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MacBook Air 13" Early 2017 SSD Upgrade to NVMe

What you need

    • MacBook Air Late 2010 - Working - High Sierra, Catalina, M2 Samsung Evo 860, Adapter

    • MacBook Air 2011 - Unknown

    • MacBook Air 2012 - Unknown

    • MacBook Air 2013 - Unknown

    • MacBook Air 2014 - WD_black 500 + Sintech adapter, running MacOS Big Sur

    • MacBook Air Early 2015 - WORKING- Mojave 10.14.3 to Big Sur 11.0.1- Crucial P1 SSD NVME, Adapter.

    • MacBook Air 2017 - WORKING - High Sierra, Catalina and Big Sur - Samsung Evo 960, Adapter.

    • MacBook Air 2018 and forward - will not work, No removable drive

  1. MacBook Air 13" Early 2017 SSD Upgrade to NVMe, Lower Case: step 2, image 1 of 1
    Tool used on this step:
    P5 Pentalobe Screwdriver Retina MacBook Pro and Air
    $5.99
    Buy
    • Before proceeding, power down your MacBook. Close the display and lay it on a soft surface, top-side down.

    • Use a P5 Pentalobe driver to remove ten screws securing the lower case, of the following lengths:

    • Two 9 mm screws

    • Eight 2.6 mm screws

  2. MacBook Air 13" Early 2017 SSD Upgrade to NVMe: step 3, image 1 of 1
    • Wedge your fingers between the display and the lower case and pull upward to pop the lower case off the Air.

    • Remove the lower case and set it aside.

  3. MacBook Air 13" Early 2017 SSD Upgrade to NVMe, Solid-State Drive: step 4, image 1 of 1
    • Remove the single 2.9 mm T5 Torx screw securing the SSD to the logic board.

  4. MacBook Air 13" Early 2017 SSD Upgrade to NVMe: step 5, image 1 of 2 MacBook Air 13" Early 2017 SSD Upgrade to NVMe: step 5, image 2 of 2
    • Gently lift the end of the SSD about half an inch and pull it straight out of its socket on the logic board.

    • Don't lift the SSD more than half an inch—doing so may damage the SSD or its socket on the logic board.

    • When reinstalling the SSD, be sure it is properly seated before reinstalling its retaining screw.

  5. MacBook Air 13" Early 2017 SSD Upgrade to NVMe, SSD - Alternate option using M.2 NVMe SSD: step 6, image 1 of 2 MacBook Air 13" Early 2017 SSD Upgrade to NVMe, SSD - Alternate option using M.2 NVMe SSD: step 6, image 2 of 2
    • Carefully insert the new SSD into the adapter, using the length of old drive as a reference for when the SSD is fully in the adapter. The lengths should be the same.

    • Insert the SSD and the adapter into the Socket, pushing inward in a straight fashion.

    • When reinstalling the SSD, be sure it is properly seated before reinstalling its retaining screw.

    • NVMe Drives can cause kernel panics due to sleep /hibernation issues. This can be turned off with the following command.

    • From a Terminal, use the following command to disable hibernation: ----"sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0" ---- If you later want to enable hibernation, use: "sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 3"

Conclusion

To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.

37 other people completed this guide.

Dan

Member since: 02/18/19

4,180 Reputation

9 Guides authored

62 Comments

I have a Macbook air 2017 1466this model https://support.apple.com/kb/SP753?local...

macOS Mojave ver 10.14.6. will your manual work?

l.cichon85 - Reply

Yes, this Manual will work for your Device.

Greets - Maik

Maikp735KR -

Thanks!

A little observation: the time estimate for the operation is 5 hours, is an error?

Blacy - Reply

5 hours will include the time needed to install OSX on the new drive. Swapping the drive is extremely fast

Dan -

Hi!.. Does anyone knows if the crucial SSD will work with the Macbook Air 13” 2017?

Thanks!

Francisco Rojas - Reply

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