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Slow copy speeds to USB in Lion

Hi all, just upgraded from SL to Lion and noticed now when i copy large files like 300mb+ to a USB key its taking ages (about 4 mins) to copy where is SL it was much faster. THe key is formatted in FAT32 for playback on PS3 but this has always been the same and SL was fine.

I also notices i dont get the blue animated progress bar when copying its seems to stumble along very blocky and is not as fluid.

Copying FROM the key to the Mac HDD is fine all is as normal. Also copying to a 1TB WD Ext HDD with Time machine is also fine.

System is bang up to date so any ideas anyone or is this something i have to live with until an update is release?

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7)

Posted on Aug 17, 2011 12:34 PM

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99 replies

Aug 18, 2011 7:15 AM in response to limzinfo

No i have 10.7.1 updated last night, and still a problem, however copying to a HDD is fine, the ports on there are USB 2.0 so should be quick enough esp as it was fine in Snow leopard, the lack of a fluid copy progress bar indicates there is something playing awry.

Did you do a fresh install or an upgrade? i did an upgrade...

Aug 28, 2011 10:17 AM in response to andicniko

10 mins to copy a 1.7GB file to USB whats up with that?

Tried all USB ports and this is the same, also it is the same to SD card.

Apple needs to release update to resolve this ASAP. Tried everything i can think of here but still nothing.

Just also tried with a terminal command and its the same!


Message was edited by: ritchiefromnottingham

Aug 31, 2011 2:22 PM in response to ritchiefromnottingham

Exactly the same problem, seems to be getting worse, no permission issues found when doing a drive scan. Some places recommend fixing anyway. I'm only getting this on my MBP. iMac is fine so I know the USB drives involved are fine, both are on Leopard. MBP is becoming unusuable doing any disk writes even just internally on Lion, help!

Oct 22, 2011 5:41 AM in response to ritchiefromnottingham

MacPro 2009 Lion 10.7.2
I've had occassional times when my card reader performed slowly, but I've used it for several years transferring 16gb SDHC of videos a/o photos getting transfer rates of approx 1gb per minute. When I had issues in the past, re-inserting the card, moving the reader to a different port restored speed.

Suddenly - with no immediate connection to software rates (I've done full speed transfers using Lion), now I cannot get reasonable speeds. 1gb takes 20-30 minutes. I need to work with my footage immediately in many cases, and this is intolerable! One symptom I notice is that the transfer seems to go in a burst/lag cycle. The monityor bar reports 8.4mb, 16.8mb etc with seconds between - ussually I see a constant stream (not confident that this reporting is actually a clue)
So far have tried:

3 different cards (same speed)

3 different porst, front and rear

disconnmecting other USB devices

turning off bluetooth/spotlight

restarting/shutting down computer


However, none of these were issues in the past. Perhaps it's a hardware issue that just arrived? but the number of other people with this issue on macs seems like there may be something going on in the background, although I haven't found a solution

Oct 22, 2011 7:11 PM in response to ritchiefromnottingham

I've upgraded to 10.7.2 and USB copy speed has improved noticeably, BUT, I estimate I'm still only getting half of what I used to get under Snow Leopard. That's still better than the quarter or tenth I was getting under 10.7 and 10.7.1


Like others, I get the eratic copy speed indicator - often stalling at 20 or 30mb copied and only updating again once the copy has completed. Ugh.


I have noticed that the speed issue is worse with my older USB devices and HDs which makes me think there is some kind of chip incompatibility with older chipsets.


Interestingly, with my iPad, kids iPods and iPhones (including an old 3G) copy speed is as fast as in Snow Leopard and is not affected like 3rd party devices.


As the previous post noted, my card reader is by far the worse affected device by this issue and I too cant use the device anymore as it's just too slow.


Mitch

Oct 25, 2011 9:23 AM in response to ritchiefromnottingham

I've noticed the same issue and it's immensely troublesome. I routinely need to back up my client files 30gb ~ 80gb at a time, and it takes anywhere between 7 hours ~ 17 hours to transfer. Ridiculous is sort of an understatement. Transfer was much faster before upgrading to OS Lion. Any possible fixes for this?


I'm running the following system:


Mac OS X Version 10.7.1 Lion

2.66 GHz Intel Core i7

8 GB 1067 MHz DDR3

Western Digital External Harddrive 1.5TB


Thanks.

Slow copy speeds to USB in Lion

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