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

[FMiguelez]

Hello.

My SSD was bought from OWC a few years ago. I just reformatted everything in APFS with Mojave, but I realized TRIM support shows as "no"...

Should I force enable it myself via Terminal with sudo trimforce enable ?

I am under the impression that this SSD had some form of Garbage Control via their own driver and that it was not necessary to enable it in OS. But then I see conflicting info.

So, should I or should I not do it?

Thank you!

[mikehalloran]

Absolutely do so. TRIM is part of the MacOS (and Windows and Linux). All you are doing is enabling it. Run the following in Terminal:

sudo trimforce enable

Enter your Admin password when prompted. Answer Y on N to the various warnings that appear — thes change depending on the OS. When you've jumped through enough hoops, your system will reboot. Done.

TRIM can only be enabled on a System SATA SSD but any others connected via PCIe, SATA, eSATA or Thunderbolt will also have TRIM automatically enabled once you perform this on the System drive.

No SSDs connected via USB will have it enabled — Apple doesn't support that. Even if you were to boot from a SATA SSD connected via USB and ran the Terminal Command and jumped through the hoops, on reboot, you'd find tha TRIM was still disabled.

Interestingly, if booting from an NVMe blade installed on the PCIe bus or Thunderbolt (such as a Samsung X5), TRIM is automatically enabled — even if a non-Apple blade.

[mikehalloran]

A long time ago, OWC spread the misinformation that TRIM wasn't necessary. When it could be enabled easily in OS 10.10.4, it was interesting to read all the walking back they had to do.

TRIM is the OS communicating with the SSD as it tries to ready the cells for new data. Garbage Collection is a utility contained in the drive's firmware and is a lot slower.

If you erase a nearly full 2TB sample drive and try to rewrite to it, without TRIM, it might take over 48 hours before you have access to the full capacity. With TRIM enabled, it might take as little as 24–28 hours.

I was reading that, to do a complete install of Komplete Ultimate Collectors 13, you need at least 78 GB available on your system drive if you plan to install it to an attached drive. This is because Native Access downloads, expands, installs then deletes each library in the process. The reason so much space is required is because TRIM and GC will need time to prepare the SSD to accept new data after deletion. You'll get that 78GB drive space back — in a day or two after the installation is complete.

[FMiguelez]

Thank you for all that info, Mike!

Yes, it was quite frustrating to keep reading old contradictory information with OWC techs.

So followed your instructions, and I successfully enabled Trim for both Mac Minis.



I'm troubleshooting the systems, since, apparently due to Displaylink with Mojave, I'm having some show-stopping crashes with VEP7. The issues come and go sporadically and I haven't been able to figure it out. If the VEP server is on the Displaylink screen, the audio stutters like crazy and is unusable. This is using the slave computers. If I use VEP7 within the master computer, then it simply freezes and crashes. Console is FULL of errors saying something about being unable to find a video pipe or something. According to the internet, this is Displaylink's fault.


Mike, do you know of any other alternative for using a second monitor via USB? This Displaylink crap is just not working, and I REALLY need 2 monitors....

[mikehalloran]

What years are your Minis?

[FMiguelez]

They are 6.2, Intel Core i7, late 2012, both 16 GB RAM with SSD and HD.


Hmmmm... apparently I was unable to sleep well... I just woke up, and there's this thing nagging me now in my mind... If my monitors have HDMI and DVI outputs, isn't there like an adapter from HDMI to thunderbolt that does NOT require Displaylink?

The Minis have this TB (?) port that I've NEVER used... couldn't I use one connected via HDMI and the other one with this fictitious converter?
(I confess I don't even know what TB really is... I stopped following when I got confused about TB/USB3/USBa-b-c-d-e-f... and other similar formats).

I see them for sale for a few bucks, but I don't know if they would work. Could the answer to my problems be really THIS simple? I think I might be overlooking something, otherwise I would (?) have been using that already... I think.

Or is there a better approach?



Right now I must really look exactly like Cedrick in my avatar

[FMiguelez]

I'm reading, and now they have TB 1, 2 and 3?

So this is what system report gives me for the Thunderbolt port>

Vendor Name: Apple Inc.
Device Name: Mac mini

Route String: 0
Firmware Version: 23.4

Port:
Status: No device connected
Link Status: 0x101
Speed: Up to 10 Gb/s x2
Receptacle: 1
Link Controller Firmware Version: 0.12.3

It LOOKS like I have TB1 (judging by the speed).
If so, do you think an HDMI to TB1 adaptor work for me? This would be the cheapest solution ever! They're like 12 bucks...

[CharlzS]

Thunderbolt 1 on the Mac Mini is Mini Display Port compatible, so Mini DP to HDMI should work. On my TB1 2011 Mini I use a mini display port to regular display port cable.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

... I was unable to sleep well... I just woke up, and there's this thing nagging me now in my mind...

Don’t sleep. Just let your drives and monitors sleep. Wait, what?

[leigh]

No SSDs connected via USB will have it enabled — Apple doesn't support that. Even if you were to boot from a SATA SSD connected via USB and ran the Terminal Command and jumped through the hoops, on reboot, you'd find tha TRIM was still disabled.

Interestingly, if booting from an NVMe blade installed on the PCIe bus or Thunderbolt (such as a Samsung X5), TRIM is automatically enabled — even if a non-Apple blade.

I have SSD sample drives connected to my iMac via USB. Will I have problems with them? Does sudo trimforce enable affect these?

**Leigh

[HCMarkus]

No SSDs connected via USB will have it enabled — Apple doesn't support that. Even if you were to boot from a SATA SSD connected via USB and ran the Terminal Command and jumped through the hoops, on reboot, you'd find tha TRIM was still disabled.

Interestingly, if booting from an NVMe blade installed on the PCIe bus or Thunderbolt (such as a Samsung X5), TRIM is automatically enabled — even if a non-Apple blade.

I have SSD sample drives connected to my iMac via USB. Will I have problems with them? Does sudo trimforce enable affect these?

**Leigh

Based on the info Mike provided, the answer is No. That said, if the drives are Sample Drives only, they are being used was Read-Only devices, and the lack of trim should be a non-issue.

[mikehalloran]

have SSD sample drives connected to my iMac via USB. Will I have problems with them? Does sudo trimforce enable affect these?

Already answered but once again: Unfortunately TRIM is not supported over USB any flavor.

Based on the info Mike provided, the answer is No. That said, if the drives are Sample Drives only, they are being used was Read-Only devices, and the lack of trim should be a non-issue

Correct.

The only thing TRIM does is allow an SSD to accept new data after the old has been erased sooner than the drive firmware's Garbage Collection utility.


On a 2012 Mini, run one monitor out the HDMI port and the other out your TB port. You do not need a TB cable — a TB 1/2 port supports MDP (Mini Display Port) which is the actual protocol unless using a Thunderbolt monitor which you aren't.

MDP to HDMI (or DVI or Display Port) cables and adapters are inexpensive. Get one and you'll be good.

[leigh]

The only thing TRIM does is allow an SSD to accept new data after the old has been erased sooner than the drive firmware's Garbage Collection utility.

This was what I was missing. Thank you!

**Leigh

[bayswater]

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.

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

[FMiguelez]

Well, this is much worse than I thought.

Apparently it's not just the Displaylink thing.
Everything suddenly crashes every time. I've spent the full morning trouble-shooting, and reality is hitting me just now... If I don't figure this out today, there's a very good chance I will have to cancel my current gig (unless the director is willing to wait until I solve this, so I can do my job, you know, composing, not in been in all 4s plugging and unplugging devices and endlessly installing installing crap).
This is beyond frustrating.