I personally experienced this when testing an Apple SSD in another laptop. Even the ones that are minimally different may not work properly with macOS. Apple made a lot of different PCIe SSDs with some of them only being slightly different.
While an Apple SSD from another Mac may "work" in this laptop, macOS may not like it unless it is the exact model made for the laptop (yes macOS can tell the difference). If your original Apple SSD doesn't work well enough to allow the system firmware update, then you will need to acquire an original Apple PCIe SSD made for this exact model laptop. If so, then you can try installing macOS 10.13+ to the new SSD while the new SSD is connected externally.
The installer's firmware updater requires an original Apple PCIe SSD which is formatted as GUID partition and MacOS Extended (Journaled). If the SSD manufacturer supports this SSD in a Mac, then you should contact them for assistance.ĭoes the original SSD work at all? You just need the original Apple SSD to work just enough to allow the macOS 10.13+ installer's firmware updater to run. There is always a possibility the Logic Board is bad. If you still have problems, then either the SSD or the SSD adapter is bad or just isn't compatible with this laptop. OWC years ago had me perform the back to back resets (don't let the system boot in between or it won't work) before their SSD would work in an early MBAir. Try an SMC reset followed immediately by a PRAM reset (hold the PRAM reset for at least three chimes). You may need to click on "View" within Disk Utility and select "Show All Devices" before the physical drive appears in the left pane of Disk Utility. If this laptop had 10.13+ installed on the old SSD, then you will need to boot from a macOS 10.13+ installer (necessary since only 10.13+ has the necessary NVMe driver) and erase the new SSD as GUID partition and APFS (top option) (or maybe MacOS Extended (Journaled) ). To use a third party PCIe SSD on a Mac that computer must already have had macOS 10.13+ installed before the swap (cloning isn't good enough) so that the system firmware has been updated to recognize a PCIe NVMe SSD. Maybe someone else with experience might have an idea.
Also Recovery Mode shows no firmware password has been registered. The nearest I figure there is some firmware block. The drive simply will not register with the startup manager. I tried downloading High Sierra and installing it, again, without success. I tried formatting it HFS Journalled and APFS without success. OWC USB-SATA drive lights up, but Disk Utility can't see the drive. I have an OWC USB-SATA case and tried connecting the drive while in recovery mode as one certified tech suggested. The clone appears successful, until I try to select Apple menu -> System Preferences -> Startup Disk, or use the Startup Manager to boot off it. I am not able to Carbon Copy Clone a bootable 10.13 or 10.14 onto the SSD. So we know it isn't a hardware problem with how I inserted the SSD. I am able to boot off an external hard drive and disk utility of 10.13 and 10.14 is able to see and format the internal drive I inserted. I am Apple Certified, though haven't worked at an authorized service center for a couple years. The Mac shipped new with 10.10, and the drive started failing.I backed up the data on the old drive and its backup boots fine. It would appear the MacBook AIr has some sort of firmware that is preventing me from finishing the swapout of an Apple SSD with a MemoryX SSD that is supposed to be compatible with it.