Report: User Upgrades of Mac Studio SSD Software Blocked

Image via Apple

22 MARCH 2022 - Mac Studio seems to ship with Apple’s usual, technological “Keep Out” sign. A piece from MacRumors says the SSD storage on Apple’s latest desktop is easy to take out, but not easy to replace or upgrade. YouTuber Luke Miani says that is thanks to a software block. According to MacRumors:

Initial teardowns suggested that the Mac Studio's storage could be upgradeable since it is not soldered in place. Each ‌Mac Studio‌ contains two internal SSD slots, and the SSDs themselves can be freely swapped between the connectors.

Miani wondered whether that made upgrading on his own a possibility. So, the piece says:

Miani wiped the SSD of a ‌Mac Studio‌, removed it from the machine, and inserted it into an empty SSD slot in another ‌Mac Studio‌, but the Mac's status light blinked SOS and would not boot.

The piece says the machine sees the SSD. It recognizes it as SSD. And it won’t play. MacRumors says such behavior suggests “that this is a conscious decision by Apple to prevent users from upgrading their storage themselves. On its website,” the piece continues:

…Apple claims that the ‌Mac Studio‌'s SSD storage is “not user accessible” and encourages users to configure the device with enough storage at the point of purchase.

The site figures the lack of solder on the SSDs is to make work easier for authorized repairs, not to accommodate people who want to go under the hood of the thing for which they paid several thousand dollars.