\/11\/why-im-usually-unnerved-when-modern-ssds-die-on-us\/\">Why I&rsquo;m Usually Unnerved When Modern SSDs Die on Us<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2015\/05\/12\/storing-ssds-without-power\/\">Storing SSDs Without Power<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2014\/06\/18\/the-ssd-endurance-experiment\/\">The SSD Endurance Experiment<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Howard Oakley: To work out how long you can expect your Mac&rsquo;s internal SSD to last before it reaches that cycle limit, all you need do is to measure how much data is written to it, and once that is 3,000 times the capacity of the SSD, you should expect it to fail through wear. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"2026-03-06T21:12:46Z","apple_news_api_id":"dd8c3880-23ca-4bd7-9dc8-2107b650699d","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2026-03-06T21:12:46Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/A3Yw4gCPKS9edyCEHtlBpnQ","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[30,2742,183],"class_list":["post-51188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-mac","tag-macos-tahoe-26","tag-ssd"],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51188"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51189,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51188\/revisions\/51189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}