USB Transfer painfully slow

Jayst84

Jayst84

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I'm transferring a bunch of files to USB sticks. To transfer 15.5GB is taking about an hour. This seems ridiculous, and I'm sure it never usually takes this long, just seems to have slowed down the last few weeks.

Tried reformatting the sticks, tired a few different ones Sandisk / Lexar, all basically the same. USB 2 and 3 sticks (though computer is only USB 2 anyway).

Computer is a late '09 iMac on 10.10.5.

Anything I can do to speed things up? (Besides buying a new computer with USB 3).

Cheers.
 
Jayst84 said:
I'm transferring a bunch of files to USB sticks. To transfer 15.5GB is taking about an hour. This seems ridiculous, and I'm sure it never usually takes this long, just seems to have slowed down the last few weeks.

Tried reformatting the sticks, tired a few different ones Sandisk / Lexar, all basically the same. USB 2 and 3 sticks (though computer is only USB 2 anyway).

Computer is a late '09 iMac on 10.10.5.

Anything I can do to speed things up? (Besides buying a new computer with USB 3).

Cheers.
Click to expand...
Processor speed, HDD speed and the base unit connection speed. Any and all on these will affect the pileline.

If you are also connecting an external USB HDD that transfer speed will also be affdcged by the slowest connection in the line - output using USB 3 memory sticks is irrelevent if the delivery pipe is slow.

If you want slow, try doing 15Gb upload/download to cloud services.

Final thought... if you are archiving to memory sticks - best of luck. The best shockproof and robust of them are expensive for a reason and I would not use them as an archibe medium.
 
Hugh Jarse said:
Processor speed, HDD speed and the base unit connection speed. Any and all on these will affect the pileline.

If you are also connecting an external USB HDD that transfer speed will also be affdcged by the slowest connection in the line - output using USB 3 memory sticks is irrelevent if the delivery pipe is slow.

If you want slow, try doing 15Gb upload/download to cloud services.

Final thought... if you are archiving to memory sticks - best of luck. The best shockproof and robust of them are expensive for a reason and I would not use them as an archibe medium.
Click to expand...

Yeah. I realise I should be getting USB 2 speeds due to my iMac being USB 2. I'd just like to be actually getting those speeds, as over an hour to transfer 16GB is more like USB 1 isn't it?

Not archiving to them, these are for sending files to other studios (as uploading and downloading a few thousand raw files every week is far from practical).

As I say, I'm sure transfers weren't this slow in the past, and I can't think of anything I've changed lately (been on the same OS for ages, etc.).
 
The variable nature of USB, for reasons as already stated, is exactly why I didn't want to rely on it. I found firewire much more reliable to actually maintain its sustainable throughput.

Also don't forget that just because there is a theoretical maximum bus speed, that doesn't mean each stick can reach that when writing. Most sticks don't even reach that when reading, and just no chance when writing.

However if you think it used to be quicker using the same stick, and transferring the files from the exact same location then it could be a bit more difficult. I'd start with formatting the stick again (you are using HFS for it aren't you?, NFS from a Mac can be painfully slow) and ensure you haven't got anything else running on your iMac before attempting it again.
 
Don't know about the Mac, but sometimes not all the USB ports are actually the same speed. Do you have a different USB port you can try?
 
Transferring lots of small files is usually slower than one big file so it *may* help if you Zip them all up first :)
 
I have always found USB speeds hit and miss, depending on the brand.

I have a cheapo one which transfers lightening fast and a decent branded one which is slow.
 
Historically Macs have sometimes had problems with very slow transfer of data to USB stickss, sometimes also causing the USB stick to then work slowly in other devices as well afterwards. Resetting PRAM & NVRAM etchas been reported to sometimes help, as can disabling file compression software. There's lots of stuff in google, which may or may not be helpful, but this problem isn't unusual.
 
ancient_mariner said:
Historically Macs have sometimes had problems with very slow transfer of data to USB stickss, sometimes also causing the USB stick to then work slowly in other devices as well afterwards. Resetting PRAM & NVRAM etchas been reported to sometimes help, as can disabling file compression software. There's lots of stuff in google, which may or may not be helpful, but this problem isn't unusual.
Click to expand...

+1 - resetting the SMC and NVRAM takes a couple of minutes and can work wonders :)

SMC reset https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201295
NVRAM reset https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204063
 
neil_g said:
Theoretical max for usb2 is 60mb/s. If my maths is right that's 4.5 mins to transfer 15.5gb (very roughly).

That is theoretical max however and as above things can slow this down.
Click to expand...

Not quite. It's 60 MB/s or 480Mb/s.

There are a few factors to look at.
Card speed
Target disk speed - is the disk full, is the OS or another programme using it
Cable quality - is it coiled, damaged, curved?
 
st599 said:
Not quite. It's 60 MB/s or 480Mb/s.

There are a few factors to look at.
Card speed
Target disk speed - is the disk full, is the OS or another programme using it
Cable quality - is it coiled, damaged, curved?
Click to expand...
Indeed, and also are there any other slower devices on the bus, what the IO for the hard drives connected, what is the CPU doing. So many factors that can cause this.
 
Hmmm, my Mac USB transfer speed has been slow lately. I wonder if there's an upgrade coming........
 
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