6 methods to spice up your Mac’s storage with out paying Apple’s insane improve costs

Apple gives fairly good costs on the usual configurations of its Macs. $599 for a M4 Mac mini? $999 for a brand new M4 MacBook Air? $1,299 for a brand new M4 iMac? These are attractively priced. However these costs contain just a few sacrifices, most notably the beginning storage of simply 256GB. 1 / 4 of a terabyte would possibly sound like loads, however a lot of what we do on the Mac includes giant information–high-resolution photos, movies, video games (actually the largest offender), and much more. 256GB runs out shortly.

Apple does give prospects the choice to improve storage on the level of buy, after all, however their costs are steep. Upgrading from 256GB to 512GB (the minimal quantity we advocate) is an additional $200/£200, and leaping to a terabyte is one other $200, turning a sexy entry-level providing into an expensive one.

However should you don’t wish to plunk down the additional cash, you possibly can nonetheless broaden your Mac’s storage with out paying Apple’s exorbitant costs. The alternate options listed here are principally exterior storage options–in different phrases, you’ll want to hold and plug in an additional gadget–however the compromise will help you meet your price range.

Exterior SSDs and arduous drives

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An exterior storage gadget gives one of the best mixture of worth and capability. For instance, you will get a 1TB LaCie Cell Drive for about $80/£56 on Amazon that connects to your Mac by way of USB-C. LaCie sells that very same drive with 5TB of storage for lower than $170/£115–nonetheless decrease than the improve to 512GB of inside storage on a Mac.

With exterior drives, you possibly can go for a tough drive or a solid-state drive (SSD). SSDs (that are used internally on the Mac) are sooner and higher-priced than arduous drives. You can even select between desktop drives which have a bigger design and require you to plug it into an influence outlet, or moveable drives which might be sufficiently small to slot in a bag or pocket and are powered via the Mac’s Thunderbolt or USB port.

Exterior drives use both USB-C or Thunderbolt to hook up with the Mac. Thunderbolt drives are costlier however sooner, whereas cheaper USB-C-only drives typically assist slower information switch charges. Study extra in regards to the variations between Thunderbolt and USB.

Macworld has guides to the greatest exterior SSDs and the greatest exterior arduous drives that can assist you discover one of the best gadget for you.

USB flash drives

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Usually known as “thumb drives” or “reminiscence sticks,” a USB flash drive is actually a stick of flash reminiscence that plugs right into a USB port. They’re small and straightforward to stash in a bag or pocket. They’re obtainable in capacities as excessive as 2TB, however 128GB and 256GB capacities are mostly discovered, typically for lower than $30, reminiscent of this Samsung flash drive.

USB flash drives range in worth based mostly on capability and pace. Some have further options reminiscent of a USB-A plug on one finish and a USB-C plug on the opposite, or built-in encryption.

You’ll be able to depart a USB flash drive plugged in, but when you will steadily learn and write to the drive, you’ll wish to go for a conveyable or desktop drive as an alternative. USB flash drives are extra liable to carrying out than a full-fledged drive as a result of flash reminiscence has restricted sturdiness and USB flash drives don’t have the measures in place to take care of correct well being. Additionally, they have an inclination to make use of lower-quality elements to allow them to be low cost and handled as commodities (for instance, the nook close to my residence sells USB flash drives).

Whilst you don’t wish to depend on USB flash drives are main storage, they’re useful for, say, storing photographs or movies from a shoot, file administration once you wish to maintain information for a mission separate from every part else, backups, and extra.

SD playing cards

SDXC playing cards are reminiscence playing cards typically utilized in cameras and different moveable units, however you can even use them on the Mac. Solely two Macs (MacBook Professional and Mac Studio) have built-in SDXC Card slots, nevertheless. For each different Mac, it’s essential to purchase an SD Card adapter, which is cheap at about $10/£10. You can even discover hubs and Thunderbolt docks with card slots should you plan to purchase one anyway.

SDXC playing cards are good for makes use of much like USB flash drives: file transfers, particularly storing information for initiatives, backups, and extra. They’ve comparable points concerning the reminiscence chips carrying out; they’re extra dependable as a result of they use higher-quality reminiscence, however they aren’t best as a drive that’s all the time related, and you might be steadily studying and writing information to.

Should you plan to make use of an SDXC card as a way of transferring information between Macs or different units, think about shopping for one other card as a backup. I’ve had situations the place the metallic contacts for the cardboard get worn out or broken from frequent insertions into units. These playing cards did have a number of years of mileage on them however perceive that they’re delicate relative to different storage units talked about right here.

Playing cards can be found in capacities between 32GB and 2TB and can be found at completely different speeds. The upper capability/sooner playing cards could be costlier than an exterior SSD drive of the identical capability, as you’re paying a premium for the extraordinarily small measurement.

Community-attached storage

Should you’re not aware of network-attached storage (NAS), consider it as cloud storage, however particularly on your residence. A NAS gadget connects to your house community, and your Macs, iPhones, iPads, and even Home windows PCs and Android units can entry it every time needed. A NAS gadget is an efficient method to retailer information that should be accessed by a number of units or customers, or it may be a approach for particular person customers to maneuver information from a tool to unencumber house.

As a result of the NAS gadget connects to a community, the setup isn’t so simple as plug-and-play, but it surely’s not too troublesome. As soon as it’s up and operating, you possibly can entry it both via the Community menu within the Finder, or via an app, browser, or each. Some NAS units can present entry once you’re away from residence, however this may occasionally require utilizing a paid service from the gadget’s firm.

NAS units vary from ones with fastened arduous drives beginning at 2TB for $150/£150 to drives with a number of detachable arduous drives with capacities over 8TB and different options for a number of lots of of {dollars}. Try our picks for the greatest NAS drive for Mac should you’re .

Cloud storage

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Cloud storage is supplied by a service on-line for a charge, normally a subscription. Apple gives iCloud, which incorporates iCloud Drive together with different providers. Different fashionable cloud storage suppliers embrace Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, and Field. Study extra about one of the best cloud storage providers for the Mac.

What’s nice about cloud storage is that it’s accessible by nearly any gadget that has an web connection. However as a result of your capability to entry it’s reliant on the web, cloud storage shouldn’t be used as main storage. It’s good for storing information you wish to entry however not ones you utilize steadily, issues like backups, photograph and video storage, and file transfers. Nevertheless it’s an effective way to unencumber house in your Mac’s drive.

Additionally, since it’s important to pay a recurring charge, you’ll want to determine how the associated fee advantages you. Many providers have a free tier with a small allocation of storage; for instance, iCloud Drive gives 5GB free. That limits what you are able to do.

Mac mini and Mac Studio SSD upgrades

The M4 Mac mini and the Mac Studio have inside SSDs which might be put in in slots, which makes them upgradeable however Apple doesn’t formally assist upgrades after buy by the corporate, a 3rd celebration, or by do-it-yourselfers. Some small firms have launched SSD improve kits, reminiscent of Broaden Mac mini and PolySoft Providers with video directions on their web sites.

The installations for these kits aren’t trivial but when your mechanical aptitude is restricted, you need to be capable of do that. There’s a threat of damaging your Mac and this set up might void your guarantee, particularly if there may be apparent proof of your work.

If in case you have an M2 Mac mini there are different methods to improve its reminiscence. Study extra.