Previous issues surrounding reporting tools reporting heavy wear on SSDs in Apple Silicon Macs now appear to be fixed in macOS 11.4
Solid State Drives (SSDs) can only be written to so many times before they can become unusable, but it takes many years. A series of reports in February 2021 about the SSDs in M1 Macs, however, appeared to show that their lifespan was considerably reduced.
At the time, an AppleInsider source within Apple, not authorized to speak on behalf the company, told us that it was a data reporting error within the tools used to report SSD wear. According to that source, it was not believed to be an actual hardware issue with the SSD, nor were the SSDs aging notably faster than prior because of RAM swap or other reasons.
Now that same source has told AppleInsider that the issue has been fixed in the latest release of macOS. AppleInsider can also now independently confirm that macOS 11.4 is reporting proper uptime statistics as well, where it was not previously.
Separately, users on Twitter including one of the developers working on the Linux port to Apple Silicon, developer Hector Martin, have now also reported that the issue is resolved.
Update on the macOS SSD thrashing issue: It seems the issue is fixed in 11.4. Feel free to try the betas if you're adventurous, or wait for the final release.
-- Hector Martin (@marcan42) May 23, 2021
It's going to be interesting diffing the XNU kernel source once it drops and seeing what the bug was...
of WWDC 2021 with the comprehensive AppleInsider coverage of the whole week-long event from June 7 through June 11, including details of all the new launches and updates.
Update: The fix was originally implemented in betas of macOS 11.4. It was made available to the public in the macOS 11.4 release.
Stay on top of all Apple news right from your HomePod. Say, "Hey, Siri, play AppleInsider," and you'll get latest AppleInsider Podcast. Or ask your HomePod mini for "AppleInsider Daily" instead and you'll hear a fast update direct from our news team. And, if you're interested in Apple-centric home automation, say "Hey, Siri, play HomeKit Insider," and you'll be listening to our newest specialized podcast in moments.