Worried... Should I enable TRIM for a 3rd party SSD?

[mikehalloran]

Mike from what you said in this thread, I'd conclude that Trim doesn't matter that much unless you have a drive that's getting full, and you're in a hurry. So, important for those of us running server farms, but not the rest of us.

Something like that. When I had my 2TB sample drive go down and had to rebuild it, being able to finish it 24 hours earlier was nice.

I remember a lot of claims (not here) that without Trim or similar, the life of the SSD would be much shorter, reaching its limit of read write cycles much sooner. That seems to have gone by the wayside.

I don't see anyone talking about that anymore, either.

Either it was never really an issue or Garbage Collection has gotten a lot better on newer drives which it quite possible. With the SSD reliability problems before 3D NAND, there were a lot of ways to assign blame and a lot of people doing it.

One thing to remember about Apple is that they never shipped a unit with a 2.5" SATA SSD. Ever. The 2012 SATA III blade in the 2012 iMac used a proprietary connector and TRIM was enabled on that. Likewise, TRIM has always been enabled for AHCI or NVMe blades.

[NealF]

Just tried enabling Trim from the Terminal App.
It failed.
Got this message:
Operation failed (error 1).
[Mac-Pro:~] nealfox%

Any ideas?

[mikehalloran]

Your MacOS is 10.10.4 or later

You are booted with full Admin privileges—won't work from a restricted User account.

Copy and paste the following

sudo trimforce enable

Hit the Enter or Return key

Type in your Admin password when prompted and <Enter>

Pay attention to the questions. Some are answered No while others are answered Yes.

[NealF]

Weird.
I followed your instructions, Mike, and still got the error message.
Here's what it said:

cp: /System/Library/Extensions/AppleDataSetManagement.kext/Contents/_CodeSignature/CodeResources: Operation not permitted
cp: /System/Library/Extensions/AppleDataSetManagement.kext/Contents/_CodeSignature/CodeDirectory: Operation not permitted
cp: /System/Library/Extensions/AppleDataSetManagement.kext/Contents/_CodeSignature/CodeSignature: Operation not permitted
cp: /System/Library/Extensions/AppleDataSetManagement.kext/Contents/_CodeSignature/CodeRequirements: Operation not permitted
cp: /System/Library/Extensions/AppleDataSetManagement.kext/Contents/Info.plist: Operation not permitted
cp: /System/Library/Extensions/AppleDataSetManagement.kext/Contents/version.plist: Operation not permitted
.
Operation failed (error 1).
[Mac-Pro:~] nealfox%

[NealF]

Been reading more about the Trim support.
Even though I've been getting that error from the Terminal pgm., I checked my system report and it says YES for trim support.

So it looks like I've got it, despite the errors.

[bayswater]

So it looks like I've got it, despite the errors.

That's a relief. Despite more or less working OK, Mohave seems to be plagued by inexplicable weirdness. Like HAL with episodes of dementia.

[NealF]

Well that at least explains that large black object in my living room.

[mikehalloran]

Well that at least explains that large black object in my living room.

[mikehalloran]

Updating this old thread...

I still have a pair of 2.5" SATA III SSDs sitting in an old OWC TB2 Dock connected to my Studio via the Apple TB2–TB3 adapter. For that reason, this topic still interests me.

There's been a lot of yak, yak, yak. lately that as of Sonoma, the macOS no longer shows the TRIM status on 2.5" SSDs connected over PCIe, Thunderbolt USB4 or eSATA. (these are the only drives where this ever mattered—TRIM was always blocked over Ethernet, Firewire and USB 1.1–3.2). Anyway, this noise is incorrect.

True, System Report in Sonoma no longer shows the drives connected in the TB/USB4 busses. Instead, Storage has its own listing and TRIM is no longer shown.

Screenshot 2024-07-25 at 1.15.44 PM.png (232.2 KiB) Viewed 2783 times

Apparently, no one knows where to look. Clicking on SATA lets you see your drives and their TRIM status.

Screenshot 2024-07-25 at 1.32.46 PM.png (379.35 KiB) Viewed 2783 times

sudo trimforce enable still works in Terminal as it has since Yosemite 10.10.4 and should be run to remove the block from 2.5" SSDs connected via USB4, Thunderbolt, PCIe and eSATA.

TRIM still speeds the preparation of cells to accept new data after a file has been deleted. TRIM is is automatically enabled for NVMe blades other than those connected via Ethernet, Firewire and USB 1.1–3.2.