Can't find my SSD on disk utility

Was macOS 10.13+ previously installed on this laptop while the original SSD was installed? "Installed" is the critical since the laptop's firmware must already be updated before a third party NVMe SSD can installed internally.

Also, in order to use a third party NVMe SSD internally, you must boot from a macOS 10.13+ installer because older versions of macOS don't have the neccessary NVMe driver needed to communicate with the SSD.

If macOS 10.13+ was previously installed AND you are currently booting to a macOS 10.13+ installer, then you may need to launch Disk Utility. Within Disk Utility click "View" and select "Show All Devices" so that the physical drives appear on the left pane of Disk Utility. You will need to erase the whole physical SSD as GUID partition and either MacOS Extended (Journaled) or APFS (top option). If installing macOS 10.13, then use the former file system and for installing macOS 10.14+ use the latter file system.

If this does not help, then try using a Sintech SSD adapter. From reading these forums for years, the best more reliable & compatible internal SSD adapter is from Sintech.

If you are able to boot the third party NVMe SSD with macOS 10.13+ while connected externally, but this SSD fails to work internally, then it means one of three things:

• SSD Adapter is bad or incompatible
• SSD is incompatible with the internal SSD adapter and/or the Logic Board
• Logic Board is bad

For some Macs, booting into Internet Recovery Mode may only give you the online macOS installer for the older OS which originally shipped with the Mac from the factory which will not work when using an NVMe internal SSD. Try booting into Internet Recovery Mode using Command + Option + R to attempt to access the online macOS 12.x installer. FYI, at one point the macOS 12.x installer would not install onto a third party internal SSD until after the system firmware had been updated (requires the original Apple OEM SSD to be installed internally).

If the original Apple SSD still works, then reinstall it so you can boot the laptop normally so you can create a bootable macOS 10.13+ USB installer using the instructions in this Apple article, otherwise you will need access to another compatible Qualifying Mac to make the USB installer.

Create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support

Liaqat1952 wrote:

Hello guys, I have MBP retina 13 inch late 2013 model A1502 with 128GB internal SSD, macOS Big Sur. Decided to upgrade SSD to 1TB. Bought a third party PCIe 3.0 NVMe M.2 SSD, Crucial P3 1TB with an adapter. Initially used as external drive in "ORICO" M.2 NVMe drive enclosure. Formatted to ExFat, GUID partition. Worked fine. Installed as internal drive and computer started in Recovery Mode. Disk utility did not detect SSD. Externally reformatted to mas OS journal extended, reinstalled internally but Disk utility did not find it again. Changed the adapter also but no success. Ran the "list" command on terminal mode, No success. So I am stuck. SSD is working fine as external drive, but Disk Utility is refusing to Mfind it as internal drive. Need your appreciated help.

Thanks.

Try GUID / APFS