Difficulty

Moderate

Steps

7

Time Required

                          5 hours

Sections

5

  • Ensure NVMe Compatibility with MacBook Air SSD Replacement
  • 1 step
  • Lower Case
  • 2 steps
  • Battery Connector
  • 1 step
  • Solid-State Drive
  • 2 steps
  • SSD - Alternate option using M.2 NVMe SSD
  • 1 step

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  • BackMacBook Air 13" Early 2015

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Introduction

What you need

Step 1

              Check Compatibility
  • MacBook Air Late 2010 - Working - High Sierra, Catalina, M2 Samsung Evo 860, Adapter
  • MacBook Air 2011 - Unknown
  • MacBook Air 2012 - Unknown
  • MacBook Air 2013 - Unknown
  • MacBook Air 2014 - WD_black 500 + Sintech adapter, running MacOS Big Sur
  • MacBook Air Early 2015 - WORKING- Mojave 10.14.3 to Big Sur 11.0.1- Crucial P1 SSD NVME, Adapter.
  • MacBook Air 2017 - WORKING - High Sierra, Catalina and Big Sur - Samsung Evo 960, Adapter.
  • MacBook Air 2018 and forward - will not work, No removable drive

MacBook Air Late 2010 - Working - High Sierra, Catalina, M2 Samsung Evo 860, Adapter

MacBook Air 2011 - Unknown

MacBook Air 2012 - Unknown

MacBook Air 2013 - Unknown

MacBook Air 2014 - WD_black 500 + Sintech adapter, running MacOS Big Sur

MacBook Air Early 2015 - WORKING- Mojave 10.14.3 to Big Sur 11.0.1- Crucial P1 SSD NVME, Adapter.

MacBook Air 2017 - WORKING - High Sierra, Catalina and Big Sur - Samsung Evo 960, Adapter.

MacBook Air 2018 and forward - will not work, No removable drive

1024

Step 2

              Lower Case
  • Before proceeding, power down your MacBook. Close the display and lay it on a soft surface, top-side down.
  • Use a P5 Pentalobe driver to remove ten screws securing the lower case, of the following lengths:
  • Two 9 mm screws
  • Eight 2.6 mm screws

Before proceeding, power down your MacBook. Close the display and lay it on a soft surface, top-side down.

Use a P5 Pentalobe driver to remove ten screws securing the lower case, of the following lengths:

Two 9 mm screws

Eight 2.6 mm screws

Step 3

  • Wedge your fingers between the display and the lower case and pull upward to pop the lower case off the Air.
  • Remove the lower case and set it aside.

Wedge your fingers between the display and the lower case and pull upward to pop the lower case off the Air.

Remove the lower case and set it aside.

Step 4

              Battery Connector
  • To ensure that everything is de-energized and won’t turn on while you’re working, it is recommended that you disconnect the battery.
  • Grab the clear plastic pull tab attached to the battery connector and pull it parallel to the board toward the front edge of the Air.
  • Do not lift upward on the connector as you disconnect it or you risk damage to the connector socket.

To ensure that everything is de-energized and won’t turn on while you’re working, it is recommended that you disconnect the battery.

Grab the clear plastic pull tab attached to the battery connector and pull it parallel to the board toward the front edge of the Air.

Do not lift upward on the connector as you disconnect it or you risk damage to the connector socket.

Step 5

              Solid-State Drive
  • Remove the single 2.9 mm T5 Torx screw securing the SSD to the logic board.

Remove the single 2.9 mm T5 Torx screw securing the SSD to the logic board.

Step 6

  • Gently lift the end of the SSD about half an inch and pull it straight out of its socket on the logic board.
  • Don’t lift the SSD more than half an inch—doing so may damage the SSD or its socket on the logic board.
  • When reinstalling the SSD, be sure it is properly seated before reinstalling its retaining screw.

Gently lift the end of the SSD about half an inch and pull it straight out of its socket on the logic board.

Don’t lift the SSD more than half an inch—doing so may damage the SSD or its socket on the logic board.

When reinstalling the SSD, be sure it is properly seated before reinstalling its retaining screw.

Step 7

              SSD - Alternate option using M.2 NVMe SSD
  • Carefully insert the new SSD into the adapter, using the length of old drive as a reference for when the SSD is fully in the adapter. The lengths should be the same.
  • Insert the SSD and the adapter into the Socket, pushing inward in a straight fashion.
  • When reinstalling the SSD, be sure it is properly seated before reinstalling its retaining screw.
  • NVMe Drives can cause kernel panics due to sleep /hibernation issues. This can be turned off with the following command.
  • From a Terminal, use the following command to disable hibernation: —-“sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0” —- If you later want to enable hibernation, use: “sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 3”

Carefully insert the new SSD into the adapter, using the length of old drive as a reference for when the SSD is fully in the adapter. The lengths should be the same.

Insert the SSD and the adapter into the Socket, pushing inward in a straight fashion.

NVMe Drives can cause kernel panics due to sleep /hibernation issues. This can be turned off with the following command.

From a Terminal, use the following command to disable hibernation: —-“sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0” —- If you later want to enable hibernation, use: “sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 3”

To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.

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                    Dan

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Dimitris Nikolopoulos - Oct 30, 2019

Reply

Please advise ! I installed the Crucial P1 ssd with the adapter, i booted with the option/alt key and the ssd is not present, only the bootable usb ! On a MacBook Air early 2015

Olivier Fluri - Nov 12, 2019

The disk will not be seen by the Disk Utility. But if you boot from a USB disk (option_r during boot) and start the Disk Utility program you’ll be able to see the new unformatted disk. Erase the drive. Then you can restore from a Time Machine backup or restart without the USB….This worked for me.

Derrick Boateng - Jan 14, 2020

I also have the same problem, do i need latest operating system to detect these new drives?

Daniel Cassel - Feb 21, 2020

Reply

Why does the guide recommend 5 hours?

After reading, I think this should take 30-45 minutes or possibly a bit less. Maybe I overlooked a step, or something in particular takes extra long? I’m interested to hear how this went for others who have tried.

excellent write up tho, I didn’t know there were NVME adapters available for these, awesome!

Dan - Feb 22, 2020

The hardware only takes about a half hour, the installing the OS is what takes the time! To speed it up setup an external OS installer drive the faster the drive & interface the faster the install! A thunderbolt RAID’ed SSD is about as fast as you can get it takes just about an hour with it.