Do not carry the M4 Mac mini's storage upgrade plan into the new models
A storage-module supplier says its existing upgrades do not fit the M6 and M5 Pro machines.
Workspace · Macfolio · 22 September 2026
The M6 and M5 Pro Mac mini need a different storage plan from the preceding generation. Expand Mac mini, which sells replacement modules, says it opened both models and found NAND soldered to the logic board.
Its September 22 compatibility notice explicitly warns buyers not to purchase its modules for those machines. Existing M4 and M4 Pro module support is unchanged.
Compatibility before capacity
Our take: an upgrade method that worked on one generation is not a purchasing strategy for the next. If your budget assumes a small internal drive now and a replacement module later, confirm that path before ordering.
External storage is a separate option to evaluate, with its own cost and desk-space implications. It does not turn an incompatible internal module into a supported upgrade.
This assessment relies on the supplier's teardown and compatibility statement. Macfolio has not opened either machine, and we have removed secondary SSD-speed comparisons from this story.