UPDATE 6/30/2015. As reported by Ars Technica and confirmed by Apple, today’s OS X 10.10.4 update “has added a command line utility that can be used to enable TRIM on third-party SSDs without having to download and install anything. Called trimforce, the utility can be executed from the OS X terminal, and it requires a reboot to start working.”
“TRIM helps SSDs out by telling SSDs which pages can be marked as stale when an operating system deletes files (something the SSD ordinarily would have no way of knowing). It’s by no means a requirement, but it’s helpful and could potentially help the performance of an SSD as it ages.
“The scary warnings about trimforce are likely in place because not every disk implements TRIM in the same way, and older SSDs might behave oddly or in ways that OS X doesn’t expect when told to TRIM pages. If you have a relatively recent SSD, though, there shouldn’t be any problem enabling TRIM via trimforce—especially considering that same SSD in Windows or most current Linux distributions would already be using TRIM.”
BIG NOTE
If you own a 3rd-party SSD (Solid State Drive) unit and are running a version of OS X 10.10.3 or earlier (Yosemite) – you NEED to read this.
If you own an Apple SSD or Fusion drive, this article does NOT apply to you.
THE PROBLEM
Last week, on the Digital Production Buzz, OWC CEO Larry O’Connor discussed a critical problem where computers containing a 3rd-party SSD drive are unable to work properly under Yosemite. And, in some cases, the system won’t boot at all; resulting in a gray startup screen.
The issue revolves around Trim utility software used by the SSD drive.
NOTE: Listen to his complete interview here.
WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT
In order for an SSD system to work properly, the operating system needs to “clean” the unused contents of an SSD drive whenever you add or delete media. Further, the OS needs to know what parts of the SSD are available to store new data.
This process is handled by Trim software. The difficulty is that Apple only supports Trim on its own SSD drives. If you use a 3rd-party drive, you have to use 3rd-party software to get the performance you need from the SSD.
THE DETAILS
“…Support for Trim is based on the operating system and the SSD manufacturer. Microsoft Windows began to natively support the Trim command for SSDs in Windows 7. Apple added Trim support in 10.6.8, however Apple does not natively support Trim on non-Apple SSDs.
“Trim is an operating system-based command for SSDs that is activated when you delete a file on the SSD. When you delete a file from your computer, Trim notifies the SSD that the location of the deleted file no longer contains valid data. Trim then works in conjunction with the SSD’s garbage collection process to move both valid and invalid data from the old block to the new block. Having Trim enabled prevents the invalid data being moved. This in turn frees up space on the SSD and reduces write amplification. Now the “moving company” only needs to focus on moving the current tenants and ignore the vacant homes.”
NOTE: Read OWC’s entire blog here: blog.macsales.com/21641-with-an-owc-ssd-theres-no-need-for-Trim
One of the most popular Trim tools is “Trim Enabler” from Cindori Software. Cindori continues the discussion:
“Every time you delete a file on your computer, the data still stays on the drive in segments called blocks. These blocks are not deleted until you need to use them again to write new data. Due to technical limitations in the NAND Flash design, only whole blocks can be deleted. This means that when you need to write new data, the SSD must perform time-consuming cleaning and maintenance of these blocks before your data is written. With Trim, your blocks can be cleaned instantly when you delete the data, leading to much less operations during the writing process which gives you better speeds and minimizes the wear on the drive.”
Cindori continues:
“In OS X 10.10 (Yosemite), Apple has introduced a new security requirement called kext signing. (A kext is a kernel extension, or a driver, in Mac OS X.)
“Kext signing basically works by checking if all the drivers in the system are unaltered by a third party, or approved by Apple. If they have been modified, Yosemite will no longer load the driver. This is a means of enforcing security, but also a way for Apple to control what hardware that third party developers can release OS X support for.
“Since Trim Enabler works by unlocking the Trim driver for 3rd party SSD’s, this security setting prevents Trim Enabler to enable Trim on Yosemite. To continue to use Trim Enabler and continue to get Trim for your third party SSD, you first need to disable the kext signing security setting.
“It is important to note that the kext-signing setting is global, if you disable it you should be careful to only install system drivers from sources that you trust.”
NOTE: Read their entire FAQ here: www.cindori.org/Trim-enabler-and-yosemite/
THE BAD NEWS
The only workaround is to turn off kext-signing, which, as Cindori describes is similar to “taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut,” because this affects every driver on your system, not just the SSD.
WHAT TO DO
If you have a 3rd-party SSD drive, check with the manufacturer to see if it works on Yosemite. (Assume that it does not.) At this point, you have two options:
Also, let Apple know – via Send Feedback to Apple inside Final Cut Pro, or other Apple applications – that they need to reconsider their policy. Speed is essential to all media creators. Apple needs to find a way to support Trim functions on all SSD drives, not just Apple systems.
SUMMARY
This is a big deal. If you have a 3rd-party SSD, you have the potential to be dead in the water on upgrade. For this reason, please contact the manufacturer of your SSD system – and read the supporting articles – before upgrading to Yosemite. Make sure you KNOW that your drive will work before you have problems.
Remember, Apple-supplied SSDs work fine. The issue is only with 3rd-party SSD drives.
OTHER IMPORTANT LINKS
OWC reports that their SSD drives don’t need Trim. You can read their entire article here:
blog.macsales.com/21641-with-an-owc-ssd-theres-no-need-for-Trim
Read the entire Cindori Software FAQ here: www.cindori.org/Trim-enabler-and-yosemite/
92 Responses to CAUTION! SSD Drives and Yosemite [u]
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Ben Balser says:
November 3, 2014 at 6:31 am
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LarryJ says:
November 3, 2014 at 8:33 am
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Lee Berger says:
November 3, 2014 at 7:07 am
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LarryJ says:
November 3, 2014 at 8:33 am
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Mike D. says:
January 15, 2015 at 9:25 am
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Larry Jordan says:
January 15, 2015 at 12:37 pm
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Carey Dissmore says:
November 3, 2014 at 7:20 am
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LarryJ says:
November 3, 2014 at 8:34 am
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Bob Cole says:
November 3, 2014 at 8:46 am
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LarryJ says:
November 3, 2014 at 8:59 am
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Srini says:
November 16, 2014 at 9:56 am
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February 28, 2015 at 8:21 am
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jack says:
July 14, 2015 at 2:31 am
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Jan says:
November 3, 2014 at 6:37 pm
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November 3, 2014 at 6:41 pm
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Jan says:
November 4, 2014 at 3:35 am
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November 4, 2014 at 9:02 am
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Phil McCready says:
November 4, 2014 at 10:36 am
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Phil McCready says:
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Phil McCready says:
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LarryJ says:
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Newer Comments →My external SSD drives (in their own enclosures) are fine. So does this only apply to internally installed SSD drives?
Ben:
Thanks for the update. Neither blog specifies boot drives only, but I suspect that the problem applies principally to boot drives as that would cause the system to hang during launch.
A key thing to watch is whether speed drops on your SSD over time.
Larry
Hi Larry:
I went to the OWC blog and was relieved to see that OWC Mercury SSD drives do not need trim. Just this past week I replaced the system drive in my 2010 Macbook Pro and it works better than ever. As a side note, I had been having problems with my Macbook Pro running slow; taking too long to startup and load applications. I was seeing a lot of the spinning beach ball. I had plenty of memory, and both CPU’s had plenty of overhead. I looked at the Activity Monitor and discovered a process called mtmd using a great deal of resources. A little research showed that mtmd is MobileTimeMachineDaemon. It a 10.7x process that makes local Time Machine Snapshots on mobile computers. Here is a link to what it does and how to disable it via terminal command. http://pondini.org/TM/30.html. Once disabled the problems went away. Combined with my new SSD it’s like having a new computer.
Best regards,
Lee
Lee:
Thanks for the feedback.
Larry
Just talked with Apple Care Support concerning the OWC SSD DRIVES, end they told me that these are the same drives that the new Mac pros have in them. There is no issues with these drives, and Yosemite takes care of Any issues with trim.
Mike D:
Thanks for the update.
Larry
It is important to understand that the drives generally will still work, but without TRIM support (or a Sandforce controller which takes care of this onboard–in your SSD) you will develop performance issues over time because TRIM will not be maintaining your SSD.
Carey:
An EXCELLENT distinction!
However, there are reports in the field that when Trim Enabler is turned on and Yosemite is installed, the computer will not boot.
This is serious enough to recommend caution and verifying that your drives – and drive software – support Yosemite.
Larry
The performance advantages of TRIM, as measured by Toms Hardware, are relatively small. The main benefit seems to be decreasing wear-and-tear on the SSD. I am not clear as to when that wear-and-tear issue becomes important. Is it a cumulative effect which only matters when you’ve run for months without TRIM, or a daily problem?
Would it be a good idea to run most of the time WITH KEXT, and without TRIM? Then, once a week or month, implement TRIM (which requires disabling KEXT) for a day or so? Would that allow the drive to clean itself adequately, while still giving you the benefit of KEXT for everyday work?
Thanks, Apple!
Bob C
Bob:
This seems to be an reasonable suggestion – BUT! I don’t know enough about how SSDs work, technically, to recommend it.
Perhaps another reader with more technical experience, can contribute.
Larry
If you only wish to “trim” your SSD’s once in a while, then instead of turning trim on and turning KEXT off, there is a much better method.
Reboot your mac and Go into Recovery mode (while rebooting keep the Command + R buttons pressed). Once in recovery, go to Disk Utility. There, click on “Repair Disk”. Although there might be no problems with your disk, the essence is that at the end of the Repair Disk, the Disk Utility runs the trim command on the disk and that should probably do the trick. Check the messages that are displayed on the Disk Utility while you are repairing your SSD drive, you’ll see what I mean.
Let me know how it goes!! 🙂
Srini..
Is this documented anywhere? I don’t find a reference to Repair Disk running Trim.. and if it does, will it do so for non Apple drives?
You can now safely enable Trim on OS X Yosemite and El Capitan!
https://www.cindori.org/safely-enable-trim-on-yosemite-and-el-capitan/
Would like to repost BOB COLES question… I was thinking the same, how about running it without TRIM and turning it on once a month?
Also, is it better to let TRIM enabled or to have the kext enabled? Very confused and angry, damn Apple sh*t. Always getting on my nerves with those extra B.S. updates and unreasonable actions.
Jan:
As I told Bob, I don’t know the answer to whether turning Trim on once a month is a good idea or not.
However, given the two, kext-signing is more important, I think, than Trim – but not enabling Trim means that your SSDs will slow down significantly.
Larry
Thanks Larry,
So I guess downgrading to Mavericks is an option or else live with the idea of having wasted good money on a new SSD that doesn’t do what it should.
What did you do?
Jan:
Downgrading is an option. So it staying in touch with your SSD manufacturer and putting the heat on them to work with Apple to come up with a solution.
Personally, I have not yet upgraded to Yosemite.
Larry
I’ve been using a 240GB Crucial M500 SSD as a boot drive on my mid-2012 MacBook Pro for a few months now without any noticeable problems. I wasn’t aware (until now!) that non-Apple SSDs weren’t TRIM supported but since all my FCPX editing is on external USB3 and Thunderbolt discs I can’t think it would affect my editing. However I contacted Crucial and received this reply:
” ….all our new SSD’s got Garbage Collection as a part of the firmware on the drive and works regardless of which Operating System or file system the computer is using. Garbage Collection can only work when the SSD is idle, so if you install your SSD to a computer that will run without TRIM it’s important that you configure it so that the drive doesn’t go to sleep when it goes idle. Garbage Collection needs to be given time to work, but as long as it has the idle time it needs, the drive will maintain its high performance over time, despite the lack of TRIM.”
This *may* be the case with other manufacturers, so worth checking!
The only other point I’d make is that even a degraded SSD is likely to be quicker than a standard hard drive so the main problem is likely to be wear and tear over an extended period of time (as posted above).
Phil:
Thanks for sharing this information.
Larry
Nice! But what does it mean in a practical way “go idle” and how do you configurate that?
I would guess that’s referring to the Energy Saver in System Preferences and the option to “put hard discs to sleep when possible”. I’ve always unticked that anyway for video editing. But I don’t know when an “idle” state occurs!
@Phil or anyone
Phil, regarding those Thunderbolt HDs, are they SSD? If no, does your editing get faster using the two drives that way?
I edit myself and since I use only my internal SSD, and creating and deleting big files makes the TRIM that much more important,
I am thinking of getting an external drive too.
I read that it is best to have your software (Premiere Pro) on your boot drive and the video files on an external HD, but how would you describe your performance and how do these options compare with pros and cons?
1) Your setup (external SSD or external HDD)
2) Using it as me, everything on internal SSD (no TRIM)
3) External files on USB 3.0 HDD
4) External files on USB 3.0 SDD
Would also like you try to rank those 3 options – best to worst.
Jan,
The Thunderbolt and USB3 external discs I use are usually RAID0 configured dual hard drives which are plenty fast enough for my purposes (and I’ve edited projects with dozens of hours of video files). It is by far best practice to keep your video data on separate discs irrespective of the editing software; it is simply easier to manage and backup. So if my boot/system SSD does develop a problem I don’t lose any video data.
All right,…seems like the best thing to do.
Thanks for the heads up.
Dear Larry,
I haven’t upgraded to OS X Yosemite yet, since I want to make sure the bugs are worked out first, but you cautioned about 3rd party SSD drives in this context. That is a term with which I’m unfamiliar. I’m not aware any of my external drives is an SSD drive (how would I tell that?) and is it advantageous to use them, e.g. for video editing?
Martin:
An SSD drive is much more expensive than a standard hard disk and it holds less data. The BIG benefit is that it is much, MUCH faster than a standard spinning hard disk.
For this reason, you don’t “accidentally” buy an SSD drive – you consciously decide to spend more money to get less storage but faster speed.
As for upgrading, my general feeling is to wait until a “.01” or “.1” release comes out. Upgrading the operating system does not add any new features to either Final Cut or Premiere. So you aren’t missing anything in terms of editing by waiting a bit to upgrade.
Larry