When working with Insta360 Studio or DJI Studio on Apple Silicon Macs, the system can generate a substantial amount of background disk activity — especially when handling long 360° video sequences or high‑bitrate footage. Since Apple Silicon devices use a soldered, non‑replaceable SSD, the amount of data written during video processing becomes a critical factor for long‑term hardware longevity. This is particularly relevant for mappers who process large batches of footage for Mapillary or similar platforms.
In my workflow, I have reduced — effectively disabled — swap usage on my M1 Mac. Under normal circumstances, macOS moves memory pages from RAM to the SSD when memory pressure increases. With large video projects, this can generate a significant number of additional write operations. After adjusting the system configuration, swap usage now remains at 0 GB, and so far I have not observed any negative impact on rendering performance or system stability.
It’s important to note that this modification is performed in macOS Recovery mode and applies system‑wide. That means all user accounts and all applications on the machine must operate without relying on swap. As long as RAM usage stays within reasonable limits and memory pressure remains green, this setup works without issues. However, if RAM ever becomes fully saturated, the system may slow down or, in extreme cases, terminate applications.
My conclusion: reducing swap usage significantly reduces SSD wear and has proven stable in my video‑mapping workflow. Still, users should be aware that this is a global system change affecting the entire machine, and it requires sufficient RAM headroom to avoid potential side effects.
To check whether an Apple Silicon machine – for example an M1 MacBook – is using its soldered SSD as swap storage, open Activity Monitor via Spotlight. In the Memory tab, you’ll find the swap usage indicator at the bottom. If swap is in use, I recommend being cautious when working with large video files.
One possible option, as mentioned before, is to boot the Mac into Safe Mode by holding down the power button. Under More Options, there is an entry in the upper‑left corner that allows you to access the console. Online you can find instructions explaining how, after entering csrutil nvram, you can disable swap usage with the command un-compressor=2.
This is why I continue to use HDDs for any large data file processing and long term storage and backup, like post‑processing for Mapillary. Though, we are probably overly cautious because SSDs since around 2020 (some time during COVID-19) have become so much better in base longevity and also in mitigating wear, especially those from reputable brands, that such worries are mostly a thing of the past. However, I would not want to recommend anybody to long term store valuable data on NAND flash SSDs, regardless the level of sophistication of their memory controllers. HDDs are not perfect either because of read/write mechanisms failing over time. Yet, the data can still be read off HDD platters for decades (perhaps even centuries) even after catastrophic mechanical failures by dismantling the drive into platters. Modern HDD platters are made of glass or ceramic composite materials. The days of simple plastic platters covered by iron‑oxide dust are long time over. 
There is nothing comparable you could do to a SSD to recover data.
fighters: No, cloud 
storage is not the solution to everything either.