1. Macbook Pro Mid 2015 Storage Upgrade
2. How To Check Macbook Storage
3. Macbook Pro 16 Storage Upgrade

Some time ago, I wrote an article about how much storage one would need on a new MacBook. In my opinion, the base model with only 128GB drive is sufficient for most users. There are exceptions, and I tried to list them in my blog post.

Apr 10, 2018 If your Mac is more than a few years old, you can almost certainly upgrade the hard drive. Unfortunately, if you’ve got a newer model, you’re probably out of luck. The modern Macs you’re able to upgrade are: MacBook Core 2 Duo. MacBook Unibody. MacBook Pro 13″ (2009-2012). Using the SATA Revision 3.0 interface, this SSD is supported by MacBook Pros made between early 2011 and mid 2012. Even the using earlier MacBook Pros with SATA 2.0 and 1.0 can still use this SSD. It has a capacity of 480GB which is a lot of storage for all your personal and business files.

• Aug 13, 2019 This Q&A covers the most recent three lines of MacBook Air models including those currently sold. EveryMac.com provides storage upgrade instructions for earlier MacBook Air models - the original, 'Late 2008,' and 'Mid-2009,' 'Late 2010 and 'Mid-2011,' and 'Mid-2012' lines, too.
• Jun 08, 2020 The single most important device that you want to be able to upgrade is the hard drive, preferably with a Solid State Drive (SSD). Not only can it increase the amount of storage you’ll have.
• The disadvantage is that storage and memory became unupgradeable, meaning if you bought a laptop with the only 128GB, you stuck with it for the rest of its life. There are still some upgrade options, and they depend on the model of a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro. Below I will list several possible storage upgrade scenarios with pros, cons,.

The topic of extra disk space became even more important lately because Apple chose to solder RAM and SSD on its laptops. The advantage of this decision is that MacBooks became the slimmest laptops on the market.

The disadvantage is that storage and memory became unupgradeable, meaning if you bought a laptop with the only 128GB, you stuck with it for the rest of its life.

There are still some upgrade options, and they depend on themodel of a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro.

Below I will list several possible storage upgrade scenarioswith pros, cons, and caveats.

How to Upgrade Storage On MacBook Pro And Air

First, you need to know the year when the laptop was built. To do that, click on the Apple logo in the top left corner of the screen, and in the drop-down menu, click on the first menu item: About This Mac.

In the pop-up window note the year of the MacBook, e.g.,Early 2015 or 2020.

Macbook Pro Mid 2015 Storage Upgrade

Now, depending on which MacBook you have, pick from theoptions below.

Upgrade MacBook SSD

I recently upgraded storage on one of my Apple computers:MacBook Pro 13-inch 2015. The whole process took me around two hours, but mostof it was waiting for data to be transferred.

I did this because I wanted to run VMs on my Mac, which ishard, if not impossible, when the storage is only 128GB.

Sketch drawing software. Here’s how I did it.

Purchase an SSD upgrade drive on Amazon

There are many SSD drives available, but you need specificones for MacBooks because Macs have different socket types than PC laptops.

The best SSD brands for Macs are OWC and Feather. I decidedto go with Feather because it is a little cheaper.

Feather offers two types of SSDs: Feather M13 Standard andTurbo. Initially, I wanted to go with a 256GB drive (twice more than I had on myMac), but the difference between 256 and 512GB was so little (around $30), so Idecided to buy the bigger drive.

Here is a table of supported MacBooks. As you can see in most cases, you should use Standard, and only for MacBook Pro 15-inch Mid 2015 go with Turbo.

Verify macOS version

In order for everything to work as expected, your Mac has to have macOS High Sierra or higher. To verify the current operating system, click on the Apple logo in the menu bar and then on About This Mac.

The very first line on the screen would contain the name of OS installed. In my case, it was Catalina.

Take a backup of old Mac

Before the upgrade, please take a backup of your Mac. Thewhole idea of replacing the SSD drive is to replicate the contents of the olddrive on the new one, so you don’t need to reinstall everything, and the datadoes not get lost.

I have detailed instructions on how to make backups with Apple’s built-in utility called Time Machine. The only thing you need is an external hard drive. The recommendations on which drive is the best as well the size of the drive you need can also be found in the same article, so I am not going to mention them here.

Open source os x software. Also, make sure to test the backups. I had several issueswith Time Machine when some copies were unusable.

Replace SSD

Replacing SSD in a MacBook is very easy. The Feather toolkitcomes with little instructions pamphlet, which I didn’t read all the waythrough (as always).

The steps are as follows:

1. Shutdown the Mac and unplug it from the power.

2. Using the red screwdriver, remove the screws from the bottom panel of the Mac. You can use the Feather box to collect the screws; they are so tiny that it is easy to lose them. And don’t be like me: I accidentally hit the box with my elbow, and it fell on the floor. After 15 min searching, I was only able to recover 9 out of 10 screws.

3. Remove the bottom cover.

4. Remove the screw that holds the SSD chip. Use the blue screwdriver.

5. Very gently pull the old SSD chip. Use slow rocking motions instead of pulling straight.

6. Put the new Feather drive into the slot.

7. Put back all the screws.

Transfer data to the new drive

According to Feather instructions, I supposed to turn theMac on and follow prompts to set it up.

I plugged in the drive with a Time Machine backup, and whenthe next prompt appeared, I selected to transfer information from a TimeMachine backup.

Then I selected the drive containing the latest data.

Set the password for the user account I was using on my Mac(typed in the old password).

It took about 40 minutes to restore 128GB backup to my new512GB drive. When my MacBook Pro restarted, I had a new drive running macOSHigh Sierra and my old user account.

Issues after transferring apps and data

Since the backup I had was taken from the computer runningmacOS Catalina, many applications were not able to run. For instance, Safariand Mail apps were Catalina versions and were backward compatible with HighSierra.

To fix the issue, I had to upgrade the OS back to Catalina.After the upgrade, most apps were running as expected.

Some apps, however, had other issues. For instance, transferring Office from the old drive to a new one resulted in a loss of the license.

Fortunately, I had Office 365 license, so all I had to do is to log in with my account. However, if you had Office 2016 or older, you may need to check how to transfer the license before upgrading SSD.

Upgrading older MacBook models

If your MacBook was built in 2012 or earlier, you have evenmore options for storage upgrades.

For years I’ve been using Crucial.com when I needed to upgrade RAM or hard drives. What’s good about this site, they know upgrade options for each model, and they also have a tool that can scan the computer and provide some suggestions.

So, use the link I provided, pick the right Mac model, orderRAM and storage, and follow the install guide.

Pros and cons of the approach

Pros

• Instantly more space available
• New SSDs are way faster than the old ones

Cons

• Some apps may lose licenses
• The option is not available for all Macs

Use SD Cards

If the idea of opening the laptop and replacing itsinternals is terrifying for you, there is another option that provides instant storageupgrade without having any technical skills.

First, check your Mac and see if it has a slot for SD cards. MacBooks Pro until 2015 and MacBooks Air until 2017 must have one. Mp4 converter mac online.

So, now all you need is to find an SD card compatible with your Mac. Again, there are many models on the market, and I recommend the Transcend JetDrive Lite family. These cards are unique for two reasons:

1. They fit neatly into the MacBook, so there is no need to take them out at all. You can always have them inside even when carrying the laptop to and from work or school. So, in a way you are getting a second drive which is always inside the Mac unlike external hard drives that hang on a cable.

2. They already preformatted for Macs, so you can use them right away.

The proper fitness of an SD card is very important. Forinstance, look how the SD card I am using with my digital camera sticks outfrom my laptop:

So, pick the right card from the list below:

• MacBook Air 13″ (Late 2010 – Early 2015): Transcend JetDrive Lite 130
• MacBook Pro 13″ (Late 2012 – Early 2015): Transcend JetDrive Lite 330
• MacBook Pro 15″ (Mid 2012 – Early 2013): Transcend JetDrive Lite 350
• MacBook Pro 15″ (Late 2013 – Mid 2015): Transcend JetDrive Lite 360

Pros and cons of the approach

Pros

• No technical skills needed
• Ready in one second: just plug and play

Cons

• Relatively slow compared to primary storage
• Limited size options (only up to 256GB)
• Does not extend the primary drive. This one isimportant, by the way. When you install a new app, it gets written to theApplications folder, which is located on the primary disk. With SD card, youget a second drive, which is not intended to store system apps, but it can beused to store data.

Use Flash Drives

As we all know, flash (thumb) drives come in various shapes and sizes. Some of them so small, so they do not extend much when plugged into the computer. For instance, this device so small, so it’s almost invisible, and you can leave it always plugged in.

SanDisk 256GB Ultra Fit USB Flash Drive (Amazon)

You can see it in action in this clip:

Pros and cons of the approach

This flash drive works with MacBooks that have USB ports.Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find a USB-C one that could work with newerApple laptops.

Pros

• No need to open MacBook to install it. Just plugit in
• Can be used to transfer data to and from otherUSB devices

Cons

• Relatively slow compared to primary storage
• Limited size options (only up to 256GB)
• Does not extend primary drive (just like Transcend JetDrive)
• Not preformatted for Macs. Check here for directions on formatting for Apple computers
• Gets hot when constantly plugged in

Use Cloud Storage

All the ways to upgrade storage discussed so far apply onlyto older Macs, but there is an option that works with all models.

Instead of storing files on the local drive, set up cloudstorage so that it uploads the data to the remote server and removes the localcopy from your drive. Strictly speaking, this is not an upgrade. https://bestjfiles772.weebly.com/blog/is-gambling-illegal-in-florida. It’s more ofgetting a potentially unlimited size folder where you can store all the dataneeded.

The most obvious choice is using iCloud that comes with macOS. By default, the iCloud drive size is limited at 5GB. It is possible to buy more storage for a relatively low price.

For instance, the 200GB plan will cost $2.99 per month, and I expect prices to go down significantly in the future, as server storage gets cheaper.

To turn on storing documents in iCloud without taking spaceon the local drive, follow steps below: https://downgfiles754.weebly.com/alien-skin-blow-up-3-1-0-183-download-free.html.

1. Click on Apple logo and select About This Mac
2. Select the Storage tab and then click on Manage button
3. Click on Store in iCloud button
4. Enable checkboxes for Documents, Photos, and Messages

Another option (my favorite) is DropBox. DropBox has a SmartSync feature which allows storing content locally, online-only, of in mixed-state folders.

If you pick the online-only content option, then file names and some file information will appear in the DropBox folder, but the content will be stored in the cloud.

As soon as you open the file, the content gets downloaded to the local disk. When you finish with the file, it will get removed from the local drive to free up space.

DropBox is a little more expensive than iCloud, but it comeswith a couple of advantages over iCloud:

1. DropBox works on Macs and PCs, so it is possible to transfer data between the two using the app.
2. DropBox contains a history of changes. If you need to restore the previous version of the file or even a deleted file, it is possible.

Pros and cons of the approach

Pros

• Works with all MacBook models
• Almost unlimited space

Cons

• Requires internet connection, does not workoffline
• Limited size with free plans, paid plans may bepricey

Other Upgrade Options

There are other upgrade options which I have to mentionhere. However, it is hard to call them clean upgrade solutions.

Cleaning Apps

There are multiple apps that promise to clean junkaccumulated on the Macs and free up space. Again, this is not an upgradesolution, and the results vary from one Mac to another. In any case, if youhave only 128GB storage, cleaning options are rather limited.

If you are interested in such solutions, read my detailed review of CleanMyMac. Also, you can clean the drive by yourself.

Network Attached Storage

Network Attached Storage or NAS are drives that can beaccessed through local Wi-Fi. It’s the best option for Time Machine. https://zdkobv.over-blog.com/2020/12/strides-goal-habit-tracker.html.

However, there are two problems with NAS:

1. Most of them quite expensive
2. They are not available if you are not connected to the local network, e.g., from work, school, or coffee shop. It is possible to open the drive to the internet by messing around with the Wi-Fi router, but I would never recommend this – too risky, someone can always get access to your data.

External Hard Drives

And finally, if you need more space, buy an external hard drive. Unlike SanDisk Ultra Fit flash drive, the external hard drives connect to the laptop using a cable, and they are not really portable.

On the plus side, there are external hard drives for all Mac models and dozens of size options.

expensive, and bad working premise, NO notebook is a dumping ground for tons of static data you arent using 'often'

You need to change the premise of your SSD use.