6 ways to increase your Mac’s storage without paying Apple’s crazy upgrade prices

Apple offers pretty good prices for standard configurations of its Macs. $ 599 for a M4 Mac Mini? $ 999 for a new M4 MacBook Air? $ 1,299 for a new M4 iMac? These are attractive priced. But these prices involve a few victims, especially the start storage of only 256 GB. A quarter of a terabyte may sound a lot, but much of what we do on Mac involves large files high resolution photos, videos, games (literally the biggest guilty) and more. 256 GB runs out quickly.

Apple allows customers to upgrade storage at the purchase point, of course, but their prices are steep. Upgrading from 256 GB to 512 GB (the smallest amount we recommend) is an extra $ 200/£ 200, and jumping to a terabyte is another $ 200 that makes an attractive entry-level deal for an expensive one.

However, if you do not want to plunge the extra money, you can still expand your Mac’s storage without paying Apple’s exorbitant prices. The alternatives here are mostly external storage solutions – in other words, you have to carry and connect an additional device – but the compromise can help you meet your budget.

External SSDs and hard drives

An external storage device offers the best combination of price and capacity. For example, you can get a 1TB Lacie Mobile Drive for about $ 80/£ 56 on Amazon that connects to your Mac via USB-C. Lacie sells the same drive with 5 TB storage space for less than $ 170/£ 115 – still lower than upgrade to 512 GB of internal storage on a Mac.

With external drives you can choose a hard drive or a solid-state drive (SSD). SSDs (used internally on Mac) are faster and expensive than hard drives. You can also choose between desktop drives that have a larger design and require you to connect it to an outlet, or portable drives small enough to fit in a bag or pocket and driven through Mac’s Thunderbolt or USB port.

External drives use either USB-C or Thunderbolt to connect to Mac. Thunderbolt drive is more expensive but faster, while cheaper USB-C-Kun drive often supports slower data transfer rates. Learn more about the differences between Thunderbolt and USB.

Macworld has guides to the best external SSDs and the best external hard drives to help you find the best device for you.

USB flash drive

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Often called “thumb” or “memory sticks” is a USB flash drive essentially a stick of flash memory that is connected to a USB port. They are small and easy to stash in a bag or pocket. They are available in capacities as high as 2TB, but 128 GB and 256 GB capabilities are most often found, often for less than $ 30, such as this Samsung Flash Drive.

USB flash drive varies in price based on capacity and speed. Some have additional features such as a USB-A connector at one end and a USB-C connector on the other or built-in encryption.

You can leave a USB flash drive connected, but if you often need to read and write to the drive, you will choose a portable or desktop drive instead. USB flash drives are more likely to carry out than a full drive because flash memory has limited shelf life and USB flash drive does not have the measures in place to maintain proper health. They also tend to use parts of lower quality so they can be cheap and treated as raw materials (for example, the corner sells near my home USB flash drive).

While you do not want to rely on USB flash drives is primary storage, they are practical, for example, save photos or videos from a shoot, file control when you want to keep files for a project separate from everything else, backups and more.

SD card

SDXC cards are memory cards that are often used in cameras and other portable devices, but you can also use them on Mac. However, only two Macs (MacBook Pro and Mac Studio) have built-in SDXC card slots. For every other Mac, buy an SD card adapter that is cheap for about $ 10/£ 10. You can also find hubs and thunderbolt -doker with card columns if you still plan to buy one.

SDXC cards are good for uses similar to USB Flash drive: File transfers that specifically save files for projects, backups and more. They have similar problems with regard to memory chips that wear out; They are more reliable because they use higher quality memory, but they are not ideal as a drive that is always connected and you often read and write files to.

If you are planning to use an SDXC card as a method of transferring files between MACs or other devices, you may want to consider buying another card as a backup. I have had cases where the metal contacts for the card are worn out or damaged from frequent insertions to units. These cards had several years of mileage on them, but understand that they are delicate compared to other storage devices mentioned here.

Maps are available in capacities between 32 GB and 2TB and are available at different speeds. The higher capacity/faster cards can be more expensive than an external SSD drive with the same capacity as you pay a prize for the extremely small size.

Network paralyzed storage

If you are not familiar with the Network Lamb Storage (NAS), think about it as cloud storage, but specifically for your home. A NAS device connects to your home network, and your Macs, iPhones, iPads and even Windows PCS and Android devices can access it when needed. A NAS device is a great way to save files to access multiple devices or users, or it can be a way for individual users to move files from a device to free up space.

Because the NAS device connects to a network, the setup is not as simple as plug-and-play, but it’s not too difficult. When it is in progress, you can access it either through the network menu you find, or through an app, browser or both. Some NAS devices may provide access when you are away from home, but this may require the use of a paid service from the device’s company.

NAS devices range from those with fixed hard drives that start at 2TB for $ 150/£ 150 to drive with multiple removable hard drives with capabilities over 8 TB and other features for several hundred dollars. Check out our choice for the best NAS drive to Mac if you are interested.

Cloud Storage

Foundry

Cloud Storage is provided by a service online for a fee, usually a subscription. Apple offers iCloud that includes iCloud Drive with other services. Other popular sky storage providers include Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive and Box. Learn more about the best sky storage services for Mac.

What is good about sky storage is that it is available on almost any device that has an internet connection. However, because your ability to access it depends on the Internet, cloud storage should not be used as primary storage. It is good for saving files you will access, but not the ones you often use, things like backups, photo and video commission and file transfers. But it’s a great way to free up space on your Mac’s drive.

Since you have to pay a recurring fee, you also need to find out how costs distribute you. Many services have a free level with a small allocation of storage; For example, iCloud Drive offers 5 GB for free. It limits what you can do.

Mac Mini and Mac Studio SSD upgrades

The M4 MAC Mini and Mac Studio have internal SSDs installed in Slots, making them upgradable, but Apple does not officially support upgrades after buying the business, a third party or of do-it-dovers. Some small businesses have released SSD upgrade sets, such as Expand Mac Mini and Polysoft Services with video instructions on their sites.

The installations for these sets are not trivial, but if your mechanical suitability is limited, you must be able to do this. There is a risk of harming your Mac and this installation can cancel your warranty, especially if there is obvious proof of your work.

If you have an M2 MAC Mini, there are other ways to upgrade its memory. Learn more.