Any problem moving all Apps to external drive

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Any problem moving all Apps to external drive

I've tried to research this, but any negative thoughts were quite vague. I have a Mac mini M2 pro. 16gb-ram and 512gb SSD internal drive. With the Mac mini unified memory using the ram and SSD as virtual ram, I was thinking of freeing up as much of the 512gb SSD internal as possible so it's just being used to operate. My external drive is pretty close to the same speed as my internal. (Internal is around 3300MBps read/write per Blackmagic and my external 2TB NVMe is around 2800-3000MBps read/write). As such, there won't be any noticeable slow down running apps/programs.

I have an external 8gb HARD DISC DRIVE that I store all my Apple Music/movies on. The run from there without any problems. I am using a 3TB HARD DISC drive and a 256gb SSD for my Time Machine Backups. They work fine.

My thought is; if I use the 16gb ram and 512gb SSD internals simply for the MAC OS, "Library and Systems Folders/files" and user folder.... then that means I will have 16gb ram/475gb SSD internal for unified memory and running programs.

Curios if there is anything about Mac OS (Sonoma) that would be impaired if the applications weren't located on the same drive as the library/system/users folders. With how cheap and fast NVMe is and a quality external enclosure is, it seems that leaving the internal ram/storage (unified memory) dedicated to just the operating system, would make for a faster and more efficient system.

Thoughts?

Thanks

Mike

Posted on Oct 17, 2023 3:34 PM

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Answer 1

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den.thed

Level 10

92,956 points

Oct 19, 2023 3:15 PM in response to christcorp

The Applications folder for the average user is only somewhere between 10 and 20GB.

It is best to keep your Applications folder on the internal driver along with the macOS.

If you have large Photos or Music Libraries, then you can move those to an external drive.

see > Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support

and > Change where your music files are stored on Mac - Apple Support

Also keep in mind that the Photos and Music Libraries on the external drive should backed up to a second external drive.

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Answer 2

Oct 17, 2023 6:11 PM in response to christcorp

My understanding is that's it's better to have macOS and the apps on main/internal drive, and if necessary have your data on the externals.

As I recall the system will only use a certain amount of drive space for for swap or virtual RAM, in others words just because you free up a lot of space on the main/internal drive the system won't necessarily take advantage of it.

I could be wrong, be I'm sure others with more recent knowledge will chime in.

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Answer 3

christcorp Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 17, 2023 9:29 PM in response to MacRevisited

Thanks for the reply. I'm not quite sure how much swap/virtual memory the mini can go up to. I know I can move the swap file to the external. Then again, I can totally install the OS to the external and boot from there. The external is close to the same speed as the internal.

I know on my previous PC machine, (I have/had numerous PC/Mac computers/devices), I used a small 512gb SSD in my PC and ONLY had Windows running on it. No other programs, apps, files, etc. Basically the way it is brand new from the factory. I installed all programs, apps, files, downloads, etc. to a secondary drive. With the main SSD drive super clean, uncluttered, etc. it always ran much faster than my other machines that had everything together on the same drive. Even another identical machine with the same exact specs and SSD but having all the apps, programs, files, downloads, etc. together with the OS on the SSD. The 512gb had about 450gb free when it's just the operating system. I had about 200gb left on the other PC when I used the drive for all normal installs, apps, programs, files, downloads, etc. The OS only PC was noticeably faster in all operations.

I figured being I have the external 2TB NVMe M.2 drive, I might as well use it efficiently. I already have large traditional hard drives for media storage, archives, and Time Machine backups. They don't benefit from faster drives.

Thanks for the input, I'll do some more research to see if there are better uses for a fast external drive running similar to the internal. Thanks. Mike.

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Answer 4

christcorp Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 19, 2023 2:39 PM in response to christcorp

I guess the question I'm asking is: Is it OK to move the ENTIRE APPLICATIONS FOLDER to the external drive and run it like that? Are there some applications that won't work well and NEEDS to be on the same drive as the OS? Or on the same drive as the User Files?

I've seen plenty of posts and videos on moving certain apps to an external drive. Usually games or similar. I'm wanting to know if I can simply go to the "Applications Folder" and move the entire folder to an external NVMe drive and run it there. (And in the future, install any new apps directly to the external drive)

Thanks

Mike

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Any problem moving all Apps to external drive

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