How To Setup External SSD Storage on the M4 Mac mini - Also 256GB or 512GB on Internal Storage?

[@newmanh]

for downloads, you can just set the browser to always ask where to save those downloads and so everytime you download something, you can directly save them on the external if its connected. what I didn't know was the app store setting...that one is definitely useful.

[@craigneidel]

Yes, you can do that but since you need to really clean out the downloads folder every month or so so it's clean I like to just copy them over to the external as it forces me to keep my Mac super clean.

[@zaferakcali8225]

@@craigneidel downloading directly to external drive prevents tear-down of internal ssd (keeps tbw low)

[@Äpple-pie-5k]

@@zaferakcali8225 You have identified the better method. "Make myself clean the folder" is a bad justification. You can clean a folder on either drive just as easily.

[@Äpple-pie-5k]

@@craigneidel What usually happens is there's more competition for space on the internal drive, while the external drive still has lots. Anything to offload more to external is an automatic no-brainer winner.

[@bryans8656]

I opted for the base M4 mini and use a 2TB external drive (because I'm cheap). So far I still have 180GB free space on the internal drive so it's working for my use case since I'm a casual user now that I'm retired.

[@craigneidel]

2 TB will last you a very long time. Nice.

[@Cujobob]

The real limitation on small drives is that the total amount of data you can write increases with drive size. If you’re constantly writing to your main drive, it can cause issues, but these are fairly inexpensive computers that likely don’t see hard use and eventually need replacement anyways.

[@craigneidel]

Yeah, so far we have not seen any issues with the SSDs on the M-chip macs and we are going on 5 years but time will tell.

[@ruachpneuma5638]

Me too 🔥🔥

[@GuitarRJP]

This sounds good to me - I have a 4TB so it is good to know it is working for you. I will mostly be keeping video projects and photo projects on the external drive and not on the M4 mini!

[@andrewbrown8148]

Good info~! I'm a career IT'er (just retired) and a longtime Apple user (since Apple II+). I just bought my mini and opted for more memory (24Gig) over increasing onboard storage, but I picked up a 2TB NVME for an external drive. For the pure simplicity of it, I'll be using the 3rd method you describe. I'm retiring my 2012 iMac and can't wait to fire up this Mac Mini~! Always looking forward to what you put out next. 👍

[@bryans8656]

My first Apple computer was the II+. I taught myself how to build spreadsheets using Appleworks.

[@andrewbrown8148]

@@bryans8656 THAT's what I'm talkin' about~!

[@craigneidel]

Thanks for watching and good luck with everything.

[@bridevalley]

Thanks for this. I had come across method 2 on KZbin and was going to use it but you have convinced me that method 3 is safer so I'll go with that for sure. I've been waiting for my SSD enclosure to arrive and am grateful it took a couple of days as I would have missed this video if it had got to me sooner! Thanks again.

[@craigneidel]

Ok, thank you for watching. Good luck with everything.

[@weholmes5315]

Thanks for this reality check! I got the base M4 Mini configuration (on sale at Costco) and saw some videos that convinced me that putting my home folder on the external thunderbolt SSD was a good idea. But I was worried I’d do something wrong. You just helped me decide to bag it and just move large files off the Mini, like I already do with my 256 GB MacBook Pro. Thanks! 😅

[@craigneidel]

Ok, thank you and good luck. Option 2 can work good but it can also cause unknown issues at times so I like to make sure people know about that is all.

[@johnplainsong9769]

I'm picking up my M4 Mini 512Gb from Costco today. Got a great price. I'm still reading up on pros and cons going internal or external on the home folder. Look before you leap...

[@gunting]

For those opting for External SSD, be sure to plug directly into one of the Mac Mini ports. Had experience where I plugged external SSD into one of the Hub that has type-c port in it, it works and all that, but when the OS went to sleep, it wakes up the Hub but not the SSD so I had to remove and insert the disk again, very annoying. I don't know, maybe each Hub behaves differently.

[@craigneidel]

Yes, if you are using it for anything important especially options #1 and #2 in my video then I would go direct.

[@ShaneConQueso]

You can drag and drop the app from external to Launchpad and it will put an icon/shortcut there.

[@craigneidel]

Yes, that should work.

[@bosmanka]

Great tip!

[@TzachiZach]

Thanks!

[@craigneidel]

Thank you very much I appreciate that for sure.

[@craigneidel]

Thank you again.

[@luizs3105]

Great video. Thanks!. I agree with the option 3 and I went that route too, however I moved the Photo library to the external drive too. There are several youtube videos explaining how to default the photo library to an external drive!. cheers

[@craigneidel]

Yes, you can drag that over etc. and there is some good info on Google about that. Thanks for sharing.

[@oo0Spyder0oo]

For apps such as FCP, make sure you disable the option to copy the media to the home drive otherwise that will fill the internal drive real fast if you’re into video editing.

[@craigneidel]

@@oo0Spyder0oo yes you can move project files to external to save storage.

[@janeicker]

Danke!

[@craigneidel]

Thank you I appreciate that for sure. Means a lot. Thanks.

[@craigneidel]

Thank you again.

[@Poverello2001]

This sounds perfect for me. I don’t want to go through the hassle of moving my entire home directory to an external drive, but moving creating specific folders on the external drive makes a lot of sense, and will save me a lot of money. Thanks for your help with this issue.

[@craigneidel]

For sure and thanks for watching.

[@jremi]

Great informative video! I’ve been a PC user all my life and decided I would buy a Mac mini this time around with 24 Gb RAM and a 512 Gb SSD. I want to keep it simple and was thinking of doing exactly what is suggested here with the 3rd option (large programs and data on an external drive). Subscribing now!

[@craigneidel]

Thanks for the sub. Yes, that config will be plenty of power for that option and good luck as a new Mac user. Give it a few months and you will never go back.

[@peterlincoln5617]

Hi Craig, great video. A little tip I found when setting up my Mac Mini M4 base model and something it might be worth including in a future productivity video. I needed the machine for cloud backups to Dropbox. I was able to use a USB-C to SATA adapter for a 2TB drive which I already owned and used that as the host for the Dropbox folder. It runs nice and cool and at around 330 megabytes per second transfer is plenty fast enough for Dropbox and media storage. The issue came about when starting the machine it took a few seconds for the drive to mount (longer if one of the other login apps was updating). About 25% of the time Dropbox had already started before the disk had mounted, causing it to spew out an error message. I was able to avoid the problem by creating an app in Automator (included in Mac OS). It adds a ten second pause, then opens Dropbox. I added that delay app to my login and now I am always up and running before Dropbox fires up and starts its syncing. Its real niche, but I am sure there are other applications which could benefit from either a delayed start or shutdown which you can also do in Automator. Hope this information helps somebody out :-)

[@craigneidel]

Thanks for the tip. Yes, I have done a few videos on Automator and like it. You can do some nice things with that program. Thank you.

[@nathanchurch3442]

12:56 if you drag the app from the external drive to the launchpad icon they’ll stay stored on your ex drive but show up normally in launchpad.

[@craigneidel]

Yes, you can drag them back and add them to places like the dock as well but for simplicity I kept it simple. Also the video was almost 20 min. But thanks for the info and that is useful for sure.

[@nathanchurch3442]

@ I just got my owc enclosure in the mail yesterday and did the second method last night, but it does make me nervous so I might revert back to having my home folder on the internal and just keep photos and apps on the ex. I might have done something wrong because I couldn’t delete some smaller App Store apps from my main account, I had to log into my backup admin.

[@craigneidel]

yeah, it can work but it can also get messy (option #2) with no guarantees. That is why I like option 3 the best here.

[@user-BigOrangeCat]

Thank you! I recently did exactly what you said about keeping apps on external drive. I can say that it definitely works!

[@craigneidel]

Nice, thank you.

[@janeicker]

Thank you, sir! Perhaps one of the more positive aspects of waiting for an AliExpress delivery is that it gives you plenty of time to watch virtually every video on a specific topic, like this one. I’m about to repurpose my late 2015 27” iMac as a sort of studio display for my base model Mac Mini (256GB/16GB). The iMac was upgraded long ago with a 2TB internal SSD via SATA, which raises some concerns about how to handle it comfortably. The first videos I watched suggested outsourcing the entire home directory or, even riskier, mounting the entire core installation externally, as you also mentioned here. However, I’ve decided to go with your preferred method: moving only the largest files to a 40Gbps external drive with a 2TB NVMe 4.0 SSD. That way, I won’t have to worry about relocating everything and can leave the riskier approaches to the more adventurous users.

[@craigneidel]

Thanks and good luck with everything. Let me know how it goes with the 27" iMac. I assume you ordered a display board (third party) to try and make that an external monitor.

[@KatyInNH]

This is such a helpful video! Thank you so much for sharing it! I am moving from a 2017 MBP and really struggled with the risk of doing method 1 & 2. Though I am a techie (in non-computer areas), I know how fast things can go wrong! I appreciate your metered approach and for explaining it so thoroughly. My mini arrives on Friday! Looking forward to your future videos and checking out some of your past video library. Thanks you so much- I will be using your link for the SSD PS. Do you have any videos on moving movie DVDs to a storage device? Most videos are pretty confusing- I appreciate your straight forward approach. I will look back through your videos and see if I can find anything on this…. I want to be able to bring my DVD collection in a condensed format, with me on some extended RV travel next year. I imagine need another storage device from some of the other YT videos that I have watched so far.😅

[@craigneidel]

Thank you and I'm glad the video was able to help you a little bit. I don't have any videos on moving movie DVDs but wish you luck on finding an answer on that. Take care.

[@debbiechutka2492]

Thank you for this great video. I just ordered my Mac mini 512 gb ssd and I’m just researching how to store on an external drive. I was really worried about storage. I now have to learn about backing things up but this is a great start.

[@craigneidel]

@@debbiechutka2492 thanks for watching

[@rehkram]

Very professional solution Craig, I had come to the same conclusions as I'm planning on adding an M4 Pro Mini & external NVMe drive soon. The moving of the home folder to external assumes Apple will not change things too much over the life of the system. Clearly that is a flawed assumption, in fact it's happened already with the latest Sequoia 15.2 public release. Subscribed!

[@craigneidel]

Thank you for the sub and for watching the channel. Appreciate it for sure. I have over 750 videos up there so trying to work hard and thanks for watching.

[@DrAlanWeinstein]

Just found your channel. I made the mistake of following one of the methods of adding my Home folder to the external SSD drive which resulted in having to reinstall my OS system on a totally new Mac mini. MP4 pro. Your way is much smarter! Thanks

[@craigneidel]

@@DrAlanWeinstein thanks. Yes this is much safer long term for sure

[@DrAlanWeinstein]

@@craigneidel One other question. I have some programs that live on my Mac Mini that are somewhat large. Example ECAMM Live a streaming program similar to OBS. Can it be moved to the external SSD and then opened from inside the External Drive? If so what do I need to move since I have it already personalized with graphics and things connected to streaming services like Restream and don't want to lose all the things are have created. Thanks! I'm sending you a Thanks for your time.

[@simbatran]

Great video! How about apps that was already installed on your Mac Mini before the external drive, is there a way to move that or do I need to uninstall and reinstall again?

[@craigneidel]

I do this as a clean install normally from the start. Only apps over 1 GB can be moved to the external SSD so you could uninstall and reinstall those larger apps if you wanted to.

[@mikelbasabemendizabal5012]

Hi @craigneidel , thanks for the video. For large applications like Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, Davinci Resolve,... how can they be installed into the external SSD drive? Can you please explain the process? Thanks!

[@craigneidel]

Each one is different. IF they are not in the App store then it should give you an option at install otherwise they would need to be installed on the home folder drive.

[@mikelbasabemendizabal5012]

@@craigneidelthanks

[@edgarevidal]

Keep up the great videos! Easy to follow, serious content, true helper. Thanks,

[@craigneidel]

Thank you and I appreciate that.

[@Nima-dq3kj]

Excellent explanation of the best way to use external drives with a Mac Mini 👍 Agree with you 100%

[@craigneidel]

Thank you for watching the channel.

[@8pilgrim]

I am returning to the apple world. I bought the 512 MacMini. And a MacBook Air then ordered the Zike drive enclosure. I don’t know what I’m doing (yet) but I’m trying to learn. My 2TB Teamwork drive should be here in 3 more days. MacMini will stay at my office and I’ll do video editing there. Laptop is mobile. I think your no 3 option is my plan. Just a little awkward trying to stay on top of moving files/documents I create while mobile into the external Zike drive so I have one consistent place of archival storage. Thank you for your vid and keeping the cookies on the lower shelf for some of us! Great work!

[@craigneidel]

Thanks for watching the channel and good luck with everything. You will pick it up fast as Macs are quite easy to learn.

[@jimadams9983]

Great video! I'm going to transition from my 27" 2019 iMac to the Mac Mini and wondering if you have any thoughts on the best way to move the current applications and data from the standard architecture on my internal hard drive to the Mac Mini. Although I like your option 3 in concept, I'm concerned that to use it, I'm either going to have to individually move apps/data from the current hdd to the mini internal ssd/ external ssd (depending on app size) or reinstall from the app store. I'm guessing that the migration tool isn't smart enough to choose the best target location based on app size (although I'd be very happy to find out I'm wrong!). So any thoughts? Or perhaps in this case I'm better to use option 2? Thanks!!

[@craigneidel]

Yes, my option #3 is best with a clean setup. I normally keep all my files in folders and setup clean and then copy over the files etc. If you use option #3 you need to reinstall the apps on the external SSD so if you migrate them it won't work well.

[@HausOfPain]

Another great video. Craig do you have one on accessing a PC from a Mac? Setting up file sharing.

[@craigneidel]

Thank you. I don't have one on that yet.

[@AndredeBruinSoundengineer]

If you are a Firefox user you can set the download destination to any folder you want in settings. I wonder if other browsers have the same option. Great videos , keep them coming!!

[@craigneidel]

Thanks. Some apps outside of app store allow for different install locations. Some don't though. Hence the 512 GB on the main drive for me and to keep me from sweating things.

[@garychen2048]

Chrome, safari can, also.

[@asan1050]

Hey Craig!, Thanks for posting this video.

[@craigneidel]

You bet, hope it's helpful.

[@DosBlade]

Had the Mini M4 256.. something was up with it so I took it to Apple and they took it back and I got the 512 version. Don't need tons of space. First it was way over 14days yet they took it back. Ok I had benched the 256 it was baout 3300. Now the 512 and I have benched it allot because its 4400. If ANYONE says just that small bump you won't notice.. I thought I would never see the diff.. man you can. I am SO happy something went wrong with the 256gb one. VERY happy now

[@craigneidel]

Yes in a video I did a few days ago I covered the speeds. Thanks for the update.

[@robertt9342]

Please describe in what way you feel the difference?

[@jmchapman1]

I like the approach - more robust, lightweight and organised. Will any file you move be duplicated in time machine though?

[@craigneidel]

You need to setup time machine so it does not exclude the external drive.

[@dirtyharry1881]

For the downloads you should just go to the settings of your browser and make a folder in the external drive the default download folder. This way you won't have to transfer manually the Downloads folder to another drive. If you disconnect your external drive macOS will download everything automatically to the original Download folder.

[@craigneidel]

You can do that but I wanted to keep this simple for the video. There are a ton of ways to also have files automatically copy over. But you still need to clean out the downloads and the system I proposed forces you to do this.

[@dirtyharry1881]

@@craigneidel as a principle you should probably avoid writing on the download folder of your internal ssd, especially if it's a small one. Downloads will eventually wear your ssd's tbw, which on many apple devices is soldered. Even if you empty it afterwards, the "damage" is already done.

[@craigneidel]

Nah... I like to use my tech but understand what you mean and have done videos on that. Also there has been not issues with any M-chip macs for about 5 years now and you would need to write about 1500 TB before needing to really worry about it. Even when a drive reaches it TBW limit they can last double, triple, 10 times if quality drives. In theory you are correct for sure but I buy the tech to use it and figure if I do method #3 I will save just that much more data on my main drive and it will last even longer.

[@davidnagy510]

Thank Craig another great video

[@craigneidel]

Thank you

[@BangtidyVideos]

Thanks for highlighting some of the potential issues with an external SSD. None of those videos discuss this.

[@craigneidel]

Thank you for watching and the comment. Appreciate that.

[@Tyblubearboy]

Thanks for the video... where does Time Machine fit into all of this? Would you recommend using Time Machine to keep backups of files and if so would it make sense to have it use another external drive or the same external drive?

[@craigneidel]

You would want to use another external Drive otherwise you would lose everything if your backup failed.

[@GP1080HD]

I would never alter the default directory structure - Mac or Win. Thanks for the information.

[@craigneidel]

Thank you

[@TzachiZach]

Thanks for the video. Very helpful. I am about to migrate from a 2020 iMac to this new setup with an external SSD. What is the best way to migrate from a single drive on imac to this two-drive setup? Should i migrate my apps or just reinstall them? I presume that i should populate Dropbox and other cloud storage on the external SSD fresh from cloud and not from old imac?

[@craigneidel]

I normally reinstall my apps for a clean new system but everybody is different. It's hard for me to review each setup as I don't want to tell you something that is wrong. But I normally do clean installs on most things.

[@vizionct1]

Got my M4pro 12/16 w 24gb ram 512ssd but it’s been awesome connecting to my 8tb Nas drive. Seamless

[@craigneidel]

Nice setup

[@Przemyslaw78pl]

Thx, I’m first time Mac user and after this video I don’t try now Method 2, I go safe tomorrow with the third… good timing and very informative!

[@craigneidel]

Ok, thank you.

[@SuperSportler43]

I am new to Mac thank you very much for that. 👍

[@craigneidel]

For sure.

[@nick_fox]

Craig may I ask do you edit directly of the external drive as well so therefore adding the editing application software to it and if yes can you give us demonstration on how its done .

[@craigneidel]

I'll see if in the future I can do a video on it but all editing software needs to be setup differently when editing off an external. I recommend searching for this via google based on your exact setup and program you are using. I do edit off externals and I actually use my 2017 5K iMac with 48 GB even today and I run the entire OS off the SSD there but I don't recommend that for more modern macs.

[@sgroadie6367]

I have been using my M1 MacBook Air 256GB, and have put all data on an external Samsung T5 SSD. I put my Pictures and Documents on the external SSD. I clear and move the Downloads to its destination on the external and delete immediately. Works well. I just turned on the download large apps to the SSD. I just got a new, bigger T7 SSD. And moved my T5 over. And tried Method2. Works ok. It Davinci Resolve failed to work. I moved back to method 3.

[@craigneidel]

Ok, thank for the info on this.

[@joereale9785]

A year ago I bought a refurbed M1 Max MacBook pro which was the higher end base model with 32GB Ram and 1 TB HD. So far the HD is enough as, I keep some stuff on an external. If I get a new desktop or a M4-ish MacBook Pro I would get it with at least a 2TB internal. As for RAM I'd minimally be comfortable with 48 but would go with 64 as the upper limit.

[@craigneidel]

Yes, if you know you use that much that is fine but most won't need all of that. The storage is just so expensive I tend to use Thunderbolt 4 storage.

[@ele4853]

Great video! I completely agree with you on option 3. Now, I never done this. I'm assuming we install Mac mini as normal and then add the external to be used for any app we want? Meaning when I "install the app" I need to install on the external drive right?

[@craigneidel]

I have that in the video how to setup the App store so it installs apps larger than 1 GB on the external drive. Format external drive as APFS.

[@PropheticEclipses]

Thank you for this video I’m going with method 3

[@craigneidel]

@@PropheticEclipses thanks for watching

[@DrAlanWeinstein]

Thanks! Appreciate y.our expertise. See my comment about how to move large programs I already have running on the internal drive.😀

[@craigneidel]

Wow, thank you for this. I appreciate that for sure. It helps me to keep making videos. I'll need to see if I can find that and will look. Thank you.

[@DrAlanWeinstein]

​@@craigneidel Followed your recommendation on using the SSD to download large applications fromApple. Now I want to know what about applications that are on the internal drive, can they be moved to the external SSD and taken off the internal drive and not mess anything up? If so how? Thanks

[@BOBSCOTTONLINE]

my files don't take up that much space but my music and photo libraries are the ones that grow - can we use the same method 3 for external library w/o messing up HOME files? would love to set up photos and music on diff externals and have included in one Time Machine back-up

[@craigneidel]

Some people move their photos library only to the external and not the entire home directory. I would search for that in Google and see if it's right for you.

[@SteveGoolian]

Same question. Plus, over the years I have backed up the music library to different drives and now I'm confused about what to keep and what can be deleted. Very frustrating.

[@arifbanday2064]

What is the advantage of buying an external SSD which we ourselves have to insert in an enclosure and we have to buy separately SSD and separately an enclosure as opposed to buying an external portable SSD which already comes in an enclosure ?

[@dhellis19498]

The best reason I can give you is SPEED, a SSD that comes already installed in a case is likely only going to give you around 100 GBs Write and maybe 110 GBs Read, a Thunderbolt 4 case with a good NvME M.2 such as the Crucical T500 can increase that speed to around 3700 MBs (though Crucial says 7300)

[@craigneidel]

They can be faster plus you can put in a quality drive. Also, if one part breaks like the enclosure or the SSD you can reuse the other part. Also, if you fill up the drive you can pop it out and put in another one and store the drive that is filled away.

[@arifbanday5556]

@@craigneidel thanks for clarification - however, one point I understood from previous information was that data/information from SSDs disappears, say, after, 5 years or so. But here you are saying "store the drive that is filled away"? So if I store it (with important family photos, videos, spreadsheets etc) and pick it up after a few years there may not be any data left on the SSD - am I thinking on the correct lines? Or do SSDs generally only fail after 5 years or so, if they are being continuously used on a daily basis?

[@jeffreyhughes7107]

How do you get iMessage to store media on an external drive. For me, iMessage is the biggest storage hog and I thought it stored on the iCloud but it stores media locally. Dropbox is also notorious for filing up the drive

[@craigneidel]

I would do a search on Google for those as I can't cover it here quickly but maybe I'll do a video on this in the future.

[@db-cp7xb]

I used to run my home folder on an external drive with a MacStudio. However, there are some apps that don't work well with it. Also, some home-brew apps and scrypted would not work without a lot of changes. I never got scrypted working completely. To me, it seemed like such a little used method that it made finding support material online for issue very difficult. Lastly, if you do this, use an actively cooled SSD enclosure or you will see major thermal throttling if doing anything stressing the drive even a little bit. It seems like a good option, but it is not well supported, as the video states. One thing to consider for any external SSD method is cloud storage. Apple's changes to this make moving the cloud cache very difficult for OneDrive, etc., thus eating up your internal drive capacity.

[@craigneidel]

@@db-cp7xb yes thanks for the additional details and why option 3 is my preferred solution.

[@bengeorge5525]

Thanks, Craig for this awesome video, i am planing to buy Mac mini M4 Pro and i was wondering if i could download Pixelmator Pro on external SSD and run the application to do my photo editing. Eagerly awaiting your response.

[@craigneidel]

I am not sure but if you can download it from the App store and if it's more than 1 GB then I don't see why not.

[@jeffwaite7413]

Please do a video on how to keep your ripped library on an external drive, and can access your files on an Apple TV in a different room. I can’t figure out how to point the tv app to an external drive. Thank you very much!

[@craigneidel]

Not sure I can do all these videos but good luck with things and thanks for watching.

[@adeb4405]

I am assuming all this can also be done in a new 2024 iMac M4?

[@craigneidel]

Yes, same thing.

[@tbirdvet]

I agree with your third process. I would also have my Photos and Movies folder on the external. For me those are my largest folders.

[@craigneidel]

Yes, you can move those as well if they are large.

[@michaell7877]

The part of the video where you go from step 2 to step 3 is very confusing to me. I would love to see a video just on step 3 and how to configure say just out of the box. Where you keep the OS on the mac mini yet install and run all of your other applications on the external storage. I have watch a couple of your other vids and liked them. Thank you and hope to see this so I can buy the base model of 512gig. 👍😊

[@craigneidel]

I'll see what I can do in the future but I just wanted to give some direction and it wasn't a total tutorial.

[@LivingInArlingtonToday]

Great video, like many on the comments I was going to use a different method, and when I saw the video I decided for method 3. I have what might be a dumb question. I just got the M4 Pro Mac Mini with the 512 MB. I am waiting (until Monday) to receive the OWC Thunderbolt 4 external drive. Can I start using the new M4 Mac and then add the the new external drive? Maybe reinstall heavy apps to the new drive when I get it? Currently I have a 2 TB Sandisk Extreme Pro.

[@craigneidel]

I would just wait to install the apps over 1 GB until you get the drive. Otherwise you might need to uninstall them and reinstall them on the external. That is just my opinion though.

[@LivingInArlingtonToday]

@ thank you Craig! Love your videos

[@arifbanday2064]

How many years do you think data remains on an external SSD? I am thinking if i transfer my Documents/Excel Spreadsheets/ Word Documents/Photos and Videos on an external SSD and keep it for, say, 15 years, would photos still be there after 15 years or would they disappear from the SSD after 15 years? Would it make any difference as far as data/photo/documents etc retention period is concerned if it was an internal SSD?

[@craigneidel]

It's hard to say as technology is changing so fast. If you want to keep for like 15 years maybe a normal HDD is best to archive all the data or using something like tape etc. even.

[@arifbanday2064]

@@craigneidel thank you for brilliant videos you have been creating. i presume for tape i will have to buy some sort of accessory to connect with Mini Mac.

[@craigneidel]

@@arifbanday2064 M-Disc is expensive and other option - here is some more info on this - www.howtogeek.com/858426/whats-the-best-way-to-store-data-for-decades-or-centuries/

[@arifbanday2064]

@@craigneidel brilliant - thank you. Very useful article. Nice touch about writing on tablets which have survived thousands of years and there is no need for any special drives/equipment to read them.

[@bazigar911]

Great work! I love all your videos. I recently picked up a Mac Mini M2 with 512GB and am considering your third suggestion. Instead of the enclosed SSD you mentioned, would it be okay to use a 2TB SanDisk Extreme Go Portable SSD (it was on sale at Costco), or could that cause any issues?

[@craigneidel]

Yes, but I don't have that drive to test. But, I'm sure it will be fine etc. especially with method #3 since with that method you can disconnect the drive and things will still work as normal except you just can't access apps on external.

[@jefferygriffin9697]

you can move home folder and create second administrator for home folder. on mac if something happen to external drive . and be able to boot i think?

[@craigneidel]

yes, you can do things like that but if all your data is on the account that get's messed up it basically just moves you back to a clean setup.

[@Winsun-g4g]

So I’ve purchased a Mac Mini with only 256 gb, as well as new 4TB SSD. I have an old 2 TB Time Machine that i currently use to back up my data’s on my imac. How do i use your method #3 so i can restore all my data to the new Mac Mini but at the same time move all the bulk files to the new 4 TB SSD drive?

[@craigneidel]

@@Winsun-g4g I always just start with fresh computer and transfer any files to external.

[@TLMuse]

Re: Downloads, I just use Chrome's and Safari's settings to download content to a folder on my external drive. I create a new folder for this every year and change the setting each year, so my downloads are sorted by year, so it's trivial to ignore, delete, or archive old downloads.

[@craigneidel]

@@TLMuse seems like a good way to organize it

[@philyourhead]

I also moved my (very large) Dropbox and Google drive folders to the external drive.

[@craigneidel]

Thanks for the post.

[@overmedium2]

Hi Craig, thanks for this informative video! I'm picking up my mac mini later >> today

[@craigneidel]

Thanks for the sub and good luck with everything. They are nice machines and I'm sure you will love the new M4 mini.

[@timculler1454]

Thanks for excellent video. I set up using method 3 and everything seems fine -except that it’s taking forever to move Apple Photos Library to trash.,I hope it’s not jammed. But I’m still slightly confused about the Time Machine back up procedure. I now have two external SSD’s, one to use as you described in method three as pure external storage. But I have a separate one that I was using for the Time Machine to save to. Do I just set the Time Machine to back up only to the dedicated SSD? I think that’s right, but I’m obviously a little nervous about screwing things up. I appreciate any advice that you can give and thank you again for a very well done tutorial 16:36

[@rorgero1]

Really enjoy your videos...thank you! Question: I just purchased a new M4 Mac Mini, .5TB storage and 24GB RAM. This is my first Mac as I've always used Windows. I've ordered an external SSD enclosure and a 4tb SSD drive. I plan to leverage the external drive as much as possible, but not for OS boots or Home drives. I have about 250gb of my own pictures and videos that I plan to keep on the external drive. My question is regarding if I can/should leverage the Photos app for all my photos and videos, while still leveraging the external storage? Similar question on documents that I have, although those are much smaller than the pictures and videos in terms of storage requirements. Thanks!

[@DarthVader1977]

Whatever you do, always keep backups. Ideally, even have a backup for your back up.

[@craigneidel]

Depending on the pictures size I migrate those to the external drive and archive those over time. When you have 250 GB of photos that you want to keep in Apple photos you need to do something with them in order to save that space. Some people will migrate their photos library to an external drive which is not hard and if you search for that on Google it will show you how.

[@matthewgilfillan2946]

Thank you! This video was very informative, keep up the good work! 😊

[@craigneidel]

Thank you.

[@sunny6ville]

Has anyone restored from a Time machine Backup that is using a similar setup to the described 3rd Option? So assume the original machine dies, and you still have your data on the External. How does Time Machine work to restore everything? When you get your new computer, can you selectively restore to your new machine only your internal data and setup, plug in your External and be good to go? Or would you need to wipe out everything on the External, and restore the entire setup?

[@craigneidel]

Make sure to not exclude external drives when setting up Time Machine.

[@moirakins1]

Craig, someone mentioned a dual boot method. I am considering the same to save some money (I want to try sticking with the 256 GB internal.) Should I sign into both internal and external drives with the same iCloud account? If one day, Apple makes it incredibly difficult to boot MacOS off the external drive, how difficult would it be to use the internal drive as the main drive? (i.e. how would I tell it to run applications off the external? Would I lose all my user preferences?) I really like the idea of keeping the MacOS on an external so if I want to upgrade and buy the newest Mac Mini 2-3 years from now, I basically wouldn't have to do anything for set up (which would further justify my cost savings of $200 to not buy Apple's upgrade to the internal HD, which would end up being 20% the price of the computer - $1000 vs $800.) In other words, I'd rather save the $200 each time I want to buy a new Mac Mini as I do not see the immediate benefit of having 512 GB right away...also, maybe the base Mac Mini three years from now will automatically come with a 512 GB internal.

[@craigneidel]

I tried to lay out the options in the video and if you want to go with loading the OS on an external drive that is an option. There is a ton of info on that online to review. You just need to make sure and read about the issues before doing it. The main one is having fail save backups and then it's not a terrible option.

[@atashbeats8055]

This was great, thank you. 1 question, downloading plug-ins for music creation goes to Library-audio-vst. Is it possible to move those on external or it'll be problems?

[@craigneidel]

Depending on the size of these I like to leave them on the internal. I normally move everything or nothing except maybe the photos library but that is only how I do it to try and avoid any issues down the road.

[@PappaMike-vc1qv]

Interesting that the Apple Store creates a library file on the external. What about apps not from the store?

[@luetti4.0]

Same question here

[@craigneidel]

Apps not from the store will go on the internal drive. Some of those apps ask you where to install them and if they do then install on external drive.

[@MrFastforwardcoach]

Great easy solution - if you are downloading from the Store. But what about moving other apps onto the external drive? My Applications folder is nearly 60GB and contains several apps that are over 5GB, such as Photoshop etc. Is it as simple as copying them over?

[@craigneidel]

60 GB is nothing if you have the 512 GB Drive. Some apps not in the store allow you to install to alternative locations at install. Some you will want to keep on the drive hence pick the right size but 60 GB is fine for a 512 GB setup.

[@jefferygriffin9697]

How do you use Time Machine to back up an external hard drive. I know it will back up internal. Not sure how Time Machine . Will back up external?

[@craigneidel]

Yes, just make sure to uncheck the check that says not to include externals and it should include them.

[@pgc2931]

Student with a internal hard drive with a 100G partition for Bootcamp/Windows on old Mac. Required for coursework. Setting up new Mac with 512G internal drive. Would you do the 100G partition and Bootcamp/Windows on the new internal HD, or set it up on a fast external SSD? No clue if that's possible or not? How do you manage photos/videos with your system? Thanks

[@craigneidel]

That's a tough one and if it's required for School I would set it up that way. I just keep my photos on the main drive and back them up myself but you can move the photos to an external drive if need be and that should not be an issue.

[@Rumor.]

Programms like Ableton live or Logic can run on external drive?or is better to the main drive?

[@craigneidel]

I don't use those but if anybody knows what is better please post here.

[@Noelgermishuizen]

Great video thanks. I’m trying the 3rd method but the drive option does not show up in Apps store. I formatted my OWC Express to APFS and clicked it as visible. Is there a step I’m missing?

[@craigneidel]

You need to upgrade to the newest OS.

[@MrELMEMORIAS]

great info. Easy and keep your Mac and info safe

[@craigneidel]

Thank you.

[@ThoNo24]

So where do you store your pictures, videos and music files with your preferred method? Do you store the photo app library on the external SSD? Thanks

[@craigneidel]

You can if they are large or if they are only a few GB each I leave these on the main drive and that is the reason I get the 512 GB version.

[@jeffstanger88]

great video! good tips. i plan to store my Photos libraries and (hopefully, if i can figure it out) my Messages cache externally. I was shocked to find that all the photos, videos, animated gifs, etc that you receive in Messages are stored for… ever? It is consuming many GBs of storage on my internal drive. Use the Storage screen to see what’s taking up space - some interesting surprises in there! (Photos libraries were not a surprise)

[@craigneidel]

Yes, if you dig deep there will be some surprises for sure. Thanks for watching the channel.

[@Harleycactor]

Hello sir, I urgently need some help. I’m helping my son setup his Mac mini base model. We have a formatted macOS u34 bolt 2Tb. I did the steps to move the home directory to the SSD and now it’s given us an unable to login error. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

[@craigneidel]

As you can imagine it's hard for me to troubleshoot issues like this one. That is why in the video I have recommended method #3 because this can happen and it's a bit hard to put back together once it does. Good luck with things and I would maybe start looking on the threads to see what others have been doing etc. I haven't run into that issue so I have not personally researched that but will let you know if I find anything.

[@HoundDogMech]

Qot a Question First I'm a Windows guy Last apple I had was an Apple II in 1982 Jusu purchaces an M4 Mac Mini Spicfully to edit with Davinci Resolve. A 40GB/s Exterier Drive ans a 2TB Samsung 990 EVO And did youe second thing (Home Folder on the External) Anyways Not understan How Mac's Operating system works How do I know the Home Folder is on the Exteernal. I really want to continue Using the Windows for Simple Edits and the Mac for the TUFF Stuf and as a Render Machine So While Rendering Large Projects I can keep Editing on the PC.

[@craigneidel]

You can go to this video and look around 8:05 in the video to see where your home directory is pointing to - kzbin.info/www/bejne/jaWsk3qna7SXbNE

[@dilip.rajkumar]

In the second method which is moving your home folder to external drive? Do you have to keep the external SSD drive always connected to the Mac Mini? If you Eject the external SSD normally or unplug the ext. SSD during a reboot will it create problems?

[@craigneidel]

You always want it connected that is why I don't like that method for everybody.

[@thehypnoticlforoom]

Thanks for a very educational video with a new to me alternative solution. What about software like adobe photoshop/premiere or music software like cubase with method 3? Can it also be installed into the external drive (which it can with method 2)? And do I need a Thunderbolt 5 SSD (I just bought the Mac Mini M4 Pro) or is Thunderbolt 4 (such as Samsung 990 Pro) ok to run these quite heavy programs?

[@craigneidel]

Thank you for the feedback. If you can't get it from the App Store then sometimes it will ask you where to install the software and then you can install on the external drive. You don't need thunderbolt 5 at all and that is overkill for any of this and Thunderbolt 4 enclosures are good enough for sure.

[@thehypnoticlforoom]

@@craigneidel Thanks for the fast reply. It's very much appreciated :)

[@craigneidel]

For sure...

[@debrab6165]

Should you move adobe and lightroom classic app to external hard drive. Thanks for this. I like method 3 and will use.

[@craigneidel]

If you have a drive that performs well I don't see an issue with that.

[@gordonrobb]

This is the option I was looking for. I want my programmes to be installed on main drive, and ‘files’ to be on external. Is there a way to have iCloud files on external? I’m really battling with google on making OneDrive files live on the external, but so far, it only ever creates a shortcut on there (to the main drive).

[@craigneidel]

Thanks for the feedback and info. There is a way and you can search for it on Google but I don't normally move those as it has the potential for issues, although small.

[@arifbanday2064]

do we have to keep external SSD connected to Mini Mac M4 all the time for Mini Mac to automatically transfer files more than 1Gb or more, or can we disconnect External SSD from Mini Mac M4 and as and when required reconnect it?

[@craigneidel]

You can remove it but if you want to run any apps on the external drive you need to have it connected (although that part is obvious). But you can disconnect with method 3 if you are not running those apps and that is an advantage. Thanks for watching.

[@arifbanday2064]

@@craigneidel thanks Craig.

[@lvilliankriss]

I just got the mac mini m4 512g. I use Cubase Pro 14 . My question is if I put Cubase on the external drive will it run as fast as if it were on the internal drive? Acasis 40Gbps M.2 NVME SSD Is the external drive I'm using. Thanks

[@craigneidel]

I don't use that so not sure.

[@simoninou]

Many thanks. That's a very nice video...

[@craigneidel]

Thank you.

[@dannyshowalter3663]

Do recommend the external storage option over using iCloud?

[@craigneidel]

I do but you can also use iCloud. I just never trust my data to any one company in the cloud.

[@itsgmani]

Man I got the 512 m4pro and I didn’t open the box cuz I don’t know if it’s gonna be enough for my music production/video editing software. I wanted to use an external nvme and have my sound libraries and videos on that. I don’t know if I should return it. My 2tb older Mac has very thing inside it and I’ve used 800 gb. I just can’t find the files systems that holds the sound libraries to be able to see how much of it there is actually being used. Ugh 😩

[@craigneidel]

Yeah, if you find those files you might be able to move them the external but keep most of your stuff on the main drive (method 3). Good luck with things.

[@davidstaller8247]

Do you recommend leaving photo library on internal drive?

[@craigneidel]

I normally leave it on the main drive but that is just how I do it.

[@robertt9342]

Photo library seems like the most obvious thing to run from an external drive.

[@craigneidel]

Yes, you can move it if you need to with space.

[@dakshkaushik2035]

Hay Craig please suggest me that i am confused to buy a mac mini m4 or an custom pc my budget is under $1000 my workflow is heavy graphic designing but little video editing main productivity tasks

[@AndyJMacLeod]

The base M4 is more than capable for your use case. I’d get at least the 512GB SSD. I have the M2 Mac Mini with 16Gb memory and 1TB SSD. And it is perfectly capable of doing the stuff you want. M4 would be even better.

[@craigneidel]

You had already asked me this in another video. I can't make that determination for you as it comes down to what is best for your exact workflow. I had said I think the Mini is great but just not sure.

[@Shyam-v7z]

Hay craig i am confused to buy mac mini m4 16gb ram with 513 gb rom vs 24 gb ram with with 256 gb rom if i campare which will win or does external ssd i can buy with 24gb ram with 256 gb

[@njm20music]

Hi Craig, I have a 2020 27" running sequel 15.1.1 and va 27" lightning Apple monitor, I want a Mini, could I connect the mini and use both screens with a luna connection? and does the Mac mini come loaded with the lates operating system, hope you can help,

[@craigneidel]

The Mac mini comes with the latest OS since it's brand new. I think that should work but haven't used the Luna Display for about 1.5 years now but I don't see why not.

[@JudgeFredd]

Great infos !

[@craigneidel]

Thank you.

[@jfn467]

When, as a normal home user, would you need to shift more than 1 Gb per second?

[@craigneidel]

If you want storage as fast as internal storage then something like thunderbolt 4 is nice. If you do video editing off the external SSD it's nice but for sure not required as 1000 MB/s is good for most people.

[@jfn467]

@@craigneidel I run orchestral sample libraries on 1Gps, no problem at all, though it's a bit sad them Macs are not supporting USB 3.2 2x2, lots of offers out there for fast SSDs on that interface...

[@DominequeTaylor]

For formatting, I did my external drive to FAT something because I may want to connect it to my pc sometimes. What’s the best format setting to use on pc a Mac?

[@craigneidel]

Yes, for a PC exFAT is what you want but when you are dealing with Apple file structures like the 2nd method I would only do APFS.

[@Khangtonio]

Any review or thoughts on the OWC? Currently on sale for $94.99 at the moment

[@craigneidel]

It's a solid choice from what I hear but they make a ton so I'm only guessing on model you are talking about. But they are all similar etc.

[@TYLERBALLADS]

Can you buy hard drive for Mac mini 4 16 gb ram? I can for storage… was wondering in apple if it exists? Thanks!

[@craigneidel]

I'm not sure what you are asking. Apple doesn't make an external drive if that is what you are asking.

[@TYLERBALLADS]

@@craigneidel yes to increase the 16 GB for ram on the Mac mini four… I’m sure they don’t only for their storage

[@craigneidel]

You can't upgrade the ram after you get the system. Thanks again for watching the channel.

[@kabirnanavati]

I'm planning to buy the Crucial X9 Pro, but I want to use it on both my Windows laptop and Mac Mini (majority of the time it'll stay plugged into my Mac Mini) and keep it plugged into my Mac mini and run Illustrator , Photoshop, After Effects and Lightroom etc. files from the SSD and occasionally use it for some file transfers from my Windows laptop. Will this setup run smoothly?

[@craigneidel]

I have not tested this with formatting the drive as ExFat so it can run on both. I recommend APFS but then it won't work on the Win system. But it could work and you can test that out when you install an Apple app on the external. I just have not tested that myself so don't know.

[@kabirnanavati]

@craigneidel thanks for seeing the reply! If I keep my X9 pro plugged (APFS) in and edit off it will it cause any issue the SSD?

[@craigneidel]

I don't see why it would and I have edited off my externals for a few years now.

[@KidLoveWax]

14:37 How do I automatically download to my external hard drive? "If you are using Safari, go to Safari menu (on the menu bar) -> Preferences -> General. You will see an option that lets you change the download folder, so tell Safari to save your downloads in your external hard drive."

[@craigneidel]

Yes, thank you. But you still need to sort this out that is why I like to download to downloads on main drive and then move if I need to keep to the second drive.