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 a couple of sacrifices, most notably the beginning storage of simply 256GB. 1 / 4 of a terabyte may sound like so much, 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 rapidly.

Apple does give clients 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 beautiful entry-level providing into a dear one.

However in case you don’t wish to plunk down the additional cash, you possibly can nonetheless increase your Mac’s storage with out paying Apple’s exorbitant costs. The alternate options listed below are largely exterior storage options–in different phrases, you’ll want to hold and plug in an additional system–however the compromise might help you meet your finances.

Exterior SSDs and laborious drives

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An exterior storage system gives the most effective 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 through 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 inner 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 laborious 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 can be sufficiently small to slot in a bag or pocket and are powered by means of 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 help slower information switch charges. Study extra concerning the variations between Thunderbolt and USB.

Macworld has guides to the greatest exterior SSDs and the greatest exterior laborious drives that can assist you discover the most effective system for you.

USB flash drives

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Usually referred to 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 accessible in capacities as excessive as 2TB, however 128GB and 256GB capacities are mostly discovered, typically for lower than $30, corresponding to this Samsung flash drive.

USB flash drives range in worth primarily based on capability and pace. Some have extra options corresponding to a USB-A plug on one finish and a USB-C plug on the opposite, or built-in encryption.

You may go away a USB flash drive plugged in, but when you’re going to continuously learn and write to the drive, you’ll wish to go for a transportable or desktop drive as a substitute. USB flash drives are extra liable to sporting 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 keep up correct well being. Additionally, they have an inclination to make use of lower-quality components to allow them to be low cost and handled as commodities (for instance, the nook close to my house sells USB flash drives).

When you don’t wish to depend on USB flash drives are main storage, they’re helpful for, say, storing pictures or movies from a shoot, file administration if you wish to maintain information for a undertaking 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 may as well use them on the Mac. Solely two Macs (MacBook Professional and Mac Studio) have built-in SDXC Card slots, nonetheless. For each different Mac, you should purchase an SD Card adapter, which is cheap at about $10/£10. You can even discover hubs and Thunderbolt docks with card slots in case you plan to purchase one anyway.

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

In the event you plan to make use of an SDXC card as a technique of transferring information between Macs or different units, contemplate shopping for one other card as a backup. I’ve had cases 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 will be costlier than an exterior SSD drive of the identical capability, as you’re paying a premium for the extraordinarily small dimension.

Community-attached storage

In the event you’re not aware of network-attached storage (NAS), consider it as cloud storage, however particularly to your house. A NAS system connects to your property community, and your Macs, iPhones, iPads, and even Home windows PCs and Android units can entry it each time needed. A NAS system is an efficient method to retailer information that have to be accessed by a number of units or customers, or it may be a means for particular person customers to maneuver information from a tool to liberate house.

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

NAS units vary from ones with fastened laborious drives beginning at 2TB for $150/£150 to drives with a number of detachable laborious drives with capacities over 8TB and different options for a number of a whole lot of {dollars}. Take a look at our picks for the greatest NAS drive for Mac in case you’re .

Cloud storage

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Cloud storage is offered by a service on-line for a price, often a subscription. Apple gives iCloud, which incorporates iCloud Drive together with different companies. Different widespread cloud storage suppliers embrace Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, and Field. Study extra about the most effective cloud storage companies for the Mac.

What’s nice about cloud storage is that it’s accessible by nearly any system that has an web connection. However as a result of your potential 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 continuously, issues like backups, photograph and video storage, and file transfers. Nevertheless it’s an effective way to liberate house in your Mac’s drive.

Additionally, since it’s a must to pay a recurring price, you’ll want to determine how the price advantages you. Many companies 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 inner SSDs which can be put in in slots, which makes them upgradeable however Apple doesn’t formally help upgrades after buy by the corporate, a 3rd celebration, or by do-it-yourselfers. Some small firms have launched SSD improve kits, corresponding to Broaden Mac mini and PolySoft Companies 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 danger of damaging your Mac and this set up may void your guarantee, particularly if there’s apparent proof of your work.

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