MacBook – Is 2017 MacBook Air SSD compatible with mid 2013 MacBook Air 11″

bootmacbook prossd

I need to change the SSD of my MacBook Air 11" mid 2013 and I was wondering if the one of a newer MacBook Air 2017 would be compatible.
I researched online and I think that the ports remain the same (12+16 pins) but I was wondering if there would be any drive issue, and if so if it can be easily solved.

How can I research what controllers or compatibility exists between OEM storage on various Mac?

Best Answer

No. These SSDs are not compatible.

The 2015 through 2017 MacBook Air laptops use the exact same interface, so, those are compatible. Also remember that you're comparing the 11" to the 13" model and those are different with respect to space.

From iFixit.com, I was able to find an excellent image showing the difference with the interfaces. While it implies that the 2013 through 2017 MBA interface is the same (it is physically), one has two channels (2013) while the other has 4 (2017). They also go on to say that it's possible to use an M.2 SSD with the use of an adapter, however, I can find no test results so YMMV.

This MacBook Air uses a proprietary storage drive connector, and is therefore not compatible with common M.2 drives without the use of an adapter

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From the link provided by klanomath in the comments...

Despite the two channel drive, the 11″ MacBook Air actually supports four channel PCIe connections, and they can be upgraded with the Gen. 4A drives found in other devices. In fact, if the 11″ MacBook Air was configured with a 512GB SSD from the factory, it already included the same Gen. 4A drive found in the other Apple computers of the era.

This implies that the drives from the 13" 2017 MBA will fit physically into the 2013 11" MBA, but because of the firmware, they won't work.

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