You can upgrade storage in the new M4 Mac mini – but you have to be brave

Apple has made it nearly impossible for owners of most of their devices to perform storage and RAM upgrades, opting to solder everything directly to the logic board. However, a recent crash of the new The M4-powered Mac mini revealed that storage chip is located on a separate and removable NAND module PCBjust like the setup in Mac Studio. This discovery has paved the way for potential storage upgrades.

Also: Apple’s new M4 Mac Mini is a powerful PC—but I love it for two reasons beyond that

Enter YouTuber dosdude1who seized the opportunity to explore this newfound opportunity.

This process is not for the faint of heart. Upgrading the Mac mini requires a delicate touch and a careful approach, and any misstep can lead to disaster.

First, the unit must be completely disassembled to access the stock PCB. Once exposed, carefully remove the storage chip using a hot air gun. After this, all the old soldering must be removed with a soldering iron and desoldering wick. The new storage chip then requires reballing with solder before being soldered back onto the circuit board before reassembling the Mac mini, completing the operation.

Also: I replaced my M1 MacBook Pro with a base model M4 – and it blew away my $3,000 system

Destroy the little PCB and it’s over.

As you can see in the video, dosdude1 had to run the process twice due to a problem with the storage chips he had used for the upgrade.

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But persistence won out and he finally got the M4 Mac mini working with the upgraded storage.

Now I’m here to tell you that this is an advanced upgrade. I’ve done something similar and there is an ability to remove a chip without burning the board or removing a bunch of components you didn’t want to remove.

Also: 4 reasons why a maxed-out M4 Mac Mini can’t replace my Mac Studio

Reballing chips, meanwhile, requires specific metal masks, which are thin sheets of metal with tiny holes in them, without getting solder paste everywhere, and that skill only comes from practice—and you don’t want to be practicing on parts from inside your new Mac mini.

I wonder if some enterprising third party will create an upgrade solution that involves replacing the storage card. That approach would be much easier.