Early 2015 MacBook Air 11 doesn't recognize 1TB SSD

Make sure that you have installed Monterey (the end of the line for that MacBook Air) somewhere, successfully, while the Apple OEM SSD is installed.

You may need to upgrade to High Sierra or higher just so that you have support for the APFS filesystem, and/or firmware that can recognize third-party SSDs.

In the case of Monterey, it reportedly checks to see if you have up-to-date firmware. If you need a firmware update, it checks to see if you have an Apple SSD before installing that update. If you don't, both the firmware update AND the Monterey update fail. Once you have installed Monterey successfully anywhere, and have up-to-date firmware, you can reportedly put in a third-party SSD and install Monterey on it all day long.

Other World Computing – OWC Solid State Drives For MacBook Air 11" & 13" (Mid 2013 - Mid 2017)

In addition to @Servant of Cats' excellent insight to the M.2 SSD issue, they left out another very critical item.....the SSD adapter you are using. The only SSD adapter which seems to work consistently & reliably is from Sintech....any other brands usually tend to have issues.

Even with a Sintech SSD Adapter, a particular SSD may still have issues because not all SSDs are compatible with all devices. SSDs tend to be very finicky. You are definitely trying a configuration that is completely unsupported by all the vendors involved. The only vendor to provide a drop in replacement SSD for this Mac is OWC which @John Galt correctly suggested....OWC is the only vendor which will help you if there are any issues.

One other point that @Servant of Cats overlooked is that you must be booting into macOS 10.13+ to even have macOS even see a third party internal NVMe SSD (M.2 or an OWC SSD)....even if the laptop's system firmware has been updated as @Servant of Cats correctly mentioned.

I mean no disrespect to @Servant of Cats since this is a very complicated situation which is very hard to explain completely & accurately. I think they did a great job, but just happened to miss a few critical points. I also have had trouble writing similar posts in the past since it is so easy to overlook a critical point while trying to make things understandable to someone without the background on the issues involved.

Return it for a full cash refund and buy one from OWC.

Crucial's website reveals no products compatible with that Mac.

viducce (Author)

Perhaps 'otherworldcomputing' links outside north america

and may be accessible wherever you are; check for info/sales.

There are linked global affiliations from OWC.

iUsed to reference their database & get parts.

MacBookAir/SSD Storage Upgrade | Replacements

Useful info and instructions to DIY freely available.

.And I get email new/garage sales page even now.

[Apple recommended for service parts & info.]

While I cat-footed around a stealthy reply appears.

owc ssd designed for apple laptops and desktops