To TRIM or not to TRIM
August 16, 2015 10:35 AM Subscribe
I've got a Mid-2013 MacBook Air (Intel Core i7; 1.7 GHz) with a 500 GB Apple SSD (SM0512F). I stay current on OSes. Should I engage Trim (e.g. via Trim Enabler)? If so, what do I need to know?
Actually, you don't need a third party tool anymore (as of 10.10.4/10.11). Simply fire up Terminal (backup first, of course, just in case!) and type:
sudo trimforce enable
After you answer the prompts and it says it's enabling, in my experience there's a short delay (around twenty seconds or so), so don't be concerned. It'll then trigger a reboot, after which it'll be enabled.
There are lots of conflicting stories around TRIM. I'd lean towards putting it on, simply because Apple does on Macs that ship with SSDs, plus the online consensus advocates it too. But it's more about long term longevity, and except in edge cases, most people would replace their computers long before the read/write limits of their SSDs are approached. Obviously this only applies to the higher end makes of SSD (Samsung or SanDisk, for example), so an older drive with a less intelligent controller and poor garbage collection may benefit from it more.
posted by jaffacakerhubarb at 11:27 AM on August 16, 2015
sudo trimforce enable
After you answer the prompts and it says it's enabling, in my experience there's a short delay (around twenty seconds or so), so don't be concerned. It'll then trigger a reboot, after which it'll be enabled.
There are lots of conflicting stories around TRIM. I'd lean towards putting it on, simply because Apple does on Macs that ship with SSDs, plus the online consensus advocates it too. But it's more about long term longevity, and except in edge cases, most people would replace their computers long before the read/write limits of their SSDs are approached. Obviously this only applies to the higher end makes of SSD (Samsung or SanDisk, for example), so an older drive with a less intelligent controller and poor garbage collection may benefit from it more.
posted by jaffacakerhubarb at 11:27 AM on August 16, 2015
You've answered your question.
For anyone else that happens along, I wouldn't force enable TRIM on a Mac (Apple automatically does it for their own disks, but that's a special case). There's not a huge amount of risk, but data integrity is more important than speed, and TRIM can cause your disk to corrupt data. Will it? I didn't have any problems myself, but even high end manufacturers like Samsung are reputed to have problems with their most recent drives (like the 850 EVO). Apple uses Samsung SSDs, but purportedly uses their own very extensively modified firmware. And in any case, the price of SSDs is plummeting right now- if it turns out to matter, you'll be able to buy a replacement drive for less money.
posted by wotsac at 11:42 AM on August 16, 2015
For anyone else that happens along, I wouldn't force enable TRIM on a Mac (Apple automatically does it for their own disks, but that's a special case). There's not a huge amount of risk, but data integrity is more important than speed, and TRIM can cause your disk to corrupt data. Will it? I didn't have any problems myself, but even high end manufacturers like Samsung are reputed to have problems with their most recent drives (like the 850 EVO). Apple uses Samsung SSDs, but purportedly uses their own very extensively modified firmware. And in any case, the price of SSDs is plummeting right now- if it turns out to matter, you'll be able to buy a replacement drive for less money.
posted by wotsac at 11:42 AM on August 16, 2015
I don't know which episodes specifically, but Marco Arment & others have talked about this in ridiculous amounts of depth recently on their podcast Accidental Tech Podcast. Their conclusion -- because of the risk (albeit minimal) don't enable it until you need it for any non-apple drive. When your non-apple drive gets full to the point where Trim becomes beneficial, that's when you can weigh the risk -- but make a backup first!!
posted by cgg at 11:48 AM on August 16, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by cgg at 11:48 AM on August 16, 2015 [2 favorites]
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The only issue is for non-Apple SSDs in a Mac, which require an app like Trim Enabler.
posted by Quisp Lover at 10:41 AM on August 16, 2015 [2 favorites]