@ it would be the same thing if your internal hard drive died. Make sure it’s backed up and at least if the external drive died, you aren’t booting from it so you could change back to using the internal hard drive. One easy way is to have a secondary admin account that has nothing on it but is still using the internal drive so you can easily make a quick change to your main account. The other would be since you aren’t booting from the external drive, to try and login to your main account and see if it will let you switch without having to do it from the secondary account.
Seems logical but in all actuality, I could care two craps less about Apple Pay/intelligence 🤣 been externally booting lately to run older music software and the r/w speeds were faster than my old laptops internal speeds 😂 am I missing something here? I must be breaking something please elaborate if I am
one youtuber also mentioned to set up a secondary admin on the internal drive in case of catastrophic failure of the external drive. This gives you an opportunity to still access those internal only files to recover from
@@bnehus11 Mac Sound Solutions has a couple of recent vids on how to set up external storage for your Home folder, etc. I think it was him who was referenced.
I think this video is more to do with moving the home folder location to an external drive rather tan using the external drive as the main (read that is startup) disk. i think this is what is confusing commenters.
Yes, this is how I understand this video, too: Just move the Home folder to the cheaper but faster external Storage (most probably a faster SSD than the internal by Apple with a chosen external enclosure which is bus-powered!) and leave the macOS, the Apple software apps and caches etc. on the internal SSD permanently soldered to the mainboard by Apple. Do not boot from external! Thanks for your comment!
@@paulhorn24 Sorry, I just wanted to clarify, are you saying that moving the home folder to the external SSD will make it the default "storage" when installing software or apps (including app folders)
@@88polyphia no, that’s not how I understand this strategy. Moving the Home folder only deals with the folders „documents“, „downloads“, „photos“, „videos“. As far as I understand are folders like „applications“ not user-specific but are located inside the general library folder. What a user thinks he sees is often just a symlink inside the macOS. For example that what appears to be an application in the applications folder is indeed a folder itself containing all the files needed to run that said application. But this is hidden to the user and he sees only the application icon. This is just an example to my argument, that there is a lot more going on what the typical user never sees and notices.
@@paulhorn24 thanks! But is it possible that whenever you install software or app, default storage that will be consumed will be under the storage of an external SSD?
Thanks Geoff, this is useful. I scrolled down and somebody already asked what follows. As I understand it. Set up the Mac Mini as normal (account etc). Then, once the external drive is set up as the main drive, install all apps on this drive. I can work out iCloud later. Although I am not a great fan of iCloud. Have great day all 🙂
If you do a new setup like this, can you restore your old machine data from a time machine backup and will it then put your old home folder on the SSD?
I bought the Mac mini pro….an enclosure for 4 TB card….all to be set up before I check in…..BUT HOW do I then migrate all my iMac materials to the new Mac mini and enclosure ?
Good one. Booting from external drove breaks AI. Tip I saw in another vieo: create a second user with admin rights without changing the documents location. So you can boot in cases anything goes wrong with your external drive.
Hi Geoff, I have an iMac which is running from an external drive (I also have another external with the Time Machine back up), just bought the new Mac Mini M4 and an external SSD with enclosure (Which I want to be my main drive). What are the steps that you would recommend in this case? Thank you in advance! Great video btw 👍🏻
Mac programs are small. I have a ton installed and I'm only using 80 gigs. Just save all files to the external and keep your programs on the internal. This ends up being a hassle in the long run.
Really depends on the program, the ones we use as video editors with all the plugins and etc are not in the end. Depends on the person, there isn’t one blanket answer
I just purchased the M4 pro mac mini, then came across the videos about moving the home folder over to SSD. I thank you for your assessment on which external drive to use but i have a few questions. Is it the fact that the "enclosure" is Thunderbolt 4 that gives the drive its speed or is it the NVMe chip that has to be that fast? What would be recommended chips that have a 2 or more TB storage? Do you get the products from amazon or OWC website? Now the kicker, under the guide rom apple support, I already did a data transfer from my mbp to the m4-pro internal hard drive. This procedure transferred the whole identity of the laptop into the M4- now the hard drive has the name of my laptop and all its glory. Obviously one would like to be able to determine which computer i am using by looking at the name, (and i know that if the laptop is not connected to my monitor, its the desktop im seeing, but I don't want them to have the same name) so what do you do to avoid this when transferring data? Would you also recommend to just reformat and reinstall the OS on the M4-Pro back to default (how?) , then set up the new larger external ssd drive, then transfer data? So much info its confusing. TIA for instructions
Thanks for the video. Very helpful. Once I have the mini set up with the external SSD, how do I bring overall my stuff from my MacBook Pro. I suspect for my user folder I can just copy it. But what about the stuff, like applications, that won't go on the SSD. Do I have to reinstall everything? thx
Great video! How about if I am moving from an iMac 2017 to a new Mac mini 1TB. And I have a new 2TB external SDD drive for my new Mac mini, but my computer information it’s in my old external hard drive that I connect using Time Machine. What my best way to do this, transferring what I have in my actual iMac 2017 to my Mac mini.
I have the same 2017 imac, and have the same issue. I have Superduper and Time Machine Backups ready. And I have thought about just copying data only to a second external drive, and transfer that to the external of the mac mini. But I see issues. I'm still waiting till someone like you who tries a few things to report back on how your transfer went!
I bought the OWC you recommended . I have theM4Pro. I already loading every thing on the Mac Mini in fact I loaded it from my old iMac. I then connected my external Time Machine backups to the new Mac mini? Does having the Time Machine backs ups of any value in getting the SSD set up? Thx
Does this method allow me to install daw to SSD, LIKE PRO TOOLS, FL STUDIO? Does it allow me to install VSTI like PianoVerse, Addictive Drums 2, keyscape on the External drive like it would on the main drive? Mixing Plugins such as Waves Audio? I am a windows person thinking of coming to Mac but the memory upgrade is not friendly, so i really want to know if the external drive can become the C drive, this is what PC call main drive?
If I already completed the initial setup & my Os is around 18G, Photos & Podcast about 6G. If I want to make the External SSD the home folder, would I have to delete or manually move Photos & Podcasts over to the External?
Thanks for this great video, I have installed my apps on Mac Mini internal storage. I would uninstall them, what do i need to do next to ensure that they download to the external storage. You mentioned that you had to go through a process of changing the disk drive links?
@ReachFilms, thank you for this quick and to the point tip. Could you please explain what the process is like if I already have a Mac and want to use this method?
@@DearWokeChristian if you want to do this and already have a Mac you can either do it and leave everything on your drive, or start uninstalling apps and data so free up space before you do the change of home location
Fantastic informative video. Quick question, do you need to use specialized Thunder Bolt 4 cables when making the physical connection from the Mac M4 to an external HD, or will a regular USB-C cable do the job? Thanks'
Hello all. If you can offer your thoughts. Is the owe external hard drive the way to go or wait till Satechi - Stand & Hub For Mac Mini With NVMe SSD Enclosure comes out? Thank you for your time and knowledge
Slightly confused. You speak about applications, which as far as I know, do not live in the home folder. So when you discuss having to uninstall and reinstall Davinci Resolve after making that configuration change, the location of the DR install is still the same... am I missing something here? Or is the issue/need to reinstall related to the home folder's Library directory that breaks...?
Need to know if using your method, does Dropbox work using the external SSD? A year or so ago I understand that you are not able to install the Dropbox folder in an external drive which was a big bummer
if we set home directory to ext ssd, it will just continue our future install app to ext ssd right? the app in internal ssd will work as they should... please elaborate..
If you choose the external you will no longer see any of the apps on the internal even if they are still installed on there. If you switch back to the internal drive though and everything is still installed they will all show up again
Looking for a SSD enclosure with support for 2 M.2 SSDs so that i can setup one as my Mac external drive and another as my windows OS drive (for VM Ware). Any recommendations?
I haven’t tested the 512gb but from what I understand it is faster than the base model, it may be the same speed of the owc or slightly faster but in the ball park
what about the programs that are already on the m4.. gargae band, books, imovie etc. iphotos -- how d u move them over and save to external drive as well..
@reachfilms Hey Geoff great video. I’m from uk and when I look at the owc on amazon it comes only with 1tb which is still on the low side. I have found a yottamaster as an alternative but it’s just an enclosure that support tb4 @40gbps. I would pair it up with a 2tb nvme m.2 that together would come to a similar price to the owc. The yottamaster enclosure is a bigger enclosure than others I have seen so like the owc, it is built for heat dissipation, but I am still curious to know why you only mention the owc. What specific characteristics should I consider to emulate the owc for using this as my home drive. I like the yottamaster option but am concerned about making the wrong choice so I would value your opinion, thanks. Ps: I’m not a content creator, I am a developer so I’m not bothered by having to move large media files around
The specific characteristics are the way the enclosure is designed, it’s one big heat sink and it’s why it’s bigger than all the competitors but it handles thermals way better than any other enclosure out there
@ ok but on amazon uk, I can’t get the owc enclosure just by itself, and 1tb is too small. The yottamaster is big but it doesn’t have the fins of the owc, but I hope that’s it size does emulate the heat dissipation characteristics. I was previously considering getting a dock/stand with a built in m.2 enclosure but when you mentioned the importance of heat dissipation I decided that stand is not a viable option; I think the yottamaster is my best option, but still not very confident in that decision
This is my first Mac. I followed your instructions and also bought the OWC to use a Samsung 980 Pro with. After restarting my mini, I can no longer log in to my apple account. It keeps telling me [You are unable to log in to the user account "xxxxxx" at this time. Logging in to the account failed because an error occurred.]
i‘ve ordered two of these (TEAMGROUP MP44L 2TB SLC Cache NVMe 1.4 PCIe Gen 4x4 M.2 2280 Laptop&Desktop SSD (R/W Speed up to 4,800/4,400MB/s) TM8FPK002T0C101 ), but i’m not sure how to pick an enclosure. are two singles or a dual enclosure better? using with the new mac mini m4, for plex.
Thank you for the video; it's very helpful. When using the Samsung External SSD as my main drive, is it necessary to connect it to the usb c thunderbolt port on the back of the Mac Mini or can I connect it to a dongle since my other ports on the back of the mini are already used to connect other gear, e.g., mic, camera, etc.?
@ I would really only recommend the owc drive i show in this video as it has speeds. faster than the internal drive and close to more expensive internal drives
@@ReachFilms thanks for your input!...like you recommended in another video, i'll setting up a secondary user account that's not linked to the external ssd....so i can use it mobile with small storage and at home as a desktop
It's interesting, I have the new M4 Mac mini and I absolutely love it but wow, is it buggy AF! I get the beach balls constantly and I had to switch back to my PC just to get some editing on Davinci done.Going to perform a factory reset and then try this change so I can ensure I get the most life out of my internal SSD.
Interesting, I wonder what’s going on? I’ve edited about 8 videos so far on the mini with no issues. I’m going to come out with a video next week detailing my workflow as I think it will help a lot of users
Another UA-camr who was trying to do this as well, ran into the problem that Apple intelligent doesn't work anymore and other applications too. He got an notification about it. So he said you have to copy the home folder onto the external drive and keep the OS on the main drive to prevent it from happening. Wondered if you’ve ran into this issue aswell.
I wasn’t able to move the OS to the external drive and honestly that’s a good thing. At this point I’ll have over 200gb free at all times, so I’m happy to let it run on the internal drive
@@carloscruzmusiq835 it’s all good!! I think if someone somehow tries to force the computer to install the OS. They should be warned, seems Apple doesn’t make it easy to do that and now I understand why :)
Thank you Geoff, great video. I’ve run into a difficulty trying to use an external SSD as my home drive. On restarting, I get the message “You are unable to log in to the user account ”xxx” at this time. Logging in to the account failed because an error occurred”. I’ve reloaded the OS and updated the password. Still stuck. Also tried with/without the external SSD (Samsung T7). Have you any advice please?
@reachfilms Hi Geoff, even with the T7 disconnected - I am still unable to log in to my user account. Have you any recommendations? If only to undo the external home folder?
@ReachFilms Hi Geoff, spoken to Apple Support, I'm in the UK using 15.1.1 (latest OS). The error is in the OS. Solution is to erase Mac HD volume and reinstall OS - this info was provided on the Apple Support Community.
@ yes contact Apple through your phone they’ll walk you through uninstalling the os and re installing it and that brings it back to out of the box settings.
Great tutorial! However, I'm a little confused about the part where you're migrating the data. Could you elaborate on that section? What happens if something goes wrong during the migration process?
It’s not tho. It’s getting the Mac to book from the SSD. It’s only moving the location of the him drive. Apps will still install on the internal drive - but it they can be moved.
Hey, I have a question. Can I use my external drives, which are full of footage, and connect them to a Mac Mini M4 without any issues? Also, can I transfer files back and forth with the external drives?
@@onlyvids yeah it all just depends on what the drives were formatted as. But for the most part you can read more types of hard drive formatting on Macs than PC’s
It could be totally fine or it could be a huge problem depending on what the drive is currently formatted as. You can use the drive going forward either way, by formatting it to the appropriate format. But this will wipe all the footage of your drive. Thats the problematic part. It means that you will have to back up all the contents of the drive first, then format the drive. Then put the data back on the drive. Depending on how large this data is and the hardware/internet connection available to you, this could take a few minutes to a few weeks.
@@BSD-24 hi there aren’t any good external SSD readers that have a built-in SD card reader unfortunately if they do their reading and right speed is typically severely less I would just look at a separate SD card reader
@@BSD-24 I really would go for the OWC one, problem is it isn’t just about specs, it’s about overheating and thermals. You can’t know how good or bad they are unless you test them. I know the OWC outperforms every enclosure I have as it’s the only usb 4 one that hasn’t overheated on me
Can wei still using "Apple intelligence" if we switch our main drive to external SSD? Back to M2 age, I was installed the OS in the external drive. Cook said you can't use Apple AI if you do that.
Don’t install the os on an external drive. That’s booting from a drive which is different from this. the method I describe is just changing the home location
Does Safari still run properly for you? I tried setting up my new m4 Pro Mac Mini last night using this technique and as soon as I switched to my home directory to the Thunderbolt SSD Safari would crash out immediately any time I tried to run it. All the other apps worked fine. Except Safari. I went ahead and erased and restored the Mac and tried it again but Safari still will not run using this arrangement
That’s pretty weird, I feel like there must be some setting on your end (not your fault) that isn’t configured right but mine works so not sure what that would be
@@ReachFilms Thanks for the reply. I spent more than 5 hours trying to figure out what is happening with mine. I just wanted to confirm that Safari is working for your setup before I spend more time trying to work out the issues with mine.
Question let’s say I get a new Mac mini M4, and I load it up and I sign out to my iCloud ..won’t my iCloud files start to propagate on the new drive automatically or is there something I should do before my iCloud file start to propagate on the new device?
@@ReachFilms I don’t believe iCloud syncs to your computer. You can choose whatever folder you want to download to your computer, in case you need to work on something and have no internet connection. IN Sequoia there is a right click option to download now or keep downloaded…. This last option would sync back and forth…from cloud to computer…
I have an M2 mac mini which is great and runs well,I have no need to upgrade as I don't do much on my mac .I have 2 windows server machines for my storage with 16tb between them.however why buy a mac mini and then worry over the base model storage..waste of money and time ..just buy a macmini M4 pro with 32gb and 1tb storage and forget your worries that's what apple expect its users to do if your purpose is more than internet browsing or simple document processing...not creative stuff or heavy duty...
@@georgetechtips8804 I'm pretty sure the entire purpose of this is just about saving money and not paying the "Apple Tax" of $400-$800 for a measly 1-2 TB of Storage. This gets you great value out of a $600 computer. Otherwise, if you upgrade your Mac Mini to 32 GB Memory (RAM) and 2 TB of storage, it's now a $2000 computer and not such a great value anymore.
I’ve been doing this with my Mac computers using external thunderbolt drives for several years now. The problem now is however that Apple Intelligence will not work when a Mac is started from an external volume, nor will Apple Pay, I’m told. So, I now have to look at which files and folders can be successfully moved to an external drive whilst booting off the internal drive, and can I reliably get away with a 256 GB internal drive for that purpose. One piece of good news is that the latest version of macOS now allows apps to be installed directly onto external drives, but this applies only to those apps downloaded from the App Store. All in all, it’s a lot more messy I think and I will lose my ability to carry only the thunderbolt drive around with me and connect it to various host Macs.
@ the reason I call it the main drive is it holds all data except for the operating system data which stays on the internal SSD. If you watch the video I explain
@ understood, I will watch it again. Do you think it’s still a good idea to go for a 512GB internal SSD when the intention is to use an external SSD in the way you suggest? Many thanks.
@ if you go for more than 256gb drive you might as well stay using the internal drive. The read and write on the 512 is apparently much faster than the base model 256gb which is why I’m recommending this method to m4 base model users
@ yes, that is true! A lot of software for video and audio let you pick where you save your project….and i would say as a mac computer tech for 30 years, do not use your main drive as the production drive. Use an external.
I didn’t do this when first starting my new Mac mini because I was nervous of getting it wrong and because I was using a Time Machine backup to load up the new computer. I don’t know if it’s just me but the OS and system data files take up about 100GB. My apps for photo editing take about 100GB so even though I keep all my photo files on external drives and all my docs etc in the Cloud, I’ve already used about half of my 512GB storage. I’m glad I didn’t go for the 256GB option.
@@ianforber my is usually takes around 48gb max. Every few years I have to reset my computers because there’s a bunch of dead files in the system files. You may be due for a deep cleaning
@@isabellavision That "Sucks Big Time!". See no technology requirement for this other than Apple, wanting to sell more SSD storage, and make more money. "Show me the money!!!!".
Hi, I have used macs for many years as a photographer, but never was interested in the internal nuts & bolts of why and how things work.I am considering buying the M4 Mac Mini. I understand buying an external drive for storage instead of paying mac a ton to upgrade the internal drive. I do not understand why you would want to to set up an external drive as your main drive Your instructions, though they seem simple, would make me very nervous to implement. I would think for any new applications just have them reside in the external larger drive and bypass the smaller internal.
Keep the OS on main drive and put other stuff like projects on the external. What if I want to take the computer on the go, now I need to lug an external SSD just to boot it.
Can someone help, I want to migrate from iMac to my new M4 mini but it’s not working as it says not enough space on my Mac mini. I want to migrate to ssd for storage but it only seems to want to migrate to mini storage. I’ve changed the home folder but still not working..help!
very helpful video!. In my case I am using the nvme WD 850X4 TB with 40gbs case from orico (around 3000 write and read speeds) and have it as my main drive for big apps, crossover games and files. I am using the M4 Mini basic option SSD for smaller files like office apps. The M4 mini is a steal in terms of perfomance while using an nvme.
I am surprised that you cannot choose what drive you will install a new app to whenever you do an install. I have never owned a Mac but when I install a Steam game on my PC, I am offered a choice of drives every time I do an install. I have a terabyte of Steam games on my 2 Tb PC SSD and 1.5 terabytes of Steam games on my 2 Tb PC hard disk.
Yes but the big problem with Adobe is it uses 4-5gb of ram just from creative cloud running in the background, and even if you exit out of creative cloud it runs unless it’s uninstalled. In general I don’t recommend Adobe CC products for base model macs
You don’t need to do to store your Apps on the external drive do you ?? I thought you merely need to check on one of the setting and Apple Store puts it in the Ex HD instead of the internal.??? Please confirm…
when I did this ALL of my apps were gone, So I had to undo what I did and restore back to the internal hard drive, but since I never deleted anything, all the apps showed up again like before, unfortunately looks like you do need to either reinstall everything or restore from a backup
Once you move your home folder to an external SSD, how hard would it be in the future to clone that external SSD to a larger capacity? IE: If I started out with a 1TB external SSD, moved my home folder/applications to it and later wanted to go to 4TB ... is it as simple as format, clone, swap the drives? Or is there an insidious gotchya somewhere like a hardware ID that would prevent that? I may find out the hard way ... I ordered a 2TB NVMe for my Mini that should arrive tomorrow ... and it got stuck in the Canada Post strike the day it was supposed to be delivered. So I'm trying to decide if I should try it with an old NVMe drive I have laying around ... 256 or 512GB or whatever it is ... and then just clone it to the new drive when it arrives. Anyone ever try it? Seems like it SHOULD be that simple ... but usually there is something that makes it go horribly wrong when it seems that simple.
I just did this and I got an error message when restarting that says “you are unable to log in to the user account (name) at this time. “ what do I do I’m stuck here HELP!
@@Xoalcs unfortunately it’s why in this video I only recommend using the owc drive. The Samsung drives are way too slow to be doing this, and the only people reporting issues are ones using the T7. I unfortunately don’t have a fix other than anyone reading this heed my warning as I say in the video. DO NOT use a T7 to do this, use Thunderbolt 4 drives minimum if you decide not to use the owc drive. But I really only recommend the owc drive because it won’t overheat
This only applies to the user's home directory. Applications that rely on the Library/Application Support folder (such as Steinberg, Logic, and GarageBand) will still use your internal drive. My Library takes up 835GB, and my Users folder is 513GB. To store this externally, I had to install the OS on an external drive. While this solution "works," it disables OS update functionality and breaks certain "Apple-protected" services.
Hmm.., what could potentially go wrong with an external SSD setup for your $home, that is being actively accessed 24x7 to run your applications or retrieve your data? 1. Accidental pullout of the external SSD 2. Crashing of the external SSD including H/W faults 3. Power failure to the external SSD - power outages and surges 4. Overheating - High temperatures can cause the SSD's chips and controllers to fail 5. Corrupted data and bad blocks 6. Buggy applications freezing up and crashing, causing disk corruptions If I was seeking adventure, i'd probably use Velcro to attach ext. SSD to mac mini and also connect it's power supply through surge protector. Further for long term archival (via time machine backups) i'd probably use a different type of secondary storage.
I use an ssd as a back up for Time Machine. I also have an external drive for backing up all my additional files to keep my hard drive from over clutter. Besides all this s use Backblaze for backing ip the back ip. Your suggestion seems too many headaches....sorry.
My computer I built in 2006 had a 250gb hdd. Now we are 18 years later and apple’s desktop equivalent has how much storage as standard - the same! 18 years and no progress!!! Yes, it’s much faster but to have the same storage as standard as my tower did almost 20 years ago is truly mad.
I’ve been running an 8TB external M2 NVME drive to store files and I had one drive fail/die. It also overheats and come unplugged easily, since the Thunderbolt cables have no latch. So make sure you make backups and are prepared to reinstall everything. It’s much safer/better to just get 1-2TB internal SSD and use that for apps and have a large external drive for files. Also getting the 1-2TB internal drive doubles the disk performance over the 256-512GB variants. You get 6GB/sec read and write with 1-2TB vs. 3GB/sec for 256-512.
That's not correct. I have a brand new M4 iMac with 1TB internal SSD and Blackmagic still reports 3000/3000. I believe you need a pro or max to get the 6000/6000.
I ran some tests and that method is not faster for me. My M4 Pro is 8x faster read/write than my fastest SSD (Samsung T7) M4 1TB Pro Mac mini has 6405 MB/s write and 5155 MB/s read, and my 4TB Samsung T7 has 818.6 MB/s write and 619.6 MB/s read
This video is specifically talking about the base model m4 mini. You are talking about the m4 pro, that’s different hardware with different red write speeds
Just want to note, this method is not about using an external hard drive to boot from. I don’t personally do that nor do I recommend it either
but geoff , just thinking forward , what do you suggest i do if one day the drive dies ?? how will it effect us ?? thanks again .
newbee john
@ it would be the same thing if your internal hard drive died. Make sure it’s backed up and at least if the external drive died, you aren’t booting from it so you could change back to using the internal hard drive. One easy way is to have a secondary admin account that has nothing on it but is still using the internal drive so you can easily make a quick change to your main account. The other would be since you aren’t booting from the external drive, to try and login to your main account and see if it will let you switch without having to do it from the secondary account.
Thank you for this video.
Why do you specifically not recommend booting from the external drive?
@@timothylowe8327 if you boot from external SSD, Apple Intelligent won't work. That's what I encountered.
Seems logical but in all actuality, I could care two craps less about Apple Pay/intelligence 🤣 been externally booting lately to run older music software and the r/w speeds were faster than my old laptops internal speeds 😂 am I missing something here? I must be breaking something please elaborate if I am
one youtuber also mentioned to set up a secondary admin on the internal drive in case of catastrophic failure of the external drive. This gives you an opportunity to still access those internal only files to recover from
That is a great note! Thank you!!
Do remember which UA-camr?
@@bnehus11@macsoundsolutions is one that mentioned it. ua-cam.com/video/WtIbGq6Od6o/v-deo.htmlsi=j9gG0PZwyyD5EHzM
@@bnehus11Mac Sound Solutions Inc.
@@bnehus11 Mac Sound Solutions has a couple of recent vids on how to set up external storage for your Home folder, etc. I think it was him who was referenced.
Thanks!
I think this video is more to do with moving the home folder location to an external drive rather tan using the external drive as the main (read that is startup) disk. i think this is what is confusing commenters.
Exactly what I was thinking. But it's nice to use the internal disk for recovery account as someone said, and the main user in external drive.
Yes, this is how I understand this video, too: Just move the Home folder to the cheaper but faster external Storage (most probably a faster SSD than the internal by Apple with a chosen external enclosure which is bus-powered!) and leave the macOS, the Apple software apps and caches etc. on the internal SSD permanently soldered to the mainboard by Apple. Do not boot from external!
Thanks for your comment!
@@paulhorn24 Sorry, I just wanted to clarify, are you saying that moving the home folder to the external SSD will make it the default "storage" when installing software or apps (including app folders)
@@88polyphia no, that’s not how I understand this strategy. Moving the Home folder only deals with the folders „documents“, „downloads“, „photos“, „videos“.
As far as I understand are folders like „applications“ not user-specific but are located inside the general library folder.
What a user thinks he sees is often just a symlink inside the macOS. For example that what appears to be an application in the applications folder is indeed a folder itself containing all the files needed to run that said application. But this is hidden to the user and he sees only the application icon. This is just an example to my argument, that there is a lot more going on what the typical user never sees and notices.
@@paulhorn24 thanks! But is it possible that whenever you install software or app, default storage that will be consumed will be under the storage of an external SSD?
Geoff, when you completed this process, does your iCloud Drive sync to the external drive? Or, does it still sync to the internal drive?
Thanks Geoff, this is useful.
I scrolled down and somebody already asked what follows.
As I understand it. Set up the Mac Mini as normal (account etc). Then, once the external drive is set up as the main drive, install all apps on this drive.
I can work out iCloud later. Although I am not a great fan of iCloud.
Have great day all 🙂
If you do a new setup like this, can you restore your old machine data from a time machine backup and will it then put your old home folder on the SSD?
I bought the Mac mini pro….an enclosure for 4 TB card….all to be set up before I check in…..BUT HOW do I then migrate all my iMac materials to the new Mac mini and enclosure ?
Good one. Booting from external drove breaks AI. Tip I saw in another vieo: create a second user with admin rights without changing the documents location. So you can boot in cases anything goes wrong with your external drive.
You deserve a lot more subscribers!!
Hi Geoff, I have an iMac which is running from an external drive (I also have another external with the Time Machine back up), just bought the new Mac Mini M4 and an external SSD with enclosure (Which I want to be my main drive). What are the steps that you would recommend in this case? Thank you in advance! Great video btw 👍🏻
Does Time Machine work with this method enabled?
Same question here...
When formatting my external SSD, what Format and Scheme should I use? APFS and GUID Partition Map?
Mac programs are small. I have a ton installed and I'm only using 80 gigs. Just save all files to the external and keep your programs on the internal. This ends up being a hassle in the long run.
Really depends on the program, the ones we use as video editors with all the plugins and etc are not in the end. Depends on the person, there isn’t one blanket answer
I just purchased the M4 pro mac mini, then came across the videos about moving the home folder over to SSD. I thank you for your assessment on which external drive to use but i have a few questions. Is it the fact that the "enclosure" is Thunderbolt 4 that gives the drive its speed or is it the NVMe chip that has to be that fast? What would be recommended chips that have a 2 or more TB storage? Do you get the products from amazon or OWC website? Now the kicker, under the guide rom apple support, I already did a data transfer from my mbp to the m4-pro internal hard drive. This procedure transferred the whole identity of the laptop into the M4- now the hard drive has the name of my laptop and all its glory. Obviously one would like to be able to determine which computer i am using by looking at the name, (and i know that if the laptop is not connected to my monitor, its the desktop im seeing, but I don't want them to have the same name) so what do you do to avoid this when transferring data? Would you also recommend to just reformat and reinstall the OS on the M4-Pro back to default (how?) , then set up the new larger external ssd drive, then transfer data? So much info its confusing. TIA for instructions
What about installation of audio vsts?
Thanks for the video. Very helpful. Once I have the mini set up with the external SSD, how do I bring overall my stuff from my MacBook Pro. I suspect for my user folder I can just copy it. But what about the stuff, like applications, that won't go on the SSD. Do I have to reinstall everything? thx
@@GamesfromtheFront you have to reinstall everything unfortunately
Great video! How about if I am moving from an iMac 2017 to a new Mac mini 1TB. And I have a new 2TB external SDD drive for my new Mac mini, but my computer information it’s in my old external hard drive that I connect using Time Machine. What my best way to do this, transferring what I have in my actual iMac 2017 to my Mac mini.
I have the same 2017 imac, and have the same issue. I have Superduper and Time Machine Backups ready. And I have thought about just copying data only to a second external drive, and transfer that to the external of the mac mini. But I see issues.
I'm still waiting till someone like you who tries a few things to report back on how your transfer went!
@ I will let you know!
I bought the OWC you recommended . I have theM4Pro. I already loading every thing on the Mac Mini in fact I loaded it from my old iMac. I then connected my external Time Machine backups to the new Mac mini? Does having the Time Machine backs ups of any value in getting the SSD set up? Thx
@@DrAlanWeinstein I would always run a Time Machine backup just in case
@@ReachFilms Just sent you a special thanks hopefully you can find a place that sells coffee that cheaply. 🤣
So can I assume the transfer speeds of the external drive are much higher than the internal drive? Do you have the specs for both?
The write speed is much higher than the 256gb the read speed is only slightly higher. Once you jump up to 512gb though the speeds are not higher
Good tip!
I'm glad you agree! it's a great way to get the most out of your Mac mini.
Does this method allow me to install daw to SSD, LIKE PRO TOOLS, FL STUDIO?
Does it allow me to install VSTI like PianoVerse, Addictive Drums 2, keyscape on the External drive like it would on the main drive?
Mixing Plugins such as Waves Audio?
I am a windows person thinking of coming to Mac but the memory upgrade is not friendly, so i really want to know if the external drive can become the C drive, this is what PC call main drive?
You can install any program, once you do this all installs will default to installing on the external drive without any more effort
@ReachFilms awesome thank you so much GOD BLESS YOU BRO
Thanks for the video! Just to be clear, with this method, the apps I install will still be on my Mac mini right?
@@jojos8888 they would technically be on the external drive, that’s really the main point of this method
If I already completed the initial setup & my Os is around 18G,
Photos & Podcast about 6G.
If I want to make the External SSD the home folder, would I have to delete or manually move Photos & Podcasts over to the External?
If I saved previously downloaded applications on Time Machine, they will not be synchronized to an external disk. Or will they?
Thanks for this great video, I have installed my apps on Mac Mini internal storage. I would uninstall them, what do i need to do next to ensure that they download to the external storage. You mentioned that you had to go through a process of changing the disk drive links?
curious about how migration works with this setup from your old osX machine to the new one set up this way.
@ReachFilms, thank you for this quick and to the point tip. Could you please explain what the process is like if I already have a Mac and want to use this method?
@@DearWokeChristian if you want to do this and already have a Mac you can either do it and leave everything on your drive, or start uninstalling apps and data so free up space before you do the change of home location
Well explained! TY Just in time!
Fantastic informative video. Quick question, do you need to use specialized Thunder Bolt 4 cables when making the physical connection from the Mac M4 to an external HD, or will a regular USB-C cable do the job? Thanks'
It all depends on the drive you use, if it’s a thunderbolt 4 drive then yes
@ thanks ✅
Hello all. If you can offer your thoughts. Is the owe external hard drive the way to go or wait till Satechi - Stand & Hub For Mac Mini With NVMe SSD Enclosure comes out? Thank you for your time and knowledge
Will this have any adverse effects on Lightroom Classic or photoshop?
Slightly confused. You speak about applications, which as far as I know, do not live in the home folder. So when you discuss having to uninstall and reinstall Davinci Resolve after making that configuration change, the location of the DR install is still the same... am I missing something here? Or is the issue/need to reinstall related to the home folder's Library directory that breaks...?
@@RodneyGracia correct it’s about the directory that breaks when you change the location
“I get unable to verify startup disk error” on reboot. Anyone have fix for this?
Need to know if using your method, does Dropbox work using the external SSD? A year or so ago I understand that you are not able to install the Dropbox folder in an external drive which was a big bummer
Great Video, thanks. Is a time maschine backup on another external harddrive possible with this method?
Yes
@ thanks
if we set home directory to ext ssd, it will just continue our future install app to ext ssd right? the app in internal ssd will work as they should... please elaborate..
If you choose the external you will no longer see any of the apps on the internal even if they are still installed on there. If you switch back to the internal drive though and everything is still installed they will all show up again
@@ReachFilms ah i see.. thanks for explain
If use external as your main can you still use apple intelligence?
No !
brilliant video - i never knew it was that easy.
Looking for a SSD enclosure with support for 2 M.2 SSDs so that i can setup one as my Mac external drive and another as my windows OS drive (for VM Ware). Any recommendations?
Thanks Jeff. By using this particular drive, would the read write speed be faster than the internal 512GB drive on a Mac Mini M4?
I haven’t tested the 512gb but from what I understand it is faster than the base model, it may be the same speed of the owc or slightly faster but in the ball park
@ I am going to try it out. I will wait for the drive to arrive before installing anything. Cheers Geoff.
Same process for M2 base Mac mini?
T bolt 3 is totally fine right? I don’t need to crank out any video. Hell back in my day rendering was part of the day. I’m just using for audio.
Do you know what happens if for some reason the external drive is disconnected at boot, does this corrupt the filesystem or is not important?
System will boot but you won’t be able to login on to your account.
Tested this today.
@@daFojtekwhat do you after that I’m stuck in the error screen
@ i was reinstalling whole system through recovery mode with format of main drive otherwise will have the same error after reinstalling.
what about the programs that are already on the m4.. gargae band, books, imovie etc. iphotos -- how d u move them over and save to external drive as well..
delete them first, then once you move to the new drive reinstall from the App Store
@reachfilms Hey Geoff great video. I’m from uk and when I look at the owc on amazon it comes only with 1tb which is still on the low side. I have found a yottamaster as an alternative but it’s just an enclosure that support tb4 @40gbps. I would pair it up with a 2tb nvme m.2 that together would come to a similar price to the owc. The yottamaster enclosure is a bigger enclosure than others I have seen so like the owc, it is built for heat dissipation, but I am still curious to know why you only mention the owc. What specific characteristics should I consider to emulate the owc for using this as my home drive. I like the yottamaster option but am concerned about making the wrong choice so I would value your opinion, thanks. Ps: I’m not a content creator, I am a developer so I’m not bothered by having to move large media files around
The specific characteristics are the way the enclosure is designed, it’s one big heat sink and it’s why it’s bigger than all the competitors but it handles thermals way better than any other enclosure out there
@ ok but on amazon uk, I can’t get the owc enclosure just by itself, and 1tb is too small. The yottamaster is big but it doesn’t have the fins of the owc, but I hope that’s it size does emulate the heat dissipation characteristics. I was previously considering getting a dock/stand with a built in m.2 enclosure but when you mentioned the importance of heat dissipation I decided that stand is not a viable option; I think the yottamaster is my best option, but still not very confident in that decision
Do the new Mac M4 Pro allow Samsung T9 to be used to it's full potential with Thunderbolt 5 ports? Or is it USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 ready? Thank you :)
unfortunately not Apple didn't but in the right hardware to utilize it properly
This is my first Mac. I followed your instructions and also bought the OWC to use a Samsung 980 Pro with. After restarting my mini, I can no longer log in to my apple account. It keeps telling me
[You are unable to log in to the user account "xxxxxx" at this time. Logging in to the account failed because an error occurred.]
i‘ve ordered two of these (TEAMGROUP MP44L 2TB SLC Cache NVMe 1.4 PCIe Gen 4x4 M.2 2280 Laptop&Desktop SSD (R/W Speed up to 4,800/4,400MB/s) TM8FPK002T0C101 ), but i’m not sure how to pick an enclosure. are two singles or a dual enclosure better? using with the new mac mini m4, for plex.
I just received my m4 mini and
I will set the “home” on the external drive.
As far as next steps do I just follow the prompts?
@@renepouliot6616 yep!
Thank you for the video; it's very helpful. When using the Samsung External SSD as my main drive, is it necessary to connect it to the usb c thunderbolt port on the back of the Mac Mini or can I connect it to a dongle since my other ports on the back of the mini are already used to connect other gear, e.g., mic, camera, etc.?
I wouldn’t recommend using the Samsung for the method! Seeing tons of issues as it’s not a super fast drive for this type of operation
@@ReachFilms - thank you. For this method, which would you recommend?
@ I would really only recommend the owc drive i show in this video as it has speeds. faster than the internal drive and close to more expensive internal drives
@ - thank you!
@@yolandabI suggest you learn what thunderbolt means. Really a machine with more storage space is for you, because when it goes down/… 😮… 🙏🙏🙏🙏
will this also work for macbook air m4 or is there a problem because of the screen?
It would work, but for a laptop I would not recommend this method, too much movement at play
@@ReachFilms thanks for your input!...like you recommended in another video, i'll setting up a secondary user account that's not linked to the external ssd....so i can use it mobile with small storage and at home as a desktop
It's interesting, I have the new M4 Mac mini and I absolutely love it but wow, is it buggy AF! I get the beach balls constantly and I had to switch back to my PC just to get some editing on Davinci done.Going to perform a factory reset and then try this change so I can ensure I get the most life out of my internal SSD.
Interesting, I wonder what’s going on? I’ve edited about 8 videos so far on the mini with no issues. I’m going to come out with a video next week detailing my workflow as I think it will help a lot of users
If you setup a ssd over usb-c (usb 3) you will not get faster that is for sure. It must be over tunderbolt.
@@UA-camr-ku4nkThunderbolt or USB4.
@
Thunderbolt is faster in practice because it’s bus has direct access to cpu and gpu internal bus.
Another UA-camr who was trying to do this as well, ran into the problem that Apple intelligent doesn't work anymore and other applications too. He got an notification about it. So he said you have to copy the home folder onto the external drive and keep the OS on the main drive to prevent it from happening. Wondered if you’ve ran into this issue aswell.
I wasn’t able to move the OS to the external drive and honestly that’s a good thing. At this point I’ll have over 200gb free at all times, so I’m happy to let it run on the internal drive
@@ReachFilms Than i haven’t said anything haha 🤭🙈.
@@carloscruzmusiq835 it’s all good!! I think if someone somehow tries to force the computer to install the OS. They should be warned, seems Apple doesn’t make it easy to do that and now I understand why :)
Also, what's the chance Apple would change his in a future software update?
We’ve been able to move the Home folder for many years, so chances are low.
Thank you Geoff, great video. I’ve run into a difficulty trying to use an external SSD as my home drive. On restarting, I get the message “You are unable to log in to the user account ”xxx” at this time. Logging in to the account failed because an error occurred”. I’ve reloaded the OS and updated the password. Still stuck. Also tried with/without the external SSD (Samsung T7). Have you any advice please?
@@simonmehlman I would not use a t7 as an external drive for that it’s too slow
@reachfilms Hi Geoff, even with the T7 disconnected - I am still unable to log in to my user account. Have you any recommendations? If only to undo the external home folder?
@ReachFilms Hi Geoff, spoken to Apple Support, I'm in the UK using 15.1.1 (latest OS). The error is in the OS. Solution is to erase Mac HD volume and reinstall OS - this info was provided on the Apple Support Community.
Isn‘t the T7 rather fast? Just ran into the same issue unfortunately.
When I rebooted I get an error message that it can’t log into user account
I had the same problem. Have you been able to resolve it yet?
I just tried this and when I restart im told I am unable to log in because a failure occurred. How can I revert ?
Did you figure this out ???
Not at all. I can’t log in. I tried right out of the box and to a Samsung T9 external. Do you have the same problem?
@ yes contact Apple through your phone they’ll walk you through uninstalling the os and re installing it and that brings it back to out of the box settings.
How can you put your applications on an external drive as well? How would they get updated? Do you have to re-copy them?
Great tutorial! However, I'm a little confused about the part where you're migrating the data. Could you elaborate on that section? What happens if something goes wrong during the migration process?
It’s not tho. It’s getting the Mac to book from the SSD. It’s only moving the location of the him drive. Apps will still install on the internal drive - but it they can be moved.
@@simonconquest thank you for reply
Hey, I have a question. Can I use my external drives, which are full of footage, and connect them to a Mac Mini M4 without any issues? Also, can I transfer files back and forth with the external drives?
@@onlyvids yeah it all just depends on what the drives were formatted as. But for the most part you can read more types of hard drive formatting on Macs than PC’s
It could be totally fine or it could be a huge problem depending on what the drive is currently formatted as. You can use the drive going forward either way, by formatting it to the appropriate format. But this will wipe all the footage of your drive. Thats the problematic part. It means that you will have to back up all the contents of the drive first, then format the drive. Then put the data back on the drive. Depending on how large this data is and the hardware/internet connection available to you, this could take a few minutes to a few weeks.
@ if i remember right those are ntfs format. Mac works better with some specific format?
@@ZeerakImran pff that’s a difficult part. I will see when i get it. Thanks for your help and support, and for your quick response
Can you recommend an external SSD that has a UHS II card reader. I use Davinci resolve to mainly edit drone video
@@BSD-24 hi there aren’t any good external SSD readers that have a built-in SD card reader unfortunately if they do their reading and right speed is typically severely less I would just look at a separate SD card reader
So do you have a recommendation and how would it look as a mini 4 setup?@@ReachFilms
KONYEAD 40Gbps NVMe SSD Enclosure,Fully Support Mac M1/M2/M3,PCIe to USB Adapter @@ReachFilms
Too slow?@@ReachFilms
@@BSD-24 I really would go for the OWC one, problem is it isn’t just about specs, it’s about overheating and thermals. You can’t know how good or bad they are unless you test them. I know the OWC outperforms every enclosure I have as it’s the only usb 4 one that hasn’t overheated on me
Can wei still using "Apple intelligence" if we switch our main drive to external SSD? Back to M2 age, I was installed the OS in the external drive. Cook said you can't use Apple AI if you do that.
Don’t install the os on an external drive. That’s booting from a drive which is different from this. the method I describe is just changing the home location
hello all, anyone know if this drive will be updated soon to TB5, i know they have that black one out but im wondering for this style. Thanks
How does this work if multiple users are on the Mac mini? will they be able to access my own video clips on the SSD? not too tech savvy.
Does Safari still run properly for you? I tried setting up my new m4 Pro Mac Mini last night using this technique and as soon as I switched to my home directory to the Thunderbolt SSD Safari would crash out immediately any time I tried to run it. All the other apps worked fine. Except Safari. I went ahead and erased and restored the Mac and tried it again but Safari still will not run using this arrangement
That’s pretty weird, I feel like there must be some setting on your end (not your fault) that isn’t configured right but mine works so not sure what that would be
@@ReachFilms Thanks for the reply. I spent more than 5 hours trying to figure out what is happening with mine. I just wanted to confirm that Safari is working for your setup before I spend more time trying to work out the issues with mine.
Question let’s say I get a new Mac mini M4, and I load it up and I sign out to my iCloud ..won’t my iCloud files start to propagate on the new drive automatically or is there something I should do before my iCloud file start to propagate on the new device?
When you do this and restart your computer, it makes you re-sign in to iCloud and then at that point things would start to repopulate
@@ReachFilms I don’t believe iCloud syncs to your computer. You can choose whatever folder you want to download to your computer, in case you need to work on something and have no internet connection. IN Sequoia there is a right click option to download now or keep downloaded…. This last option would sync back and forth…from cloud to computer…
I have an M2 mac mini which is great and runs well,I have no need to upgrade as I don't do much on my mac .I have 2 windows server machines for my storage with 16tb between them.however why buy a mac mini and then worry over the base model storage..waste of money and time ..just buy a macmini M4 pro with 32gb and 1tb storage and forget your worries that's what apple expect its users to do if your purpose is more than internet browsing or simple document processing...not creative stuff or heavy duty...
@@georgetechtips8804 I'm pretty sure the entire purpose of this is just about saving money and not paying the "Apple Tax" of $400-$800 for a measly 1-2 TB of Storage. This gets you great value out of a $600 computer. Otherwise, if you upgrade your Mac Mini to 32 GB Memory (RAM) and 2 TB of storage, it's now a $2000 computer and not such a great value anymore.
I’ve been doing this with my Mac computers using external thunderbolt drives for several years now. The problem now is however that Apple Intelligence will not work when a Mac is started from an external volume, nor will Apple Pay, I’m told. So, I now have to look at which files and folders can be successfully moved to an external drive whilst booting off the internal drive, and can I reliably get away with a 256 GB internal drive for that purpose. One piece of good news is that the latest version of macOS now allows apps to be installed directly onto external drives, but this applies only to those apps downloaded from the App Store. All in all, it’s a lot more messy I think and I will lose my ability to carry only the thunderbolt drive around with me and connect it to various host Macs.
@@xray2785 in this video, I don’t discuss booting from an external drive. Booting from the external drive comes with the issues you bring up
@ I see, I misunderstood when you described it as making the external drive as your main drive, I took that to me boot drive
@ the reason I call it the main drive is it holds all data except for the operating system data which stays on the internal SSD. If you watch the video I explain
@ understood, I will watch it again. Do you think it’s still a good idea to go for a 512GB internal SSD when the intention is to use an external SSD in the way you suggest? Many thanks.
@ if you go for more than 256gb drive you might as well stay using the internal drive. The read and write on the 512 is apparently much faster than the base model 256gb which is why I’m recommending this method to m4 base model users
What about using cloud space as storage??
@@osXcanada for my purpose that’s a no go as I edit a lot of video and need immediate and quick access to files
@ yes, that is true! A lot of software for video and audio let you pick where you save your project….and i would say as a mac computer tech for 30 years, do not use your main drive as the production drive. Use an external.
I didn’t do this when first starting my new Mac mini because I was nervous of getting it wrong and because I was using a Time Machine backup to load up the new computer. I don’t know if it’s just me but the OS and system data files take up about 100GB. My apps for photo editing take about 100GB so even though I keep all my photo files on external drives and all my docs etc in the Cloud, I’ve already used about half of my 512GB storage. I’m glad I didn’t go for the 256GB option.
@@ianforber my is usually takes around 48gb max. Every few years I have to reset my computers because there’s a bunch of dead files in the system files. You may be due for a deep cleaning
Why not make everything including macOS/UNIX boot and run from the external Thunderbolt 4/5 drive?
If there is boot up issue with the drive it makes it much harder to access the computer and change things
Apple Intelligence will only work if the internal drive is the startup drive.
@@isabellavision That "Sucks Big Time!". See no technology requirement for this other than Apple, wanting to sell more SSD storage, and make more money. "Show me the money!!!!".
Hi, I have used macs for many years as a photographer, but never was interested in the internal nuts & bolts of why and how things work.I am considering buying the M4 Mac Mini. I understand buying an external drive for storage instead of paying mac a ton to upgrade the internal drive. I do not understand why you would want to to set up an external drive as your main drive Your instructions, though they seem simple, would make me very nervous to implement. I would think for any new applications just have them reside in the external larger drive and bypass the smaller internal.
I need help……… I make the restart and now I cannot login ……
Keep the OS on main drive and put other stuff like projects on the external. What if I want to take the computer on the go, now I need to lug an external SSD just to boot it.
Please check pinned comment
Can someone help, I want to migrate from iMac to my new M4 mini but it’s not working as it says not enough space on my Mac mini. I want to migrate to ssd for storage but it only seems to want to migrate to mini storage. I’ve changed the home folder but still not working..help!
very helpful video!. In my case I am using the nvme WD 850X4 TB with 40gbs case from orico (around 3000 write and read speeds) and have it as my main drive for big apps, crossover games and files. I am using the M4 Mini basic option SSD for smaller files like office apps. The M4 mini is a steal in terms of perfomance while using an nvme.
That is exactly my setup😊 Waiting for TB5 hardware to come next months.😅
Very nice!!!
I read somewhere that the external drive must be non ejectable to use it for a home file. Not true?
You can use any external drive, ejectable or not, as long as it meets the performance requirements.
The video should stress the need for an admin account on the internal drive.
I am surprised that you cannot choose what drive you will install a new app to whenever you do an install. I have never owned a Mac but when I install a Steam game on my PC, I am offered a choice of drives every time I do an install. I have a terabyte of Steam games on my 2 Tb PC SSD and 1.5 terabytes of Steam games on my 2 Tb PC hard disk.
Geoff, correct me if I am wrong, What you propose is that we set the external drive as the main drive, and THEN install all apps?
yep exactly!
@@ReachFilms Thank you!
I did this and now can’t delete applications off the internal storage.
As I warn in the video, do that before you start the process
Can 16 GB of RAM and 256 GB of SSD be enough for Photoshop use? (with the help of an external disk of course)
Yes but the big problem with Adobe is it uses 4-5gb of ram just from creative cloud running in the background, and even if you exit out of creative cloud it runs unless it’s uninstalled. In general I don’t recommend Adobe CC products for base model macs
@@ReachFilms Can't you just disable Creative Cloud in the Log In items in System Preferences, "Allow in background", rather than uninstalling it?
Where is the speed test?
@@TNRVG in my other video about comparing it to other ssds
@@ReachFilms I see it now thanks.
You don’t need to do to store your Apps on the external drive do you ?? I thought you merely need to check on one of the setting and Apple Store puts it in the Ex HD instead of the internal.??? Please confirm…
when I did this ALL of my apps were gone, So I had to undo what I did and restore back to the internal hard drive, but since I never deleted anything, all the apps showed up again like before, unfortunately looks like you do need to either reinstall everything or restore from a backup
does that slow down my applications ?
Depends on the enclosure and drive combo you choose, which is why I recommend the owc above all others for this
Once you move your home folder to an external SSD, how hard would it be in the future to clone that external SSD to a larger capacity? IE: If I started out with a 1TB external SSD, moved my home folder/applications to it and later wanted to go to 4TB ... is it as simple as format, clone, swap the drives? Or is there an insidious gotchya somewhere like a hardware ID that would prevent that? I may find out the hard way ... I ordered a 2TB NVMe for my Mini that should arrive tomorrow ... and it got stuck in the Canada Post strike the day it was supposed to be delivered. So I'm trying to decide if I should try it with an old NVMe drive I have laying around ... 256 or 512GB or whatever it is ... and then just clone it to the new drive when it arrives.
Anyone ever try it? Seems like it SHOULD be that simple ... but usually there is something that makes it go horribly wrong when it seems that simple.
I just did this and I got an error message when restarting that says “you are unable to log in to the user account (name) at this time. “ what do I do I’m stuck here HELP!
@@Xoalcs what kind of drive are you using?
@ Samsung t7 2 tb
What can I do to get pass this ?
@@Xoalcs unfortunately it’s why in this video I only recommend using the owc drive. The Samsung drives are way too slow to be doing this, and the only people reporting issues are ones using the T7. I unfortunately don’t have a fix other than anyone reading this heed my warning as I say in the video. DO NOT use a T7 to do this, use Thunderbolt 4 drives minimum if you decide not to use the owc drive. But I really only recommend the owc drive because it won’t overheat
So if I’m booting my new Mac Mini for the first time, what exactly do I need to do? This video isn’t very clear on that.
@@Tolbiny if your booting your Mac for the first time just jump in and do the steps I show in the video.
This only applies to the user's home directory. Applications that rely on the Library/Application Support folder (such as Steinberg, Logic, and GarageBand) will still use your internal drive. My Library takes up 835GB, and my Users folder is 513GB. To store this externally, I had to install the OS on an external drive. While this solution "works," it disables OS update functionality and breaks certain "Apple-protected" services.
Hmm.., what could potentially go wrong with an external SSD setup for your $home, that is being actively accessed 24x7 to run your applications or retrieve your data?
1. Accidental pullout of the external SSD
2. Crashing of the external SSD including H/W faults
3. Power failure to the external SSD - power outages and surges
4. Overheating - High temperatures can cause the SSD's chips and controllers to fail
5. Corrupted data and bad blocks
6. Buggy applications freezing up and crashing, causing disk corruptions
If I was seeking adventure, i'd probably use Velcro to attach ext. SSD to mac mini and also connect it's power supply through surge protector. Further for long term archival (via time machine backups) i'd probably use a different type of secondary storage.
I use an ssd as a back up for Time Machine. I also have an external drive for backing up all my additional files to keep my hard drive from over clutter. Besides all this s use Backblaze for backing ip the back ip. Your suggestion seems too many headaches....sorry.
Thanks
No problem
My computer I built in 2006 had a 250gb hdd. Now we are 18 years later and apple’s desktop equivalent has how much storage as standard - the same!
18 years and no progress!!! Yes, it’s much faster but to have the same storage as standard as my tower did almost 20 years ago is truly mad.
I tried this on 2 user accounts problem is now it will only sign in one Apple ID to both accounts
I’ve been running an 8TB external M2 NVME drive to store files and I had one drive fail/die. It also overheats and come unplugged easily, since the Thunderbolt cables have no latch. So make sure you make backups and are prepared to reinstall everything. It’s much safer/better to just get 1-2TB internal SSD and use that for apps and have a large external drive for files. Also getting the 1-2TB internal drive doubles the disk performance over the 256-512GB variants. You get 6GB/sec read and write with 1-2TB vs. 3GB/sec for 256-512.
That's not correct. I have a brand new M4 iMac with 1TB internal SSD and Blackmagic still reports 3000/3000. I believe you need a pro or max to get the 6000/6000.
yes I have the pro.
I cant click the right click in users amd groups.
THANKYO DUUUUUUUDE!!!!!!!!🍎🥭🍏
I ran some tests and that method is not faster for me. My M4 Pro is 8x faster read/write than my fastest SSD (Samsung T7)
M4 1TB Pro Mac mini has 6405 MB/s write and 5155 MB/s read, and my 4TB Samsung T7 has 818.6 MB/s write and 619.6 MB/s read
This video is specifically talking about the base model m4 mini. You are talking about the m4 pro, that’s different hardware with different red write speeds
What happens if the external drive isn't connected, will the Mini still boot?
Yes, but you need a second admin user to be able to access the mini without the SSD attached.