Hello. I have a Samsung T7 2tb external ssd connected to my 2018 Mac Mini (6-core) running Ventura 13.4.1
Drive is formatted in APFS. Drive works just fine when copying to and from it... But when i try to delete files it takes FOREVER. Timed a delete of a 89gb file now... It took 18 minutes.
Copying the same file to my other external drive took about 4 minutes...
Why are deleting files so slow, and is there any way of fixing the issue?
Mac mini (2018)
Alrighty then.... Now i have downloaded a big torrent 527GB, wich consists of aprox 1/3 files about 600MB, and the rest is files under 1MB. I have downloaded the same torrent twice. One time with Transmission, and one time with qBittorrent (preallocation ON and "download in sequential order" ON). My theory was this: it is Transmission and how fragmented the files are wich is causing the issue with loooooong delete-times. (No option for preallocation of disk space with Transmission).
What i timed:
If my theory is correct, we should see longer delete times of the torrented files from Transmission than qBittorrent. Also the copy times from T7 to the raid should be a bit longer. The copy back from the raid to T7 should be about the same, as should the delete times of the copied files.
And here are the numbers:
qBittorrent:
Copy from T7 to raid: 10 minutes 20 seconds
Copy from raid to T7: 12 minutes 22 seconds
Delete copied files on T7: 21 seconds
Delete torrented files: 3 minutes 11 seconds
Transmission:
Copy from T7 to raid: 15 minutes 10 seconds
Copy from raid to T7: 12 minutes 24 seconds
Delete copied files on T7: 22 seconds
Delete torrentes files: 1 hour 24 minutes
So, i believe i have found the guilty party here. Transmission.
Copy time with qB was 10 min 20 sec. Transmission 15 min 10 sec.
Delete time with qB 3 min 11 sec. Transmission 1 HOUR 24 MINUTES......... DINGDINGDING
Alrighty then.... Now i have downloaded a big torrent 527GB, wich consists of aprox 1/3 files about 600MB, and the rest is files under 1MB. I have downloaded the same torrent twice. One time with Transmission, and one time with qBittorrent (preallocation ON and "download in sequential order" ON). My theory was this: it is Transmission and how fragmented the files are wich is causing the issue with loooooong delete-times. (No option for preallocation of disk space with Transmission).
What i timed:
If my theory is correct, we should see longer delete times of the torrented files from Transmission than qBittorrent. Also the copy times from T7 to the raid should be a bit longer. The copy back from the raid to T7 should be about the same, as should the delete times of the copied files.
And here are the numbers:
qBittorrent:
Copy from T7 to raid: 10 minutes 20 seconds
Copy from raid to T7: 12 minutes 22 seconds
Delete copied files on T7: 21 seconds
Delete torrented files: 3 minutes 11 seconds
Transmission:
Copy from T7 to raid: 15 minutes 10 seconds
Copy from raid to T7: 12 minutes 24 seconds
Delete copied files on T7: 22 seconds
Delete torrentes files: 1 hour 24 minutes
So, i believe i have found the guilty party here. Transmission.
Copy time with qB was 10 min 20 sec. Transmission 15 min 10 sec.
Delete time with qB 3 min 11 sec. Transmission 1 HOUR 24 MINUTES......... DINGDINGDING
Deleting a huge amount of tiny files takes a while even on a SSD. I have not checked or cared about fragmentation in ~25 years (HDDs) and can not comment if that might be an issue.
Have you tested if disconnecting all unnecessary external disks and peripherals makes a difference?
Is JMicronATA [Not Loaded] from an old install? You still have google.keystone stuff although it might not play a role here.
Do you really need Samsung Portable SSD Software? Does it have secure erase that might take time? Or some other glitch with macOS?
Samsung SSD T7 software installation - Apple Community
I see nothing very suspicious but:
SamsungPortableSSDDriver.kext -- I prefer to avoid such 3rd party disk utilities unless really needed.
LaCie RAID Manager.app -- can you try to turn that off for a test?
google.keystone. -- You do not have Chrome but its background daemons are said to interfere with at least Final Cut encoding.
Dropbox -- I use Dropbox but I have set it to not launch automatically and launch it only when needed, and then quit it.
uTorrent.app -- FWIW QBitTorrent produced weird errors for some users a while ago:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253864981?answerId=257813272022#257813272022
https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/441119/finder-corrupt-files-on-copy-to-external-ssd
https://github.com/qbittorrent/qBittorrent/issues/16843
Ok. I have cleaned up and deleted some of your and etrechecks suggestions (Chrome, dopbox, and some other apps i never use anymore). I do not have the uTorrent app, and have not had it for years. Not sure why it pops up in the etrecheck... Switched to Transmission years ago. uTorrent went over to a web-based system, and stopped supporting the desktop app for mac. Says on their website: "Not compatible with MAC OS Catalina Version 10.15 and above". If i remember correctly this happened when macos went 64bit, thus not being able to run uTorrent wich was 32bit. ANYWAY...
Also ejected (and powered off) all of the external drives, except for the Samsung T7.
I was in the process of another deletion of files on the T7... This time 1165 gb, over a total of 187 files. Let it run for 3 hours, and lost my patience. At that time there was 829 gb over 71 files still left. I proceeded to format the drive, thinking that would be a lot faster. I may have been mistaken... It has been at it now for 2 hours. Stuck at "Deleting Volume". Lord knows how long this will take...
Will wait for it to finish, then delete the Lacie Raid Manager... Restart, and do another etrecheck.
Copied 400gb over to the T7 from the raid now.
Deleting them on the T7 took 12 seconds. (WOHO!!)
My theory now is this... The files that took forever to delete were downloaded torrents. Mabe they get really fragmented, and that is what is bottlenecking the process.
Will try to download a torrent... When finished, copy to raid, and copy back again so i have two identical copys on the T7. One fragmented, and one "normal". And then time the transfers and deletes of both.
______(a few moments later)______
Ok have now downloaded a 72gb torrent (single file).
Time to copy file from T7 to raid: 2min 52sec
(Renaming file on raid)
Time to copy renamed file back from raid to T7: 1min 25sec
Time to delete renamed file on T7: 3sec
Time to delete original torrented file on T7: 1min 6sec
No i do not need the Samsung Portable SSD software (i only downloaded it to check in case there are any firmware updates for the T7), but this was an issue long before i downloaded it anyway, so it is not causing this. It does have secure erase and encryption-options, but i do not use those.
Disconnecting all other external drives make no difference. The JMicron is for another drive i use for "away from home backup", so it is only in use the one time a month i bring the drive home for backups.
I believe it is the fragmented nature of the torrented files that is causing this issue. Seems to be way worse with Transmission than qBittorrent. Yesterday i tried switching to QB, and i have experimented with deletion of several torrented and identical copied files, and the torrented files ALWAYS take way longer to delete (and copy) than the copied files.
I tried one just now. 44gb over 364 files.
Time to delete torrented files: 19 seconds
Time to delete copied files: 2 seconds
After switching out Transmission with qBittorrent this seems to have made the issue smaller at least. In Transmission there are no options to preallocate diskspace or to download files in sequential order. qBittorrent has options for both, and i have them enabled.
I have a large one incoming now (500gb), and if that one deletes in an acceptable amount of time, i am sticking to QB. Will post here how it goes.
Any 3rd party virus apps, cleaners etc installed?
An EtreCheck report might be helpful:
Using EtreCheck to Troubleshoot Potential… - Apple Community
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-250000211
No 3rd party virus apps or cleaners installed (as far as i know)
Etrecheck:
Alrighty then... Finally finished with the format. Deleted the Lacie Raid Manager. Restarted, and did a new etrecheck:
Did you figure out what this issue is. I also have a 1TB T7 and the deletion of files can take quite a while. This was never a problem when I was using the same drive with my 2014 MBP.
Samsung T7, deleting files extremely slow
