Do we need to disable the trim on an 3rd party SSD before updating a Mac?

Solution 1:

TRIM is a subset of the ATA commands specific to SSDs.

Can you operate without it? Sure, but it will treat your SSD as if it were a spinning HDD - impacting performance and lifespan.

From Wikipedia:

The TRIM command enables an operating system to notify the SSD of pages which no longer contain valid data. For a file deletion operation, the operating system will mark the files sectors as free for new data, then send a TRIM command to the SSD. After trimming, the SSD will not preserve any contents of the block when writing new data to a page of flash memory, resulting in less write amplification (fewer writes), higher write throughput (no need for a read-erase-modify sequence), thus increasing drive life.

If your MacBook Pro came with an SSD, it's enabled by default. If not, you must enable TRIM when you upgrade to an SSD.