Is it possible to increase swap ram on an M2 running Sonoma in 2025?
I heard swap was limited shortly after then M1 when people brought up the issue of sudden ssd failure but the memory management is worse than I expected so I'm willing to take that risk.
MacBook Air 15″, macOS 14.3
I don't believe that macOS offers user-level controls over swapping.
It decides how much real RAM to use for swapping to compressed RAM.
It decides how much space to use on the startup SSD or HDD for swapping to disk.
It decides when to swap to compressed RAM and when to swap to disk.
It is a good idea not to purchase so little RAM, relative to your workload, that you are constantly overloading the swapping mechanism, and forcing the Activity Monitor Memory Pressure graph into Yellows and Reds. But whatever controls there are over swapping behavior are hidden out of view, like gears in an automatic transmission.
lambada555 wrote:
Is it possible to increase swap ram on an M2 running Sonoma in 2025?
No.
I heard swap was limited shortly after
You heard wrong.
the issue of sudden ssd failure
No such issue exists.
memory management is worse than I expected
How so? Please explain the problem you are having.
Most issues are caused by junk third party software that gets installed on the computer. Junk apps are anti-virus apps, cleaning/optimizer apps, and third party security software.....none of which are needed on a Mac and will usually cause more problems than they solve because they interfere with the normal operation of macOS.
The other possibility is you did not purchase a Mac with enough memory for the workloads you perform with it. High Swap usage and/or Compressed Memory are both signs as is the Memory Pressure entering the yellow and red zones.
You can try closing some windows/tabs and even complete apps to help minimize memory usage when using an app for a workload that requires lots of memory. Web browsers are notorious for consuming huge amounts of memory.
The RAM is inside the Apple Silicon chip case. What you have, is all you will ever have for your Mac. If you want more RAM, you would need to buy a different Mac with more RAM.
If you are talking about storage, most of the Apple Silicon Macs have the NVMe (SSD) storage soldered onto the motherboard.
The new M4 Mac mini appears to have the storage in a socket and there are reports it can be replaced. But that is the only model where that might be an option.
Also with respect to storage, you could get an external SSD and attach it to the Mac. This is really only viable if the Mac is sitting on a desk all the time. And since your bio says you have a MacBook Air, you do not have an SD card slot, which is another option for carrying around more storage with you.
You would be better off, selling your current Mac, and buying a Mac with the specifications you really want.
Let the OS do what is made to do.
Why would you even think that memory management is somehow worse? Please explain.
The OS is made to use all the memory it can use, and at times this causes some swap space to be used, if needed.
If you have some specific problem, please explain.
Swap memory on Apple silicon
