Is Mac Studio Storage Upgradable?

Standing between the small, affordable Mac mini and the large, expandable Mac Pro, Mac Studio represents the top-tier Mac product in the mid-size desktop computer over the years. It handles even the most demanding tasks with ease, delivers an unprecedented level of performance, and supports an extensive array of connectivity.

However, storage equals money, which indicates you need to pay much more to have a larger storage Mac Studio. In sequence, tons of users are curious if it is workable to upgrade Mac Studio storage personally. Take your time, this post is gonna give you a definite answer and methods to uplevel storage of Mac Studio.

Can I upgrade Mac Studio storage by myself?

No, there is no possible way for you to upgrade Mac Studio's internal SSD storage by yourself. Do you wonder why I so dare to say that? Keep reading!

Apple has rolled out a Mac Studio lineup with configured SSD storage: 512GB and 1TB, internally installed with M1 Max/M1 Ultra of 2022 and M2 Max/M2 Ultra of 2023. Apple configures the RAM of Mac Studio being unified memory soldered firmly and the storage being removable, but it doesn't mean there is a possible way to upgrade it.

First, Apple has built storage controllers directly into each chip, starting with the Apple T2 chip and succeeding in the Apple Silicon chip, but not into the storage module. That determines only the SSD with the same size can be recognized by the bridgeOS while an expandable one cannot. This case has been verified by Luke Miani, a famous and senior geek to Apple products and Mac operating systems, on his channel already.

Furthermore, NAND daughter cards on the Mac Studio have the same configurations as those in the M1 MacBook Pro 14'' and 16'', and they also use the same BGA110 NANDs chips (Ball Grid Array 110 NANDs chips) in iPhone 8 to 14 and all M1 and M2 Mac lineup, which are available on the grey market. It's workable to upgrade NANDs on a T2 Intel-based Mac, M1, or M2 Mac, as well as the soldered BGA chips.

Thus, a PCB (Printed Circuit Board) could be constructed, some BGA NANDs soldered to it (for example, 4x Kioxia KICM229 to create a 2TB NAND daughtercard), and then the BGA NANDs could be programmed using a JCID programmer.

However, since those NANDs are unique to Apple and are integrated with a customized ARM core that is connected to particular lines in the M1 CPU by a PCIe link, no other business (like OWC) could ever sell them.

Additionally, producers such as Kioxia or Hynix are prohibited from selling their BGA 110 Nand output to outside businesses because of exclusivity contracts they hold with Apple.

So it's clear that, up so far, there is no possibility to manually and personally upgrade the internal SSD storage of Mac Studio. Yet hope still stands that you can make the Mac Studio storage bigger without paying Apple. Just follow on!

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Other tactics to make Mac Studio's internal SSD storage bigger

We all know that there is no hope of expanding the Mac Studio's storage by either changing the storage module or swapping the NAND from the proven arguments, yet it is feasible to make memory bigger in the following ways.

Clean junk files

With so many junk files accumulating on your device, it's undoubtedly that the Mac Studio has less space for running and working. Facing this, you'd highly recommended to clean all junk files piling up on Mac Studio.  A default scan is complex and time-wasting, iBoysoft DiskGeeker is suggested here.

Its junk clear function scans the computer thoroughly at a fast and stable speed, after that, you can select the useless files, associated files of uninstalled apps, caches, leftovers, and so on, and then remove them all at once! This action strictly makes the available storage bigger on the Mac Studio, which is worth a shot!

Step 1: Select a volume from the startup disk usually labeled as macOS - Data, macOS, or Macintosh HD, or Macintosh HD - Data.

Step 2: Click "Clean Junk" from the toolbar.

Step 3: Select a folder from the left panel and select the files/folders you want to delete.

Step 4: Click "Clean" and then click "OK". You will fail to clean certain files if you don't have permission to do so.

Attach an external storage

Provided that the way to expand the internal SSD storage of Mac Studio gets nowhere, you can switch to expand its external storage instead. Verified to say that Satechi's product is a nice option as the Mac Studio external storage addition. It packs an M.2 SATA slot on its underside and connects to a Mac Studio through a hardwired USB-C cable, allowing you to add additional storage to a Mac Studio at a cheaper price than paying Apple for the internal upgrade.

Utilize cloud storage

Cloud storage is one nice way to make Studio's storage bigger, and you can pay for the cloud storage and then access files stored on it across platforms as long as you're on the internet. At present, iCloud storage is the most popular cloud server that holds all your files and data securely, you can rest assured and use it as an external storage upgrade. 

Once you find there is more iCloud storage space than you need, go to cancel iCloud+ plan straightforwardly.

Conclusion

This post gives you proven arguments to elucidate it's impossible to upgrade Mac Studio storage after purchasing by easily inserting a bigger SSD or NAND storage, given that is not true of Apple's custom. But you can try the tactics to make the storage of Mac Studio more covered in it.