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Portables (Apple) Apple IT

Apple Declares Last MacBook Pro With an Optical Drive Obsolete (arstechnica.com) 69

Posted by msmash from the end-of-road dept.
Apple has discontinued support for the mid-2012 13-inch MacBook Pro, the last model to include an optical drive. Products are considered obsolete when Apple ceased distribution over 7 years ago, making service and parts unavailable. The laptop was removed from Apple's lineup in 2016 but remained compatible with macOS until Big Sur in 2020. While optical drives had already fallen out of favor, the phase out marks the end of an era for pro users requiring discs for media production.
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Apple Declares Last MacBook Pro With an Optical Drive Obsolete More

Apple Declares Last MacBook Pro With an Optical Drive Obsolete

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  • USB optical drives (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Junta ( 36770 ) on Thursday February 01, 2024 @10:09AM (#64205658)

    Given optical discs occasionally, but not frequently are part of my life, I find skipping having a built in and using a USB attached is fine.

    Not a Mac user, but I assume USB attached optical are fine there too.

    • Not a Mac user, but I assume USB attached optical are fine there too.

      Yes, USB-attached CD-ROM/DVD drives work fine on Macs.

      Apple sells their "Superdrive" for $79, but the generic $15 drives from Amazon work just as well.

      I haven't used mine in years.

      • > I haven't used mine in years.

        I got a USB CD/DVD/BD reader just in case when I updated my Mac to one without a drive.

        I believe I have used it once in 11 years.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Bert64 ( 520050 )

          I had a 2009 mac which did include an optical drive, i never even tried to use the optical drive until several years later when it didn't work. Either it had become clogged up with dirt, or was always DOA and i never even noticed.

          The optical drive wastes a lot of space, a lot of people would remove them and install an extra hard drive or battery in the space.

          • Yes, this became standard issue for Lenovos that had the optical bay around 2008-2014. SSDs were still a bit expensive, so you'd get a cheaper SSD (like 64GB boot drive) and swap out the optical drive for a tray containing a 2.5in HDD. Nobody ever missed the optical drive, I remember the IT closet had a USB one hanging around and it was loaned out maybe twice in its existence.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by cfalcon ( 779563 )

          I use my external Blu-ray drive at least weekly. Sick of losing access to data for this or that stupid reason, it's just one solid way to make backups and each disc holds so damned much it's like, why not? I use some of the M-Disc things for anything I really don't want to lose.
          I get that it's not the general purpose vehicle it once was, because the total space has kept up so poorly with solid state, magnetic, and even just raw transfer speed most places. But it's still fucking great, and I still think e

      • Re:USB optical drives (Score:4, Funny)

        by gnasher719 ( 869701 ) on Thursday February 01, 2024 @10:56AM (#64205776)

        Apple sells their "Superdrive" for $79, but the generic $15 drives from Amazon work just as well.

        Of the $79, $69 is for someone walking into the warehouse and spending an hour searching for where the CD-ROM drives are hiding :-)

        • I have one, but I can't remember where it is.

          Probably with the one I bought to replace it when I couldn't remember where *it* was . . .

          I guess I could buy another, just to put it away and thereby find them both . . .

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        Yeah, I have a small collection of BD writers all over USB for the times I want to rip something.

        Optical discs are great for mass-manufacture because you can stamp one out in a minute with 100GB of data on it - something you'll have a hard time doing with anything else. But their use beyond mass distribution of data is limited.

        Sure they were great over a decade ago as a cheap way for the average user to move mass quantities of data around, but then USB flash drives got practical and cheap and are much easi

      • I haven't used on on a Mac or PC for work in ages. But I do use them at home. But I don't use a laptop at home, and the optical drives still come with most towers by default. I did briefly have an external FireWire optical drive, when I thought it was the better technology and wouldn't vanish...

        (uses include re-installing old games, looking at old backups, and burning music CDs so I can use them on the phone or in the car)

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by hawk ( 1151 )

          >and the optical drives still come with most towers by default.

          that's because they cost less than those little plastic plates to fill the hole!

    • Likewise. We have an M1 MacBook Air that I rip our recent purchases with. No need for a disc drive 99.9% of the time, but a few times each year I’ll quickly rip whatever we’ve purchased in the last few months.

    • Yes, you can get a cheap CD + DVD reader and CD writer, and for a little bit more a DVD writer. CD-Rs are £13 for 50 (verbatim).

      What is missing, someone should sell packs of very cheap very small SD-cards so you can hand say up to 1 GB of data to someone cheaply; I'd say most computer owners can read SD cards, and USB SD card readers in case your computer hasn't one are incredibly cheap.

      • This was predicted years back when USB drives were new and wild but it never panned out since NAND devices have a price floor, like on amazon I can get a 2GB, 4GB, 8GB or 16GB but they are all around $8

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by dryeo ( 100693 )

          Amazon is expensive, I just bought a 64GB for C$8 at Staples, the 128GB wasn't much more with a few brands around the same price.

          • That doesn't mean anything? I said "price floor" as in it doesn't matter if its 2Gb or 128GB, there is a minimum cost to manufacture that means there won't be SD cards for pennies anytime

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by dryeo ( 100693 )

              C$8 or about US$5 for 64GB is pretty cheap and cheap enough often to give away, especially with the price of most stuff now such as DVDR's. (CDR are more expensive here due to the *AA levy)

              • At least in the US a DVDR is less than $0.25 retail, much less actual bulk costs.

                Of course you hand a DVD disc to most people now they'll look at you cross-eyed but you really want is those super el cheapo USB drives from China which can be had for like $1.50

                • Re: (Score:2)

                  by dryeo ( 100693 )

                  Haven't priced out DVDR's in a long time, though that seems cheaper then here. The USB sticks are a good idea if you find a good source. I've had some pretty crappy sticks, seem like USB1 speeds.

    • Re: (Score:2, Offtopic)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Optical drives are no big loss, because USB ones are perfectly fine replacements. There is no performance benefit from a built in one, and being Apple you pay several times the going rate for one anyway.

      It's stuff like soldered in RAM, soldered in SSDs, riveted in keyboards, and BIOS locked radios that are frustrating.

    • I have a USB Blu-Ray drive sitting on top of my M1 mac mini. Works great. I use it for ripping movies from the local video store. I do it for stuff like the movie Dogma, which cant be legally streamed due to rights issues.

    • Given optical discs occasionally, but not frequently are part of my life, I find skipping having a built in and using a USB attached is fine.

      Umm, you do realize it's been many years since Apple sold a computer with a built-in optical drive? I don't think they're looking for confirmation of that decision in 2024 :-).

    • Same here. About the only thing I use them for anymore is yearly when my wife gets an MRI. They still hand it to her on a CD. I really just copy the data off for backup purposes.

  • Even though it will need a USB C to A adapter, Apple still sells the SuperDrive, which, AFIAK, is a pretty long run time for a device.

    Of course, if the Mac is not on the go, going for a drive that has its own power and doesn't draw from the USB connection power for the motor is a good thing.

    As for use of the drives, I still buy CDs, although mainly through Bandcamp, where I wind up with the audio files anyway, so the CD can stay sealed, but sometimes I do wind up with CDs bought at events that I wind up rip

    • Re:Apple still sells the SuperDrive... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by StormReaver ( 59959 ) on Thursday February 01, 2024 @10:44AM (#64205756)

      I don't use Macs, but I still make frequent use of my DVD drive to convert purchased DVD's to digital files on my media server. I just bought the entire first season of a classic TV show, and converted all 24 episodes.

      DVD drives are still immensely useful for having the physical media that can't be turned off on the whim of some suit upstream.

    • As for use of the drives, I still buy CDs, although mainly through Bandcamp, where I wind up with the audio files anyway, so the CD can stay sealed, but sometimes I do wind up with CDs bought at events that I wind up ripping into FLAC or ALAC, and the CD goes on a shelf. It is nice to buy something physical from an artist, as artists receive next to nothing if one streams their work.

      Many artists will gladly sell you CDs during a concert. Go to London, some band pops up on the street, and then you can donate some money by buying a CD for ten pound. Another use is filling gaps in your collection with used CDs from eBay.

      • For real, CD and vinyl sales are one of the few ways we profit these days. Performance prices have stayed approximately the same for the majority of professional musicians in the United States since the 1970s, so you can't even hump it anymore to pay the bills.

  • When they went from 8" -> 5.25" -> 3.5" floppy drives, I was happy. (2" drives never really happened).

    Then they killed floppy drives and I was sad. Until I realized that I hadn't used one in years.

    Then they went from floppy -> CD -> DVD, I was happy.

    Then they killed optical drives and I was sad. Until I realized that I hadn't used one in years.

    Technology moves on.

    I bought the ps5 with optical because I had this idea I'd use it for my dvd collection or game disks or I dunno. Complete waste.

    • I just recently bought a USB-C floppy drive, because... dungeon synth. Some bands actually put some type of stuff on 3.5" floppies, and it is worth the purchase and use of a drive to see what they did.

      Generally, I don't use optical, other than to burn a Blu-Ray disk with critical files on it [1] every so often, but at least I know that the data stored there has a good chance of lasting a while, especially if I use PAR2 or WinRAR for error detection/correction on files.

      [1]: Wish someone would make an optic

      • Wish someone would make an optical drive which could handle higher capacities. The only real thing available for archival grade these days is tape, and that is out of most people's price ranges.

        There is Blu-Ray in excess of 100GB on archival ("centuries" of you believe the market-droids) media, maybe up to 300GB. Be careful about your media's manufacturer: When I did a quick internet search on the topic people kept mentioning a particular good vendor that got out of the business, and were complaining about the "post-[name of vendor]-era" products being lower quality.

        As a general rule of thumb, optical media that uses metallic/inorganic pigments is more likely to be last many decades without loss

    • Then they killed floppy drives and I was sad. Until I realized that I hadn't used one in years.

      How?!

      Apple first released a floppyless machine in 1998. If you hadn't used one in years, say, 1996 what the heck were you using? CD-Rs were expensive enough (never mind the drives) in 1996 that CD-RWs were worth using and back then it wasn't exactly rare to encounter a machine that wouldn't read one.

      A relative of mine got a G3 iMac of some description, for university. It had no useful connectivity options so she b

      • I had floppy drives. My PC (built in 2011 plus upgrades) still has both 3.5" and a DVD drive. But I didn't use them. I only installed them because the case had a place for the floppy drive so I stuck an old 3.5" in there and I had an old best-in-case rewritable RW+DVD from back in the day and plenty of space so I stuck that in, too. How did I actually build that system? It has a funky SATA slot on the top of the case. Take your old drive, pop it in there and copy your files off then unplug and toss th

  • While optical drives had already fallen out of favor, the phase out marks the end of an era for pro users requiring discs for media production.

    Who still needs to produce CDs or DVDs on their laptop? The last time I saw a DVD burned was when a family member got an MRI, and they got a DVD of the images. All the results were wired electronically to their doctor, but they got a DVD backup as well. In any case, the MRI and their doctor's office both had desktops with built-in drives, not laptops.

  • was outraged

  • I don't have a Macbook, but the thing I mist about optical drive bays is not the optical disc support, but the fact that you can remove the optical drive and stick a big HDD or second SATA SSD in there. Especially the Lenovo T420 where they have a special system that allows you to remove and interchange caddies like game cartridges.

    • Yep.

      My W510 long since lost its optical drive, now having an extra SSD.

      Of course my machine is 14 years old, running the latest fully patched OS and browser. I guess mac users have to junk perfectly good old machine simply because being tied to the for software support, they have relatively short support windows.

      The current OS on my laptop (Mint) goes until 2027, and the next versions are all slated to be compatible. I would be surprised if ubuntu drop support for this machine before it dies. I wonder if I'

      • Yep.

        My W510 long since lost its optical drive, now having an extra SSD.

        Of course my machine is 14 years old, running the latest fully patched OS and browser. I guess mac users have to junk perfectly good old machine simply because being tied to the for software support, they have relatively short support windows.

        The current OS on my laptop (Mint) goes until 2027, and the next versions are all slated to be compatible. I would be surprised if ubuntu drop support for this machine before it dies. I wonder if I'll get two decades out of it.

        Funny thing is it will still utterly smash some lower end macs performance wise on some tasks I do simply because they lack the RAM.

        "No longer supporting" means no guarantee of replacement parts or repair services. Also means that sometime waaaay in the future, the Drivers may require some fooling-around to include.

        In the case of Optical Drives, there are fortunately many aftermarket Class-Compliant USB Drives that work perfectly with Intrinsic macOS Support; so absolutely no need for rending of garments and gnashing of teeth.

        • It means more than that. It means newer versions of OSX won't run on it, and the last version that does will no longer get updated. In other words, security updates stop and it becomes a bit of a hazard on the internet.

          Point is, Apple laptops get short support windows for their software, because they provide the hardware and software so they have an incentive to do a bad job.

          Optical drives though, who cares?

          Optical drives were a non requirement when I bought this machine. My previous personal laptop (an eee

          • It means more than that. It means newer versions of OSX won't run on it, and the last version that does will no longer get updated. In other words, security updates stop and it becomes a bit of a hazard on the internet.

            Point is, Apple laptops get short support windows for their software, because they provide the hardware and software so they have an incentive to do a bad job.

            Bullshit. And Bullshit.

            And do to the efforts of DOSdude and others, these "orphaned" models can almost always perfectly run macOS versions released long after they have been declared "obsolete" by Apple.

            My Daily Driver is a mid-2012 15" MacBook Pro. I know that, with a few minutes of extra work, I could run everything at least up through macOS Ventura, if I wanted-to; maybe even Sonoma.

            • Ah the famed Apple ease of use! Just follow this 12 step process then never install updates, follow this other process instead!

              That's definitely a "yes technically you can sort of run it".

              Sounds like it's mostly working but a bit glitchy, looking at the website.

              • Ah the famed Apple ease of use! Just follow this 12 step process then never install updates, follow this other process instead!

                That's definitely a "yes technically you can sort of run it".

                Sounds like it's mostly working but a bit glitchy, looking at the website.

                This is a complaint from a Linux-oriented site? That it takes a few more Clicks?

                And BTW, it is more like a six-step process.

  • Whether something is useful isn't a criteria for Apple to keep technology. Form over function. Since forever ago.

  • Over the next 5 years, there will be an entire generation of people who have never used an optical drive on a computer. I think it is safe to say that optical drives finally gone the way of the floppy disk.

    It makes me feel old - I am from the generation who saw the introduction of CDs.

  • Built-in optical drives are done. But Apple still offers an external optical drive: https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MD564LL/A/apple-usb-superdrive

    I got one of those in 2013 for my optical-drive-less MacBook Pro, and it still works fine on my Mac Studio. I don’t use it for much other than ripping the occasional CD, though.

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