Can I manually upgrade my RAM

Sadly, this systems RAM is soldered to the logic board and not changeable! The only thing you could do is completely swap out the logic board with a new one. That will be expensive and as SSD storage is also soldered you’ll need to first backup your stuff so you can transfer your data to the new logic board.

• 13” MacBook Pro Logic Board, 2.3GHz i5 with 16GB/2TB, Apple P/N 661-07573
• 13” MacBook Pro Logic Board, 2.5GHz i7 with 16GB/2TB, Apple P/N 661-07581

Frankly, I’m suspecting you could still get your current system running cooler if you clean things up!

Just like your home leaving the floor littered with stuff forces you to climb over or around the mounds on the floor your system also faces this same issue!

First thing is to free up space on your drive. Clean off 1/4 to 1/3 of the drive - the more the better! Your system leverages the drive to make up for the lack of RAM when you don’t have enough we call this Virtual RAM, In addition a full drive forces the housecleaning processes to move data blocks around basically moving less used data to areas which are more worn to free up the less worn areas for your current work load this is called wear leveling. So the more freed up space reduces the need for this process.

Use a good HD clean up app to help you do this. You will want to make a full backup before you start and you’ll likely want to get an external drive to hold your work as well if your internal is on the small side. As an example: Cleaner-App

Look at what you are running in RAM what do you don’t need? Get a good memory monitoring app to keep tabs on what’s running and reduce your memory footprint as best as you can. As an example: Memory Diag