Slow copy speeds to USB in Lion

Having the same USB transfer rate issues with Lion on both an MB-Pro and iMac (both Mid 2010) — 10.7.2 update does not seem to have helped either,

An official fix for this would be greatly appreciated from our Apple overlords —

C

Same problem when backing up to TM. 10 mb/s max... this morning it took 10 mins to register 400 bytes. Still have 90 GB to go.

Went up to 10 mb/s only after I did an archive and install to replace the OS. All permissions repaired successfully, disks verified, AHT.

10.7.2 as well. Apple fix this!

Continuing to try and trouble shoot this issue, I formatted a 4Gb USB stick as a DOS Fat32 so it would also work work in my PVR.

On copying a file from my mac to the fat32 USB the copy speeds were much much quicker than a Mac formatted partition. Still about half of what they were previously though. Curiouser and curiouser ...

I also notice that it takes forever for my USB devices to appear on my desktop when I plug them in - sometimes 20 or 30 seconds.

As an aside, I have a Canon 7D and have noted if a transfer photos directly from the camera to the Mac via a USB cable, transfer speed are fast and completely normal.

Please Apple, something is not right here.

iMac 2.8 Ghz i7

8Gb 1067 DDR3

exactly the same problem!!! The speed is ok when I send files to my ipad with itunes but when I use a USB key or another external memory the speed transfer is very low.

I have a macbook pro with Intell Core 2 Duo 2.53 Ghz. On my brother's new macbook pro i5 and on my girlfriend's new macbook air i5 this problem doesn't exist. apple help us!!!

I have the same issue on my 2011 iMac 27" 3.4Ghz. It came with Lion already installed. UPgraded to 10.7.2 when it came out. I'm using the same CF card and same CF reader (USB 2.0) as I've had for months and used perfectly fine on multiple Windows Desktops and notebooks. Transfer speed has never been an issue until I insert it into the iMac. It's horrificly slow.

Right now, I'm importing 55 photo's into Lightroom. Each file is 25MB. It took about 40 minutes !!!!

The HD trashes like mad while the import is going on. I also tested just copying files with the finder (I quit Lightroom) and the speed is the same.

Apple please help us. The "It just works" mantra is why I decided to buy an iMac in the first place and I'm finding it ain't so.

I'm now getting this on my MBP and iMac, so **** frustrating! Does anyone know on here how to flag this to apple because a lot of us on here are asking and clearly no one official is replying. Quite obvious there's a pretty fundamental issue here and it needs Apple to investigate and I don't see a way how unless you pay for enlongated support!! Does anyone have that? If they do would it be worth a call to highlight this thread?

This is the official feedback form available through apple's OSX support page — the form itself is quite specific, I have filled this out in the hope that raising it officially will prompt some response from apple as this issue is becoming massively problematic for me,

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

Best,

C

Has anyone seen a solution to this?

This issue remains unresolved for me and is causing immense problems. So much so I'm using an original iMac G5 (circa 2004) to use a card reader to download files from my Canon 7D camera, burn onto a DVD then copy from the DVD onto my i7 mac to work on in Photoshop. That's much quicker than using the card reader on the i7.

Seriously?

As a keen amateur photographer this issue is seriously disrupting my workflow. It is also causing issues with backing data up to external hard drives not to mention day to day issues with copying files to and from USB data sticks. As mentioned previously, this was not an issue with Snow Leopard so is squarely an OS Lion issue.

As Smugairle points out, the best course of action is for anyone who is affected to fill out an official Apple feedback form. OS 10.7.3 is due in the next few weeks so - hopefully - the issue may be addressed in this update.

Regards

I opened a case with Apple on this and it basically ended nowhere. They figured it was a compatibility problem with my CF reader and the iMac (2011 i7). The issue, at least for me stems from which USB standard the iMac thinks the reader is.

When I insert my CF reader sometimes the iMac sees it as a USB 2.0 device (speed of 480 Mb/sec), but sometimes it's seen as a USB 1.1 or 1.0 device (speed of only 12 Mb/sec). On my iMac atleast, ejecting and unplugging the reader from the USB port and plugging it back in, will eventually get it into the 480 Mb/sec speed.

It should be on the 480 Mb/sec speed. That's the USB 2.0 standard.

To see the speed of the device, go into "About this Mac" (in the Apple menu top left corner), then click the "System Report..." button, which opens "System Information" app. Under Hardware go to USB and look for your USB CF reader. Mine is listed below. It should say "Speed: Up to 480 Mb/sec). If it doesn't you know it's going to be slow.

Apple tech support gave me a lousy copout saying since my device isn't an Apple device they can't gaurantee compatibility. Hog Wash I say. First of all, Apple doesn't even sell an Apple branded CF reader. They sell only one, a Moshi, which isn't as convenient as the device I currently have and has worked flawlessly on my Windows PC's for years. Second, a Firewire 800 reader would be even faster than a USB 2.0 reader, but they are nowhere to be found. Lexar and Sandisk did make one (maybe still do) but they aren't available for purchase anywhere in North America that I've seen, atleast not for any reasonable price.

And where are all the Thunderbolt devices? They are nowhere !! No eSata interface nor USB 3.0 on any Mac either. Well MacPro might have eSata. Apple missed the boat on the connectivity huge!

So, try unplugging your reader and plugging it back in. Even try different USB ports. On my system it doesn't matter which port I use, they're all about 50/50.

Try buying the CF reader that Apple sells in their store. If you have the nerve to walk into an Apple retail store (I don't) bring a CF card, have them plug their reader into their iMac and see what speed shows up in the System Information.

Here's what mine looks like -

USB2 CF Device :

Product ID: 0x2b00

Vendor ID: 0x55aa (OnSpec Electronic Inc.)

Version: 2.22

Serial Number: 33433747A357

Speed: Up to 480 Mb/sec

Manufacturer: OnSpec

Location ID: 0xfd140000 / 5

Current Available (mA): 500

Current Required (mA): 400

Thanks myc5. Really helpful info.

I checked my card reader and its reported speed is up to 480 Mb/sec , but , I still get lousy copy speeds.

I agree it is a cop out on Apple's part. USB is a standard and devices that comply with the standard should, in Apple's lexicology, just work.

Clearly they don't.

If it was just a specific device I could understand but I have literally tens of USB data sticks from all kinds of manufacturers, a number of Hard Disks from Maxtor and Western Digital and a card reader and they ALL have this issue. All of them.

I'm also confused as to why they ALL worked just fine under Snow Leopard but not under Lion. My hardware hasn't changed at all - just the OS.

I have solved the slow transfer speed problem, at least on my Snow Leopard machine.

See this post:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3618311?answerId=17167952022#17167952022

I am not sure what finally did it. But I removed all devices from Bluetooth control panel, set BlueTooth not to turn on at start-up, deactivated the Bluetooth PDA-sync and serial/RS-232 virtual ports (in the advanced settings of the Bluetooth control panel), unplugged all USB devices, restarted, then plugged in just the device in question and then it was nice and fast.

It could be that Lion came with Bluetooth on by default. The Bluetooth interface sits on the USB bus, but it only runs at USB 1 speeds. Another thread was saying that Bluetooth therefore can slowyou down somehow. Apple's support page I link to on that other thread indicates that if any USB 1 devices are connected, it could affect the whole bus, and disconnecting them could solve this.

I haven't tried turning Bluetooth back on to see if that was the problem. Let me know if this helps you.

Daddie Mac

Ritchie-

I know that my issue happened on SL and yours on Lion. But, it was the same basic issue, and they are the same basic operating system. Lion is not 100% new, most of its code is the same as in Snow Leopard. Also, this may be a hardware/firmware issue and unrelated to which version of the OS it is. I know you said that you did not have the problem before Lion, and forgive me if you already answered this, but did you try booting in Snow Leopard (perhaps from a temporary test partition) and it became fast again? Try disabling any 3rd party USB stuff?

Anyway sorry if you tried all that.

But with my machine, I not only had to disconnect everything from USB and do all those steps I mentioned, bur I also had to restart. In fact it went back to being slow again on its own without any other changes, after my machine had been turned on for awhile, and I found I had to repeat the steps, restart fresh, and then it went back to being fast again. So restarting is key.

Again, sorry if you tried all that too... just trying to help.

DaddieMac ,

Thanks for your help.

This issue is a Lion issue as things worked fine in Snow Leopard - BUT - at this stage, any ideas are helpful.

Anyway, I have a wireless (Bluetooth) keyboard, magic trackpad and mouse - as I think most modern iMacs do now - so turning off Bluetooth isn't viable for me. I tried it anyhow just to see but it made no difference for me either.

I think we are all stuck now until Apple addresses this. What worries me is that most users seem unaffected so the question is why is this affecting only a small percentage of users. As USB speeds were fine under Snow Leopard it is clearly a software issue. Whether this is a Lion issue or perhaps a third party software issue is difficult to determine.

It would be great if someone affected by this issue has the time and capacity to do a clean install of Lion to see if it is a third party software effect or a Lion issue.

regards

Mitch