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MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015) SSD upgrade

I want to upgrade the SSD in my MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015)


The easy solution would be to buy an OWC 2TB OWC AURA PRO X2 https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/S3DAPT4MB20/


Yet, to install the removed memory, and put it in an enclosure will cost an additional $100.


There are alternatives. Would anyone have recommendations regarding an "M 2 2280 Nvme Ssd" blade that will seamlessly work with my MacBook, or alternatively (since the OWC blade works) a less expensive enclosure for the orphaned 1TB blade I will remove.


Cheers






MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.12

Posted on Dec 1, 2021 9:47 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Dec 2, 2021 6:45 PM

Since Apple uses a proprietary SSD connector you will need to use an enclosure that has the same proprietary SSD connector. OWC Envoy Pro Enclosure is the only one I know about. Very few vendors make them because there is such a small market for them. Sometimes OWC will have a used or Open Box enclosure for sale at a significantly reduced price.


If you use a standard M.2 SSD you will also need an SSD adapter. The Sintech adapter is the only one which seems to be reliable. I have no personal experience with using a standard M.2 SSD and Sintech Adpater on a Mac. My knowledge is from reading lots of posts on these forums. Keep in mind that the M.2 SSD vendor will not assist you if there are problems with the SSD while it is installed in a Mac as that is an unsupported platform. You do this at your own risk.


If you are going to install Monterey, then keep in mind that at this time you will first need to install Monterey on this laptop while the original Apple SSD is installed internally in the laptop. After Monterey updates the laptops system firmware, then you should be able to install a third party SSD and install Monterey (in theory).


I highly recommend keeping the original Apple SSD in case it is ever needed to install a system firmware update or to troubleshoot the laptop and the new SSD.


You should always have frequent and regular backups. It is impossible to recover accidentally deleted data from an SSD after the Trash has been emptied plus an SSD can fail at any time without any warning signs (even a brand new SSD).


Also you mentioned "memory". Memory and storage (SSDs) are two totally different things. Memory on the Apple Retina laptops is soldered onto the Logic Board and is not removable. For the 2015 laptop, the SSD storage is removable.

https://www.crucial.com/articles/about-memory/what-is-the-difference-between-memory-and-storage

4 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Dec 2, 2021 6:45 PM in response to Timothy Holt

Since Apple uses a proprietary SSD connector you will need to use an enclosure that has the same proprietary SSD connector. OWC Envoy Pro Enclosure is the only one I know about. Very few vendors make them because there is such a small market for them. Sometimes OWC will have a used or Open Box enclosure for sale at a significantly reduced price.


If you use a standard M.2 SSD you will also need an SSD adapter. The Sintech adapter is the only one which seems to be reliable. I have no personal experience with using a standard M.2 SSD and Sintech Adpater on a Mac. My knowledge is from reading lots of posts on these forums. Keep in mind that the M.2 SSD vendor will not assist you if there are problems with the SSD while it is installed in a Mac as that is an unsupported platform. You do this at your own risk.


If you are going to install Monterey, then keep in mind that at this time you will first need to install Monterey on this laptop while the original Apple SSD is installed internally in the laptop. After Monterey updates the laptops system firmware, then you should be able to install a third party SSD and install Monterey (in theory).


I highly recommend keeping the original Apple SSD in case it is ever needed to install a system firmware update or to troubleshoot the laptop and the new SSD.


You should always have frequent and regular backups. It is impossible to recover accidentally deleted data from an SSD after the Trash has been emptied plus an SSD can fail at any time without any warning signs (even a brand new SSD).


Also you mentioned "memory". Memory and storage (SSDs) are two totally different things. Memory on the Apple Retina laptops is soldered onto the Logic Board and is not removable. For the 2015 laptop, the SSD storage is removable.

https://www.crucial.com/articles/about-memory/what-is-the-difference-between-memory-and-storage

Dec 1, 2021 10:05 PM in response to Timothy Holt

Timothy Holt Said:

"MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015) SSD upgrade: I want to upgrade the SSD in my MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015)[...]"

-------


This I Not an Option:

What you are wanting to do is not an option. The is because on your model, all items are soldered on to the LogicBoard to make the Mac operate as one full device.


So, what to do: Rid of items that you do not need, including Movies & TV Shows, and many other things that take up GBs and GBs of data.

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015) SSD upgrade

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