Trim

[Pasquanel]

A while back I installed a 500 gig SSD in my Mac mini and was delighted at the increase in speed. Many suggested I enable trim on this drive so I tried a third party app without success.
I know Apple computers with SSD's trim is enabled what is the risk with me enabling trim on my SSD?
I write this after already having enabled trim via terminal and all seems well, what say you?

 

[honestone]

This site contains a very good explanation of TRIM, along with whether or not your Mac (with an SSD as the startup drive) has TRIM enabled:

https://computers.tutsplus.com/tutorials/how-to-check-and-enable-trim-on-a-mac-ssd--mac-60738

For my late 2012 Mac Mini (I am making this post on it), I replaced the (slow) internal 5400 rpm 1 TB drive with a (fast) Samsung 840 Pro 256 gig SSD, and thus TRIM was not enabled on that SSD. I subsequently launched Terminal, and entered the command:

sudo trimforce enable

It worked fine (I am using OS 10.13.6). So, according to that site containing the explanation about TRIM, it is definitely advantageous to enable TRIM on an SSD.

 

[indago]

I clicked on the SATA in the menu and got this message:

This computer doesn't contain any ATA devices. If you installed ATA devices, make sure they're connected and powered on.


There is no reference to TRIM.

 

[Lufbrarunner]

I clicked on the SATA in the menu and got this message:

This computer doesn't contain any ATA devices. If you installed ATA devices, make sure they're connected and powered on.


There is no reference to TRIM.

Did you click on ATA or SATA/SATA express?

 

[indago]

Did you click on ATA or SATA/SATA express?

Actually, both. The SATA link message added "Serial" to the "ATA devices".

 

[Lufbrarunner]

I get the same message as you for ATA but get the correct information for SATA.

 

[honestone]

I get the same message as you for ATA but get the correct information for SATA.

Yes, the information is there if you click on "SATA/SATA Express". Here is what that screen says (after clicking on SATA/SATA Express" on my late 2012 Mac Mini:

 

[honestone]

Lufbrarunner,

Did you try that Terminal Command? It worked for me on the Mac Mini. For my mid 2017 13" MacBook Air, being that it already came with an SSD, TRIM was/is enabled.

 

[Pasquanel]

My SSD is an OWC Mercury Extreme so I just checked with them and this is what I found.

https://blog.macsales.com/21641-with-an-owc-ssd-theres-no-need-for-trim​

 

[honestone]

Hmm, here is one of the links about TRIM, High Sierra (especially APFS), and SSDs:

https://cindori.org/apple-file-system-slow-boot-high-sierra/

I wonder if this issue is being addressed in Mojave?

Since I executed that Terminal Command yesterday, my Mac Mini is taking a little longer to boot up. I think I'll go ahead and disable it. I hope I can find out how to do that on my Mac Book Air, as it already had an SSD inside it, and TRIM was (and still is) enabled.

 

[honestone]

OK, I "turned" off TRIM on my Mac Mini, via the Terminal Command:

sudo trimforce disable

It worked, and now the Mac Mini boots faster. However, when I tried the command on my Mac Book Air, it has no effect, ie, TRIM is still enabled.

Oh well, as they say, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".

 

[Allen Davis]

Certainly some interesting information here. I couldn't swear to it, but I believe I read (from an OWC source) that enabling TRIM was not only beneficial, it would potentially lengthen the lifespan of an SSD. Indeed, it was implied that without TRIM enabled that one could expect an SSD to experience a shortened lifespan. I'll dig around my archive when time permits.

 

[honestone]

I did not see anything "special" about TRIM and Samsung 840 Pro and 850 Pro SSDs (I have such models). In my research, most of the articles state that TRIM is beneficial for prolonging the life of SSDs. Yet, I did see where enabling TRIM does cause some slowness with High Sierra (would be fantastic if Mojave makes any improvement on that). In my case, my processing needs are not that intensive, especially on my MacBook Air. I do have TRIM turned off on my Mac Mini (with a Samsung 840 Pro 256 gig SSD), along with having plenty of free space on that SSD (and of course my efforts in keeping my Macs "lean, mean, and clean").

 

[honestone]

Another excellent post! Your "geriatric customer" comments are priceless. I used to feel the exact same way whenever a customer in the Cash Only line would write a check! Same with the person in the "10 items or less" line who would have WAY more than 10 items. And these days such crap still exits, with folks getting to the cashier without preparing the funds to pay for the items. Grocery shopping is not a pleasant task for me, as I just want to get in and out. I know what I want when I go to Safeway, and I always pay in cash. And I already am prepared with my funds WAY before I get to the cashier (or these days I use the Self Checkout line). Sorry about my rant, but your accurate post about such crap gets me going!

If you do see a speed increase with Mojave over Sierra, then I would think I will see one when I upgrade from High Sierra to Mojave. But again, given the stickler I am for having my emergency "kit" functional, I am going to wait until Tech Tool Pro is compatible with Mojave.

As for TRIM, I did mention in that discussion that I definitely notice the "slight" hit with speed booting up my Mac Mini when I have TRIM enabled for the Samsung 840 Pro 256 gig SSD inside the machine. But again, High Sierra is a somewhat of a resource hog. Maybe with (hopefully) the speed increase with Mojave will make a difference regarding TRIM.

 

[Allen Davis]

Another excellent post! Your "geriatric customer" comments are priceless. I used to feel the exact same way whenever a customer in the Cash Only line would write a check! Same with the person in the "10 items or less" line who would have WAY more than 10 items. And these days such crap still exits, with folks getting to the cashier without preparing the funds to pay for the items. Grocery shopping is not a pleasant task for me, as I just want to get in and out. I know what I want when I go to Safeway, and I always pay in cash. And I already am prepared with my funds WAY before I get to the cashier (or these days I use the Self Checkout line). Sorry about my rant, but your accurate post about such crap gets me going!

If you do see a speed increase with Mojave over Sierra, then I would think I will see one when I upgrade from High Sierra to Mojave. But again, given the stickler I am for having my emergency "kit" functional, I am going to wait until Tech Tool Pro is compatible with Mojave.

As for TRIM, I did mention in that discussion that I definitely notice the "slight" hit with speed booting up my Mac Mini when I have TRIM enabled for the Samsung 840 Pro 256 gig SSD inside the machine. But again, High Sierra is a somewhat of a resource hog. Maybe with (hopefully) the speed increase with Mojave will make a difference regarding TRIM.

I rather enjoy grocery shopping and look forward to the weekly trip with my wife. But she's the one who endures the checkout line as I usually excuse myself and go sit in the car. heheheheh.

I'm confident you'll see a noticeable speed increase with Mojave.

I'd like to suggest perhaps setting up an external drive exactly as you have your current system now, only with Mojave installed, and take it for a spin. If you run into any problems, you can always backstep more easily. You wouldn't have to worry any about TTP incompatibilities. That's never been a problem for me since I'm blessed with an abundance of excess 2.5" HDDs (all but one are 7,200 rpm) and a hot-swappable dock.

 

[honestone]

Actually when we go to Costco together, it is, most of the time, fast. It's when I stop by myself at Safeway that I have/had those frustrations!

I know you have an abundance of external drives, but my two external SSDs are just about full. Each of them contain 3 partitions, with 2 of them dedicated for SuperDuper! backups for each of my Macs, and the third for storing miscellaneous "stuff". I still have the (slow) 5400 rpm 1 TB drive to took out of my Mac Mini a while back in an external case (still trying to sell it), but it is slow. I'll wait until TTPro is upgraded. And besides, most likely, V10.14.2 of Mojave will be out by then, resolving some more bugs.

 

[Pasquanel]

The link I posted references OWC SSD's only I never meant to imply this was for everyone.
But seeing as how the manufacturer/seller of my particular SSD advises not enabling Trim I'm good with that.

 

[Allen Davis]

The link I posted references OWC SSD's only I never meant to imply this was for everyone.
But seeing as how the manufacturer/seller of my particular SSD advises not enabling Trim I'm good with that.

I bought my first SSD from OWC about 2-1/2 years ago, and I was advised that enabling TRIM was a good thing. Perhaps I'll poke around on their website and see if they've changed their minds.

The whole issue came up with me about six months after I bought that SSD and was thinking I needed to return it for replacement. Turns out the drive was okay, I was just getting a faulty report from DiskWarrior (which I no longer use nor recommend). That's when I was advised to enable TRIM.

 

[Allen Davis]

Actually when we go to Costco together, it is, most of the time, fast. It's when I stop by myself at Safeway that I have/had those frustrations!

I know you have an abundance of external drives, but my two external SSDs are just about full. Each of them contain 3 partitions, with 2 of them dedicated for SuperDuper! backups for each of my Macs, and the third for storing miscellaneous "stuff". I still have the (slow) 5400 rpm 1 TB drive to took out of my Mac Mini a while back in an external case (still trying to sell it), but it is slow. I'll wait until TTPro is upgraded. And besides, most likely, V10.14.2 of Mojave will be out by then, resolving some more bugs.

My son could use a drive like that as a CCC backup.

I gave him my old 2012 iMac in which I'd installed a 1 TB HDD. He doesn't use the machine for much more than a glorified jukebox and video player in his man cave. I set up his 250 GB HDD from his old Mac as an external backup, and it's almost full.

Since he could use a bigger backup disk, what are you asking for it? Since it's just for a backup, speed isn't an issue.