What happens if you try to UPGRADE a $5,000 Mac Studio?

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With news swirling recently about the removable SSD in Apple's new Mac Studio, I thought I'd try to answer any questions we might have about future upgradability the only way I know how: by actually TRYING IT! In today's video I'm putting $9,000 of Mac Studio on the line by trying to upgrade the storage in Apple's latest Mac!
Time stamps
0:00 Intro
1:48 Methodology
2:52 Upgrade Attempts
10:20 Rant
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#RightToRepair

[@user_anthony]

The amount of time needed to open and close these machines at least 5 times, dedication. Great job luke.

[@AppleTechPro870]

I know right. I was thinking the same thing. I mean to upgrade or switch one thing especially the storage you need to take the almost whole thing apart to get there.

[@johansugarev]

Didn't iFixit successfully swap the ssd between two machines? kzbin.info/www/bejne/ioqpZmVtedahrbs

[@user-es7jj7pt9w]

But it is also, totally pointless. We all know what apple does, besides putting a second ssd in there when the cooling probably wouldn't handle that very well ... etc... creating all sort of new problems ...

[@kFY514]

The SSDs are most likely encrypted with per-machine keys. I've seen M1 MBA being upgraded by resoldering the SSD chips - and it worked, but required Apple Configurator and DFU mode. The "SOS" blinking pattern is precisely Apple's way of asking for a DFU recovery.

[@WalrusRiderCycling]

I agree

[@JoeCastellon]

I came looking for this comment. I have the same hypothesis, they're SSD's that are locked to the machines because they are primary SSDs on each machine. I suspect you would be able to install brand new ones with no issues.

[@gutless_worm]

They aren't SSDs. They're raw NAND chips that interface with a controller built in to the SOC.

[@ghostofdre]

@@gutless_worm That's exactly what an SSD is, a type of flash based storage. Pity these are crippled, Apple trying to fix a problem that doesn't exist.

[@ssranon]

@@ghostofdre Not really. An SSD has a storage controller built into it. In Apple's case, the storage controller is built into the M1 SoC, and the storage chips are socketed using some proprietary Apple connector. In other words, it's as if Apple surgically removed the controller from an SSD, embedded that into the SoC, and then put the raw storage chips in a socket. TL;DR - These aren't "crippled" SSDs because they aren't SSDs.

[@nexttvc]

Hats off to you for great work.

[@fishbert42]

"Great work" might include googling the part number on those TI controller chips (CD3218B12) to find out they're for the adjacent USB ports before leaping to conclusions about penny-pinching SSD controllers ... which didn't make sense anyway because there'd still be pads on the board if they were no-populating parts to reduce cost.

[@devicefuldb5097]

Thank you Luke; this is exactly what I wanted to know. I have the Mac Pro (Late 2013) that I got in 2015 and have since upgraded it myself from 1T SSD to 2T SSD and from 32GB DRAM to 64GB DRAM. When I first purchased it, I thought, "I'll never, ever need more than 1T of storage and 32GB of DRAM." But of course, I did. My current Logic sessions, when mature, use over 40GB of DRAM. Knowing if the M1 Studio is upgradable was a key decider for me, and you solved it. BTW, on another note: the SSD upgrade I did was from a Mac parts 3rd party, completely approved, and when updating to Monterey, the upgrade would not complete, because Apple said the SSD was not compatible. I had to get the original SSD, upgrade it to Monterey, so it would update the Firmware, and then put my 3rd party SSD back in and upgrade it to Monterey.

[@critical]

I even swapped processor on my late 2013 :)

[@rossmanngroup]

Sigh

[@KaddeMario]

Make a rant video of it :)

[@BlindMango]

I agree Louis, this is yet another big sigh from Apple…

[@lukemiani]

UPDATE: Part 2 is out now with Configurator 2 experiment and a ton of additional information! I spoke with several Genius Bar employees anonymously to shed some light on the situation: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hWjao5loeZKda8k Also, check out Morning Brew for free here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rnbahJKMfKllr7s They helped make this extremely risky video possible lol

[@gian-lucalauwens703]

Thanks, it’s amazing how much time and effort you spend on making us the best video’s ❤️

[@lxr4781]

Can u link the wallpaper plz?

[@MichaelSidneyTimpson]

how come I always try to upgrade or fix a mac I do more damage instead? not the same problem I have with PCs.....

[@aelaan12]

I think it has to do with the security Apple is enforcing on us. It is a bit sad to have to pair the drive with the security chip. I am pretty sure a way around will be found, needs some time. I agree Apple does not care about the right to repair, with Apple you have no rights and everything is going to cost a large amount of money.

[@PedroM125]

The cost of the device is outrageous. For the same amount of money, you could easily build a 5950x, 3080ti, 64Gb RAM or even point to a Threadripper. For all and still you are not "allowed" to replace a SSD? Really? Luke, good luck with your endevours. I'm from a time when Mac's were able to be upgraded with normal components and repairs were expensive but possible.

[@wizcasino2508]

You did a great job of articulating exactly what I’ve been feeling for the past few years with apple! Thank you!

[@laserfloyd]

Was contemplating one of these machines but I like to upgrade my systems from time to time. Thanks for putting the time _and_ money into this.

[@joeyfotofr]

Yes, that's why I'm still working on a 2010 MacPro 5,1 12-core 3.46 machine (which began life as a much lower 8-core), while looking to upgrade and finding discouraging apple business practices that build in massive wastes of resources and abuse of customer's loyalty. There is a wonderful Japanese proverb: "Greed turns to stupidity as surely as food turns to shit."

[@dogussahin]

Plus if apple is really honest with their environmental concerns, they must respect the right to repair!

[@blugaledoh2669]

Yes Apple's right to repair.

[@StaceyAyodele]

They're greenwashing. They don't care about your rights, only your money.

[@rinner2801]

Apple don't care. They never have and they never will .

[@blugaledoh2669]

@@rinner2801 Yeah I know that why I said APPLE's rights to repair. They want customer to pay apple for repairs.

[@StaceyAyodele]

@@rinner2801 Yep...and the trip, people will STILL BUY IT! So Apple can do whatever. I'll stick with my upgradeable PCs thanks

[@ARamirez150]

Intriguing. You might wanna try booting the Mac Studio into DFU mode. Then, on another Mac, install Apple Configurator so you can reflash the firmware, so the SSD can be properly accessed, much like the same procedure on a 2019 Mac Pro. No guarantees, but it might be worth a shot!

[@sardanus]

it's not possible at the moment, in the future, who knows

[@ARamirez150]

@Gaming York yep! DFU mode’s been on every Mac since the T1!

[@ExperienceCN]

Did it work when he swoped the storage back to the original machine or is it also locked? Or did you mean to make it work with the storage from the second machine?

[@davidchapamusicofficial]

So timely, and informative. Great job! I'm in the market for a new video editing/music production desktop and the Mac Studio has caught my attention, however, it seems Apple has become the very thing the Mac was designed to free us from in 1984. I've been a mac person since 1984, but these closed architecture solutions are beyond my level of tolerance. Too much money for zero upgrade path doesn't sound like a good investment to me.

[@johnroz]

Thank you for performing these trials.

[@alanl3292]

you need to do a DFU restore using Apple Configurator 2.

[@dson32]

This may be a situation like the 2019 Mac Pro SSD upgrade. It requires special steps but it does work. Luke, please look into how the Mac Pro is upgraded and see if you are missing software level steps to enable this.

[@beyond-the-limit]

Great work, a lot of time open and close, trying to upgrade. Keep it up😄

[@MCFoh]

That's a lot of hard work to get to the bottom of answering if the Mac Studio's SSD is upgradable. Thank you! I suspect it will be upgradable at some point in the future via Apple or via some clever 3rd party solutions.

[@EnaBBQ]

You need to try using AppleConfigurator 2 to "resync" the drives. You have to do that with mac Pro 7,1 too

[@lukemiani]

Definitely going to give this a try at some point. However, even so the fact that Apple makes what could be a simple process so difficult is discouraging and meant to drive consumers to paying extremely high prices to upgrade from the factory

[@EnaBBQ]

@@lukemiani yeah its annoying, but if its at least possible it would be less of an issue. Look it up how its done, its kinda like doing a DFU restore on an iPhone. That is probably done to re-setup the drive encryption trust between the m1 and the SSD.

[@Nupagadiesiebensachen]

@@lukemiani its pretty simple… download Apple Configurator 2 to your Host Mac. Connect a usb c cable to the usb c port next to the Ethernet port on the Mac studio. The other end connects to your host. Plug the power cord into the Mac studio while holding down the power button. After 5-10 seconds it should show up in dfu mode on your host. Right klick and restore… hope it helps 👍

[@brayannexon4613]

Sure but on my pc I just clone my old drive into a new one and it boots off the new one what's their justification for not allowing that?

[@Viggemigge]

It is inexcusable. A 15 year old harddrive would launch in a brand new PC, if you wanted it to. Its ridiculous.

[@vojtechvokoun]

Well I think that the Secure Enclave on the chip is restricting it (same as the 2019 Mac Pro, where you had the T2 chip, you also can’t just swap out the drives) for security reasons. People were able to get it working through Apple Configurator 2, try using that after swapping, you basically authorize the new drive and it might work.

[@alanmay7929]

At least on the Mac pro you still have tons of storage upgradability from pcie ssd to hdd….

[@LiLBitsDK]

and how would he use that when it doesn't even boot?

[@Visualization1]

Yes, and I think many people are overlooking that security feature. Because if you can swap from one Mac studio to another, then you have a better change to steal or get that data off that SSD.

[@JeanSamyr]

@@LiLBitsDK you have to use other Mac

[@RashidTak]

@@Visualization1 What security feature?

[@AmirZaimMohdZaini]

When ordering the Mac Studio, any of configuration details will be written onto the firmware which any of consumers can't doing such modifications after receiving the unit. Secondly, the storage inside SSD are encrypted uniquely on each machine, so swapping with one another is not possible. However, there is one thing that you might want to try - cloning the entire SSD storage bit by bit and transfer into 3rd party SSD, see if Apple is trying to locking SSDs only to one particular model instead of using any kind of 3rd party, even the storage had been cloned.

[@arunsp767]

But why? Why are they writing configuration details into firmware or why are they encrypting uniquely to each machine?

[@near_by_gamer7401]

it's to do with the way that the modules interface with the processor and the way that arm architecture works means that the controller is on the m1processor for the SSD making it a little bit more difficult to swap the memory modules because these actually don't have a controller on the actual board itself, meaning that you may actually need a piece of software to reset the controller inside the m1 chip since arm architecture is very tightly integrated with itself this becomes a very difficult subject around right to repair but it's all depending on if Apple allows people to get access to the necessary tools to reset the controller in order for people to be able to change the memory modules, if you actually look at the memory modules themselves you'll notice that they don't actually have a controller unlike an nvme or mSATA SSD usually arm architecture is a very tightly integrated with itself generally controllers and memory modules have to work in tandem and the controller has to have a reference of the addresses available on the NAND chips. I'm in no way defending this product and I support right to repair but having the understanding of how this machine actually works compared to x86 based machines is necessary.

[@jermainemills3690]

I think you miss a step, because with all Macs With A T2 Chip you have to restore the firmware for it to notice new/different storage modules. I know this to be true with the Mac Pro 2019 Models. I think if you did that then we could truly know if they did something more to blocked just being able to replace the drive.

[@wshtb]

In all my previous lives, you just have to commit suicide in order to reincarnate into another family with better fortune. It's really no big deal. If you plan right, the suffering is minimal.

[@andrewgrant788]

I believe that the only T2 Mac with upgradable storage is the 2019 Mac Pro. You do need to connect a separate Mac to pair the storage to the Mac Pro.

[@ThinkNoodle]

@@wshtb I now realise that this is where I’ve been going wrong!

[@obiwan5999]

@@wshtb Yeah, keep relying on others for their fortune rather than know you can make your own, great way to stay broke your entire life.

[@BrandonHuettner]

With the Mac Pro, you have to restore firmware to the T2 chip using Apple Configurator when upgrading the storage modules. Maybe this is or will be a similar process?

[@vikramnair6702]

If all you said it absolute.. you saved a lot of us out there a lot of time and effort and obviously money.. hats off to your efforts man

[@AnthonyOchoaphotography]

I love this guy!!! thanks for standing up for us!!!!!!💪🏻💪🏻

[@boogyman10o1]

I have access to internal documents and Mac Studio repairs have a similar process to replacing a screen on iPhone 12/13. The Mac puts itself in DFU mode to be restored by System Configuration which (by my assumption) flashes the security chip to allow it to boot.

[@abc123fhdi]

I'm sure there will be a way from the aftermarket to flash the boot loader to allow for 3rd party SSD upgrades.

[@qiyuxuan9437]

Kinda pointless, since those are special apple connector, there are no 3rd party ssd that will work.

[@abc123fhdi]

@@qiyuxuan9437 they will start making ssd's that work with that connector like they did for MacBooks that had proprietary connector and you can buy aftermarket SSDs for now.

[@qiyuxuan9437]

@@abc123fhdi Macbook was still using nvme ssd with a modified connectors that is pretty much just like m.2. This new connector seems very different tho, the ssd has no controller on it, only nand, it might use a different protocol unlike the standerd nvme protocol. There might be patent issue for 3rd party to make compatible ssd. Since mac studio is a desktop, adding a thunderbolt ssd dock can easily expand storage without voiding your warranty.

[@lilwayneliu]

This rant is amazing, go Luke!

[@grafxdesigner93]

That's crazy. Great video!

[@aceyriot]

theory: the second ssd slot recognizes a very specific type of ssd, one that only adds additional storage modules and has no independent controllers. as for the inability to recognize the known good ssd, I assume that the configuration of the ssd is tied to the serial, if you can boot into recovery or maybe even just refresh the nvram? I know they still have nvram even if it doesnt work the same as it used to.

[@aceyriot]

you can view the nvram settings in terminal with NVRAM -p

[@waynerm002]

Thanks for going the extra mile to check if the SSD works in the other slot. Let's hope OWC will have an upgrade in the future for this unit. There maybe information on how to do this that isn't published yet. If the SSD went bad, Apple tech must have a way to allow the system to accept a replacement device. I think It's too early for this info to be out but I suspect it eventually will make its way to the public.

[@andreasl597]

Thanks for this investigation. I completely agree with you about repairability and upgradability. Especially on a product as expensive as the studio.

[@ruitaochen7235]

Great video! Thanks for your test and evaluation!

[@michaellatta]

I expect the 2 slots are for 4 or 8TB in raid array. You may need to reformat and boot from an external SSD

[@mikehalloran1341]

Nope. You have to initialize from Configurator on another Mac, then boot and install the OS from Internet Recovery.

[@DJLsbVapes]

Interesting. You may need to boot into recovery menu, disable all safeties and encryption, and only then exchange or add storage.

[@ArielGonzalez1]

It makes sense. Also, that Texas instruments controller might have something to do (in case your point didn't work). one thing do-able may be some kind of re-write or something

[@macbitz]

Yep, there is an engineer's work-around 👍🏼

[@fabiospringer6328]

A decent normal non apple computer will enter bios mode as soon as it can't read an OS.

[@batsonelectronics]

@@fabiospringer6328 Apple shows the Line thru it splash screen, but this is doing something that essentially doesn't allow it to even pass the BIOS stage. Like bad memory on a Win Machine will just show flashes and never show a LCD image. Adding the different SSD is keeping it from passing POST.

[@fabiospringer6328]

@@batsonelectronics wich means apples is locking you out of your own computer because you dared to change it storage. It is not bad memory, it is bad storage wich should not lock you out of bios settings.

[@novidiu]

I had thought of taking a look around before buying this car and luckily I found your video that made me change my mind,. thank you!

[@abbasmusawis]

Hey Luke, I completely agree with you. Waiting for the 2nd part ...

[@LongHornTexas]

My head spins looking at all the tear downs and reassembling you did. That must have been a CRAZY day for you. THANK YOU for doing this for us!!

[@anianii]

Is there a possibility that the SSD you got from the other Mac Studio was still encrypted? In that case it would make sense that the other one can’t do anything with it

[@allenshegog]

that's exactly what apple has done, that's how its done on all iPhones and MacBooks.

[@zaremol2779]

Yes, the SSD is probably FDE'd and decryption keys are stored in the original system's equivalent of a TPM chip so any other machine can't decrypt it, same will happen if you apply Bitlocker on a Windows machine, it will store the decryption key in the TPM of whichever machine you performed the Bitlocker encryption on so the disk won't boot on another one, but at least Bitlocker gives you an opportunity to use a recovery key in case you do swap the disk to another machine.

[@rachelhutchison5961]

@@zaremol2779 The difference, of course, being that a modern PC will boot into the onboard firmware and then let you boot any other attached bootable device, assuming it's signed (if secure boot is enabled) whereas apple needs a paired SSD just to show you the boot menu.

[@zaremol2779]

@@rachelhutchison5961 yes, because Apple chose not to use the ARM implementation of UEFI and instead went with creating their own proprietary firmware much like what every android phone has, even with with their Intel Macs, where they do use UEFI, they took out the configuration menu that you'd usually get and left everything else.

[@glennhamilton5320]

What a Great Video, you touched on a many great points. Thank You so much!

[@thomasyoung1685]

Great video! I agree software locking us from upgrading our systems is pretty sad.

[@dc99yt]

Luke, can you re-authorise the SSD in the Mac Studio from another Mac with Apple Configurator and re-do the same test again? Thanks!

[@zaremol2779]

That's what I was afraid of when Apple introduced ARM64 based full fledged computers, it would give them an even greater excuse to just further lock down their hardware to the same level they've already been doing to their mobile devices.

[@graphicsguild7855]

Thanks for this illuminating vid!

[@RandomKSandom]

11:59 Not to undermine anything else that you said. But I didn't see anything in what you showed to suggest that that slot is non-functional. * I wouldn't be at all surprised of it's only possible to boot from the first slot. * It worked well enough that the device recognised the foreign SSD and locked you out. That aside, I'm with you on evening else. This is the machine that has brought me the closest to actually buying a Mac. And then things like this are an excellent example of why I never will on their current trajectory. We have to get better at repairability.

[@Wordsnwood]

Hopes were raised, hopes were dashed. The first part (trying to add a 2nd ssd) doesn't surprise as much as the second part... (swapping in a functioning mac ssd from a different Studio)

[@i_am_jafo]

Out of curiosity, has anyone checked to see if a MS purchased with maxed out storage has the second slot populated? Or is it still empty. Not sure if this matters but it might offer explanation that this is done on a firmware level from the factory based on what o is purchased.

[@waisinglee1509]

According to Max Tech's latest video on the mini Max, the second slot should be populated.

[@MrEd-qg8td]

@@waisinglee1509 The 2nd slot is populated on the 4TB and 8TB SSD models

[@hannescampidell]

PERFECT i watched many mac studio videos and in them it always looked like it was a super fast machien but with this video i know its i bad machine PERFECT VIDEO!!!

[@minassotirakopoulos3792]

When i have a question about mac's Luke is the place to go get my answers. Great video again

[@ericniyukuri-zw5th]

How ça upgrade ram for mac studio

[@ST-ry7lr]

I know they started down this road with the current Mac Pro. It's upgradable, but Apple let everyone know that you should only use premium priced Apple provided hardware. I think in the end at least some third party parts worked, but there was always the threat that next update from Apple could brick your computer. It is indeed a disgusting practice, and clear dishonesty that Tim Cook had the audacity to promise support for RTR, when he knew they ready to launch new versions of all their products that could not be serviced, let along repaired by a third party.

[@ThinkscapeVideo]

I doubt it’s lack of controller. Second slot probably disabled by firmware, so only Apple can use it to offer higher storage options in the future, or compensate for module shortages (ie ship 2x 2TB modules if 4TB are too expensive or not available)

[@core36]

ye, i think so too, it is disabled in software, but i doubt that it is meant for you to get a storage upgrade in the future to your (by then) old device, but more like for apple to offer increased storage in new machines. there are only so much terrabytes that fit on a physically small ssd like this. this port is future proofing for them to not have to redesign the board in some years from now. i'll just sit here and wait for someone to make a mod chip for the studio, like they did on game consoles to play _unofficial_ discs.

[@alesksander]

@@core36 Still wrong way to do things.

[@monsterpatch9074]

it wont work because those nands are for the 0 bus and you are trying to place them in the 1 bus.

[@0x80O0oOverfl0w]

Pretty sure you're right on the money. Typical Apple efforts to prevent people from installing anything but MacOS on their hardware or installing MacOS on non-Apple hardware.

[@lwicke1972]

Yes it will be...! 😜 And not that Apple also wants to make money with proprietary hardware..

[@asrDogman]

Did you put the original chips back in each original Mac Studio, and did they both boot up? Or are both machines disabled?

[@jasonweinberg932]

Thanks Luke, looking forward to see the inside of the new M2 mini.

[@andyyylin]

Have you tried using Apple Configurator 2 to try to redo the bridgeOS thing?

[@davestateham2237]

Sad to see another useless Device if there is any damage on the SSD there is no way to replace it. The only option do you have is to boot from external Drives but that is not a solution for Device that cost 2K. But as always a Great Video !

[@user-bp8yg3ko1r]

Incredibly well-made video!

[@carbsncaffeine9254]

I love this channel. Great video!

[@MrNorthNJ]

Maybe I missed it. Do they both work with the original SSDs but back into the correct units?

[@JeanSamyr]

If he didn’t said that doing this bricked the Studio, I think if you put back on the original hardware they will work fine.

[@DanTheMan827]

What happens if you remove the SSD entirely? Can you still boot from a thunderbolt drive or will the system be completely dead once the storage module fails?

[@aninterestingcharact]

Yes!I’d like to know too

[@batsonelectronics]

I asked the same question as I want to boot from my 2TB Thunderbolt SSD.

[@philiprobar]

You can’t with an M1 Mini. If the internal drive, which is part of SOC, fails your mini becomes a brick.

[@psoon04286]

@@philiprobar not a smart thing then to opt for the bigger storage as it’s like putting all our eggs in the one basket😟

[@IndioA]

I could have told you before - we already know this from the 2019 macpro - the bootROM is stored on the SSDs and the T2 chip (part) checks if the boardID matches. with a working second computer and the apple configurator should work.

[@IndioA]

so, we knew, only a NAND modul with the same size let you install with configurator2 - and so, no upgrade possible! the size should stored in the M1 silicon : -(

[@ajosafa]

I sympathise with you, as I've never seen you so pissed off before, and full of good reasons to be so. I have owned a variety of mac products so far... right now I use a M1 Macbook Air 13"base model to work on Zoom, and I still have a MBP late 2011 which I have upgraded to 16gb memory, 2 SSDs, 1TB each and even replaced the cheap subwoofer by the speakers found on the former Macbook 12" (that audio replacement took many hours of work and adaptations as well) , but the final result is a much powerful and cleaner sound. Believe me, the old MBP works like a charm for all tasks I do, including video editing. I love your videos and I totally agree that once I've paid for any equipment, I cloud have the right to upgrade it with minimum effort. Cheers man! Keep up with the amazing work you've done on your channel!

[@kamakairade2402]

The HDDs are signed in a manner that enables (non-)repudiation. EG: The police suspect you of a crime, seize your computer, do not find any offending files but want to save face, so they plant some. The manner in which Apple handles its storage prevents this.

[@kamakairade2402]

@@FlappyPoosay After a $35k legal bill... I really can't afford to smoke anything anymore.

[@dlep2004]

11:33 the benefit is that (1) Apple doesn't need to manufacture different motherboard for different storage models, and (2) separate ports for hard-drive means faster read time. Not trying to defend apple's decision here, just laying out their rationale for this choice (my guess). Edit: one more thing, their hard drive is encrypted, so a third party one is probably not allowed. Again, not trying to defend them.

[@voltspc9394]

Just wondering but could some of the drive's logic be on the motherboard and those cards only have NAND flash chips on them. If the drive controller is on the board then I could see it needing to be with its specific drive, and needing a new firmware flashed to the controller for a different drive. Just a wild guess, haven't taken a close look at these at all, but those chips seem very small to be anything greater than 1 TB, which made me wonder all of this

[@thejpkotor]

There is a way to enable other SSDs/storage and change the primary ones, we just aren't aware of it yet. Most likely need to boot into recovery or external drive and issue specific commands.

[@TheAfroman]

Haven’t read through all the comments and I 1000% agree with you. One thing.. T2 Security and the way the drives/content/serial are paired. Did you try turning off T2 security on the machine then swap? Just to see if that helps?

[@archlinuxrussian]

Also, check into Asahi Linux. The development of Asahi has uncovered some background information regarding how macOS boots on these machines (basically, having a "stub" macOS installation which boots a "containerised" macOS you interact with) and how the SSD behaves (including some issues with flushing it making the SSD super slow).

[@nemesis8664]

What an amazing paperweight! It just amazes me!

[@PauloParreira]

Too good to be true. You tried, kudos to you. I was hoping. Still using a 2010 Mac Pro as my main machine.

[@craigslorach]

Thanks for doing this - when I saw the first teardown I thought the exact question you have answered. In my opinion, the baseline SSD at 512GB on the Max machine is way too small and so likely anyone buying that will want to upgrade at some point. My view is that given the physical slot is soldered in, that the necessary driver chips will be on the PCB (if only to give some flexibility for manufacturing options). Perhaps it is too early to just plug and play here and that at some point there will be some software steps as others have suggested. Certainly when I first encountered an M1 Mac Mini and tried to erase and setup the drive it was a major pain. I do live in hope ! Again, thanks for doing this at this stage..

[@Darthwriter]

Question: Don't current Macs use the T2 chip for encryption? Is it possible that changing drives around breaks the encryption. You might have needed to decrypt the drive first (if that's even possible.) I know that's the case if I pull out a BitLocker'ed drive on a Windows machine. It's been especially annoying on new Windows 11 laptops (assuming they have removable drives.) Good luck.

[@TimurTripp2]

Only the more recent Intel Macs have the T2 chip, however the M1 Macs likely have similar logic in them.

[@JakeM218]

@@TimurTripp2 The T2 chip was essentially an apple iPhone chip that works in conjunction with the Intel chip to produce a hybrid system. As well as locking down the drives for security reasons, the T2 chip also helped with encoding and other workflows. I assume as it was already an apple chip, it would be easy to copy those features across and incorporate them into M1.

[@abath3046]

Kudos on you! Very good presentation and I fully agree with you!

[@TalonNismo]

Great video Luke.

[@iosebmatiashvili8890]

This is so sad. Hopefully we can make apple to change their minds and enable customer to upgrade their own mac!

[@YD_.]

It’s not possible due to drive encryption. The drives have different encryption keys, making them unreadable to each other

[@krisjonson9193]

or, just buying macs all together and they will listen. when they lose money

[@YD_.]

@@krisjonson9193 that’s not how that works. Most of their revenue isn’t from personal user sales. It’s from business sales

[@chloefletcher9612]

Another solid video, Luke. Really informative but I commend you for allowing your anger with Apple to show. A lot of youtubers wouldn't dare.

[@sunnyxiong3560]

I just successfully "swapped" a SSD drive between two Mac studios(4TB vs 8TB). I struggled on the same issue but funny thing it turns out that I just need to change the original disk location and then it works out well(both units restore successfully after the swap). In stead of slot A to A swap, try slot A to Slot B swap.

[@JakeM218]

Something curious is how a speedometer works in a car. If you try and swap a speedometer from one car to another, it often will refuse to say how many miles the car has traveled. But if you buy a brand new speedometer and install it, it will work and copy over the mileage from another chip inside the car. It seems the SSD’s are registered to the computers they are in, and are not swappable for security reasons. It will be interesting however if a brand new SSD that’s never been installed in a mac will end up with the same end result.

[@syscruncher]

I like the ability to replace the ssd….those thing don’t last forever, so having the ability to replace a wear part is good. Having the controller integrated into the SOC, isn’t necessarily bad, but not allowing the user to correct the problem without something as simple as a preboot environment or bootable media is shitty.

[@johansugarev]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/ioqpZmVtedahrbs iFixit managed to boot off another machine's ssd if I understand correctly. They have to be the same capacity. This guy doesnt know about Apple Configurator and DFU mode.

[@pluto762]

I'm just curious, if you opt for the 8TB of storage, at the time of purchase, do they actually populate those slots?

[@13StJimmy]

Exactly what I was thinking But I think no one wants to buy the 8TB model to find out 😂

[@dareknaszlaku]

I think it could be as simple as 2nd ssd formatted to Apple friendly format. Using both encrypted bootable discks , both with system could confuse a device.

[@joealexander2325]

The disk is encrypted to the mac ID of the machine. If you made a bootable installer and booted the Mac Studio from there, you can use Disk Utility. It will see the drive but you will have to reformat the drive first before you can install a new Mac OS

[@muddyexport5639]

While I am a user and love the Mac/iOS experience --Good luck with Apple changing their business model. Only massive customer outcry or Congressional Signed Law will ever make this happen. And you are right, the "right to repair" is only receiving lip service from Apple.

[@JohnSmith-pn2vl]

rightfully so, especially in Apple products. the efficiency of this products is off the charts, you cannot even send your device to repair/upgrade in comparison to this method appple is doing. you will waste more money and CO2, far more. Apple is dooing everything correctly. fuck the right to repair movement which has no clue whatsoever about the consequences of their woke BS movement causing the opposite of what they claim.

[@Four1LF]

Remember Apple's response to the Final Cut Pro 7 OUTRAGE -they just put Final Cut Pro 7 back for sale but keep changing their FCP X (or, as it's currently called iMovie Pro) -until the O.S. changed and FCP 7 wouldn't work anymore though tens of thousands still used it. That's when EVERYBODY found out that Apple could care less about their Pro users -not really. Apple didn't blink when they discontinued Aperture, screwing over tens of thousands of professional photographers.

[@ProMoe_]

I appreciate the risk you've taken by disassembling both Mac Studios and I do appreciate your video. But man I wish if you'd just reached this a bit prior? The M1 chip just like the T2 before needs to establish a one time security handshake to set it up for the internal usage.. Have you considered putting the Mac Studio into DFU and restore it? This way 100% it'll merge both SSD in RAID 0 and appear as one.. I'm not defending Apple, Apple do not care a single bit for Right to Repair but I wish if you'd made a quick research before going into this. Thanks again

[@martydmc12]

This is why I think Luke is the best channel for reviewing Apple products. He loves Apple products, but also won't kiss their butt, and will point out their flaws and greed. One of the most truthful and honest Apple channels around.

[@Zarabozo]

In a PC, you would probably have the same problems if the SSDs are configured with secure boot and in RAID configuration when you have two units. My guess is both things are set in the BIOS/firmeware in the Mac: they probably have a type of secure boot enabled, which causes an error on boot if you swap SSDs between computers. And, it probably also expects some kind of RAID setup when more than one SSD is detected. The difference with a PC is that you can simply go into the BIOS and clear secure boot keys and configure hardware controlled RAID yourself - not the case with the Macs. But yes, they may be going even further than that to make it even more difficult for users to upgrade the hardware on their own. After all, they charge you 3 times the cost of components when you configure your Mac in their website (e.g. If you select 4TB for your SSD, it costs 3 times what a 4TB SSD costs for a PC - same with RAM).

[@supralapsarian]

Luke, you’re killing me! 😱 Did you brick both machines in the end, or were you able to get them back up and running with their original SSDs in place? 🤔 Inquiring minds want to know!

[@ademiravdic]

Machines are finr

[@TimurTripp2]

I'm sure they worked fine after he put in the original SSDs.

[@brsi58]

The Intel Mac Pro also doesn’t allow SSD exchanges. It’s permissions related for security as apple suggests. The may be a way to experiment with permissions to fix this

[@alanmay7929]

Lol….. at least the Mac pro offers both pcie and hdd storage upgrade, plus the multiple custom pcie cards possible.

[@markpstapley]

It's got nothing to do with security. That is an excuse plain and simple.

[@flamingkillermc2806]

Apple sells mac pro SSD’s lol

[@user-fx3ou2jh9k]

Bummer, I was going to buy the 2k version if it were upgradable. Thanks for answering that question!

[@msdeltabrisket1]

Definitely not going mac any time soon now. Thanks for video.

[@artort]

I like that you so clearly demand the #RightToRepair here! In times of resource scarcity and climate change is a no go to behave like Apple did here! Keep it up! Thank you very much! With sunny greetings from Germany

[@TyroSean]

I really hope Apple changes course on this, and they push a firmware update. It's completely a dick move, even if it is for 'security' - not many people are going to risk messing with an exposed power supply to steal data or to scam someone

[@tonyburzio4107]

Except for Chinese intelligence agents who get arrested with alarming regularity inside American companies and government research labs.

[@utubekullanicisi]

Copy-pasting another comment so you cna see it: "@Luke Miani its pretty simple… download Apple Configurator 2 to your Host Mac. Connect a usb c cable to the usb c port next to the Ethernet port on the Mac studio. The other end connects to your host. Plug the power cord into the Mac studio while holding down the power button. After 5-10 seconds it should show up in dfu mode on your host. Right klick and restore… hope it helps 👍" And also "That is probably done to re-setup the drive encryption trust between the m1 and the SSD."

[@eulehund99]

@@utubekullanicisi even if it's a copy paste, you normally should not need another Device to update a fricking SSD.

[@DetroitMuscle]

People will steal your WHOLE computer. That's the point. What makes you think a thief is going to open up your mac studio and steal only the hard drive? I swear you people are so stereotypical Apple users that you don't even understand basic IT concepts. Drive are encrypted for physical theft. It doesnt matter if its windows, apple, android, or linux. These "tests" done on this video are flawed and would fail on any machine.

[@My_Old_YT_Account]

@@DetroitMuscle if it was only the encryption, it would still boot then give a ? screen as a hard drive is detected but unusable like any older macs

[@matthewkrenner6657]

I would like to see what the Mac Studio does when you take out its SSD and put it in the second slot and the erased one to the first slot. You may have to populate the first slot in order to get the second working.

[@hugowells3052]

Is it something to do with the speed of the drives? Does a specific ssd have to be matched that board, in order to achieve those speeds?

[@mitchellsmith4601]

Luke, you usually do a great job, but this was just amazing. Thanks for running this test for all of us. I don't know many other creators who would have the skills or courage to try this.

[@supercrazymario404]

Actually having an exposed power supply is good for right to repair because it means components on the PSU can be replaced easily unlike with the power bricks of like the M1 iMac that are glued shut and even though it’s easier to buy a new one, the PSUs for the Mac Studio are much beefier than for M1 machines so having the ability to easily fix things like bad capacitors is really nice as long as you wear insulating gloves or only hold from the edges of the unit.

[@madkills10]

that kind of stuff is too risky for the average joe

[@johns00982]

Great work, thanks!!!

[@bobo-wf1jv]

I have three iMac mid-2011 in near mint condition .. I can change parts in minutes, .. just as with my 2012 MacBook pro. Life is good!

[@IanZelbo]

you absolute mad lad

[@CoteaGeorgeC]

Have you tried restoring it with Apple Configurator?

[@renatoroperto6083]

Great work and video! Agree with you a 100%!

[@Abdullah97484]

I know you said you erased the drives through recovery mode but if you used the local recovery mode that means the recovery partition remains on the SSD. This may be a reason why the machine is panicking as it can see 2 recovery partitions. Try use internet recovery to fully erase the drive and all partitions and it may work. As internet recovery is downloaded onto memory you are able to erase the recovery partition using it.