iPhone to USB C transfer Speed?

[chris719]

Despite Type-C being designed as the spiffy new, ultra-modern, do-it-all connector, the USB IF made a dumb decision -- it didn't require Type-C cables to support USB 3.x as the minimum data transfer speed, only USB 2.

Practically speaking, most users' cables do serve only as charging cables, and the cost savings was undoubtedly welcome by the manufacturers, but it sets up a trap where when the need arises to transfer data, the result is not the good, modern user experience promised by the fancy new specs.

It's akin to equipping Porsches with S-rated tires standard, because in real life, most owners won't exceed the 65-mph speed limit (by much) anyway. All that potential would need higher speed rated replacement tires to be utilized.

As a result, the majority of cables on the market are really only "charging cables," figuratively-speaking, and one has to specifically seek out the cables that support USB 3 data.

That has made them harder to find, a smaller part of the market, and more expensive to buy, albeit not as much as TB cables.

But anyone who needs or desires TB likely knows, and can justify those circumstances, and TB pricing.

For the average users who do wired data transfers, and don't want cables gimped at USB 2, it adds some challenge, because the majority of Type-C cables one finds on places like Amazon will only support USB 2.

Yes, the problem is that Type C is a connector alone and does not tell you anything about the actual device capabilities or USB standard supported. It gives you scenarios now where a user could plug a monitor into a printer and expect something to happen.

 

[andrew_j]

OK, so first, I am NOT using a cable. Right now Im using a Sandisk flash drive conencted straight to the iphone. It is this model:

View attachment 209951

So USB 3.1, 150MB/s. I cant say Im getting that between the phone and the flash drive. That's whay caused my frustration and the request. Is it worth getting the 400 MB/s version? Or something faster? Id like something that can connect to the ports on my laptop.

My computer supposedly has USB 3, FWIW. it claims 5 Gbps. Does this imply that even my "good" cables, arent??!?

View attachment 209952

Thing is, I know from even back on my iphone 12 Pro, when image capture worked, once it started transferring files and writing them to by USB HDD, it went FAST. And, the new higher resolution, but better compressed HEIC files are smaller than the older lower res JPEGs!

Im willing to try to find another USB cable if it makes my existing USB ports more usable... It would sure beat buying another computer! And burning down my battery trying to backup files to the USB C flash drive. I have Anker USB A-C cables, and theyre really nice and well made... But in looking at my prior purchases, I can see that at least some are only rated as USB 2. I also had some cheap short patch USB A-C but when I looked it up, it was only 480Mbps.

So I need to find a USB A-C that is rated for something faster, right? 5-10 Gbps? Any recommendations? I see that the Anker Powerline II USB A-C is USB 3.1, gen 2, and 10000Mbps. I also see the Cable Creation brand that claims USB 3.2 Gen 2, 10Gbps.

View attachment 209954


I tried that with just a few pics sometime back and it was cumbersome. I dont think it will work when the numbers are in the thousands of files...

Makes perfect sense. 150 Mb/s is READ speed not write speed. You need to spend maybe $100 for a decent SSD usb c drive to get decent transfer speeds. If you have a loose SSD drive (I do when I get rid of computers) you can put into a $10-$25 usb c housing and be good to go.

$15 stick ain’t going to cut it. Good luck

 

[IveBeenRued]

I use a 2TB Samsung T7 SSD to backup my photos from my iPhone 15 Pro. No issues with speed. Just a couple of days ago, I moved about 8 GB in about a minute. And the only reason why that it is even that slow is because I have the drive set up with a FileVault encrypted APFS volume.

 

[JHZR2]

I use a 2TB Samsung T7 SSD to backup my photos from my iPhone 15 Pro. No issues with speed. Just a couple of days ago, I moved about 8 GB in about a minute. And the only reason why that it is even that slow is because I have the drive set up with a FileVault encrypted APFS volume.

Do you connect it direct and use the export function on the phone, or transfer through the computer?

 

[JHZR2]

Well I bought an Anker Powerline II high speed cable. My mac shows that the phone is connected and good for 5Gbps.

But it just sits indefinitely still. I cant use image capture...

Ugh, so disappointed.



I tried my wife's iphone 15, which only has ~11k photos (vs mine which is at 61k), and it worked admirably fast...

So it seems like maybe its the image capture sw itself on my mac, that can't handle this number of photos and videos???

In the past Ive left it all night and it didnt ever come to a list...

 

[IveBeenRued]

Do you connect it direct and use the export function on the phone, or transfer through the computer?

I connect the drive directly to my iPhone and then mount the volume from the “Files” app.

 

[JHZR2]

I connect the drive directly to my iPhone and then mount the volume from the “Files” app.

Sure, but how do you backup photos? You need to go to the photos program and then select and export them all. Or do you have a different process?

 

[JHZR2]

Well, believe it or not, I finally got it working. Horrendously slow, a crash while transferring, but it worked.

Lots of spinning ball. My computer, though old, doesnt do a spinning ball for anything. First it wouldnt show the thumbnails, which, frankly, I wouldnt care one bit about. In fact, Id prefer it didnt show any...

To get it to work, I put the phone in airplane mode. This hadnt worked in the past with my iphone 12 Pro, or my new 15 Pro. Maybe with the faster cable and the airplane mode turned on, it helped. But the SW still barely wanted to work. Not sure if this is because Im pushing the photos to an HDD vs SSD, and its on a regular USB connection...

The computer has plenty of resources. The SW is acting like its starved of data or resources, but I dont see that to be the case...

 

[Pew]

Can you wipe down the inside of port on the iphone and try again? Those things are lint catchers, USB-c is worse for that.

 

[IveBeenRued]

Sure, but how do you backup photos? You need to go to the photos program and then select and export them all. Or do you have a different process?

Yes, I do a bulk export from Photos, the switch to the Files app to compress the folder into a single .ZIP and then copy/paste it to the encrypted volume.

 

[Rand]

I dont know much about mac, but I do know...
you dont have 80GB of ram.. it has to hit each one to load thumbnails etc. That is alot of accessing.
It might run the program out of resources.
(or its just SW limitation that doesn't like that many files)

Possible to do it in smaller jobs of 5-10k files?

 

[JHZR2]

I dont know much about mac, but I do know...
you dont have 80GB of ram.. it has to hit each one to load thumbnails etc. That is alot of accessing.
It might run the program out of resources.
(or its just SW limitation that doesn't like that many files)

Possible to do it in smaller jobs of 5-10k files?

I do it in time. So for example, I hadnt done it some October, and had around 5k files. I have 65k+ in total.

I dont have 80GB in ram, but what surprised me, and I think is the issue, is that the image capture app hardly uses any RAM, which may be part of the problem... I have 16GB, and about half is used...

 

[Rand]

I do it in time. So for example, I hadnt done it some October, and had around 5k files. I have 65k+ in total.

I dont have 80GB in ram, but what surprised me, and I think is the issue, is that the image capture app hardly uses any RAM, which may be part of the problem... I have 16GB, and about half is used...

sounds like a programming limit? Can you just drag and drop the files without the program? Similar to copying files on a computer?
That should retain the date if done correctly.

 

[JHZR2]

sounds like a programming limit? Can you just drag and drop the files without the program? Similar to copying files on a computer?
That should retain the date if done correctly.

No. Thats the dumb thing with how the iphone integrates onto mac. While you can plug an iphone into a PC and it comes up like a mass storage device, which I think I had some issue with (tried it on my windows XP boot on my older mac). You cant access the files that way on a mac, so an image transfer application, or something that takes the photos into a database (like the native photos program) is necessary.

I like image capture. i just wish it would work. Im probably an edge case messing with 65k photos.

 

[Nick1994]

My photos backup to iCloud. When I need them from my computer I go to iCloud.com and can download them right away.

 

[OVERKILL]

My photos backup to iCloud. When I need them from my computer I go to iCloud.com and can download them right away.

If both the Mac and the iPhone are logged into the same iCloud account, provided you have sufficient iCloud space, the Photos app has all the photos in it and you can access through that. I just export them to JPEG's to post them on BITOG for example.

 

[Carmudgeon]

Yes, the problem is that Type C is a connector alone and does not tell you anything about the actual device capabilities or USB standard supported. It gives you scenarios now where a user could plug a monitor into a printer and expect something to happen.

In theory, the cables should be labelled to specify their capabilities, but in practice few makers do. But yes, in general, adopting a universal connector did nothing to eliminate the various disparate functions and circumstances, all it did was conceal them, with the connector no longer functioning to help users discern the purpose of a cable.

No. Thats the dumb thing with how the iphone integrates onto mac. While you can plug an iphone into a PC and it comes up like a mass storage device, which I think I had some issue with (tried it on my windows XP boot on my older mac). You cant access the files that way on a mac, so an image transfer application, or something that takes the photos into a database (like the native photos program) is necessary.

I like image capture. i just wish it would work. Im probably an edge case messing with 65k photos.

I haven't personally used it, but the iMazing app enjoys a good reputation for its flexibilty and access to iOS devices beyond what Apple deigns to offer.

Its photo management features look pretty nice, and licenses can be had in varying device quantities.

Image Capture works for my needs, but has been broken by iOS updates in the past.

I like to manage and organize my media libraries in my own fashion, so I avoid using Photos on the desktop, and don't allow iTunes to build its own library with my music files.

 

[y_p_w]

Is it Lightning at the iPhone end or USB-C? Lightning to USB-A or to USB-C is limited to USB2.0 speeds, with a raw data rate of 480 Mbit/sec.

I have an iPad mini 6, and that's supposed to be capable of up to 5 Mbit/sec with a full USB3.1 cable connected to a computer with USB3.1. But the cable that ships with it is a USB2.0 cable. Apple calls it a "charge and sync" cable. But it's not necessarily the best for full transfer. I've done complete erasure and recovery from a backup, and it is pretty slow.

To get the fastest data transfer speeds requires a USB3.1 cable or possibly a USB3.0 cable. I don't know of anything Apple sells that does that other than their Thunderbolt 4 cable, which is maybe $40. But aftermarket isn't that expensive.

Monoprice Essentials USB-C to USB-C 3.1 Gen 1 Cable - 5Gbps 3A 30AWG Black 2m (6.6 ft)

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=24284

 

[y_p_w]

Yes, the problem is that Type C is a connector alone and does not tell you anything about the actual device capabilities or USB standard supported. It gives you scenarios now where a user could plug a monitor into a printer and expect something to happen.

The vast majority of USB-C to USB-C cables (including the ones shipped with Apple devices) are rated for USB2.0 data speeds. Anything with higher speeds are specialty items. I don't think I have a USB-C 3.1 (or 3.2) cable. I do have a USB-C to USB micro-B drive cable, and that's 3.0 speeds (5 Gbit/sec). I also have a USB-C to HDMI cable, and that has to be at least 5 Mbit/sec in order to drive high-def video.

 

[JHZR2]

Is it Lightning at the iPhone end or USB-C? Lightning to USB-A or to USB-C is limited to USB2.0 speeds, with a raw data rate of 480 Mbit/sec.

I have an iPad mini 6, and that's supposed to be capable of up to 5 Mbit/sec with a full USB3.1 cable connected to a computer with USB3.1. But the cable that ships with it is a USB2.0 cable. Apple calls it a "charge and sync" cable. But it's not necessarily the best for full transfer. I've done complete erasure and recovery from a backup, and it is pretty slow.

To get the fastest data transfer speeds requires a USB3.1 cable or possibly a USB3.0 cable. I don't know of anything Apple sells that does that other than their Thunderbolt 4 cable, which is maybe $40. But aftermarket isn't that expensive.

Monoprice Essentials USB-C to USB-C 3.1 Gen 1 Cable - 5Gbps 3A 30AWG Black 2m (6.6 ft)

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=24284

My iPhone is usb c. Both the usb port and the phone seem capable of 5Gbps when the right cable is used.

I bought an Anker powerline II and after a try it worked. I think the image capture sw has limitations creating a list with 68k entries of data. It seems like almost a bug spreadsheet with thumbnails in one section. But doesn’t seem to use the ram it needs for all of it.

But the fast data cable seems to help too.