Catalina OS on Macbook pro = Slow offload speeds from Mini Mags

[Matt Hardy]

Help!

I just updated a 2013 macbook pro (used primarly for DIT) from El Cap to Catalina 10.15.2. Everything seems to work fine but today when I was dumping footage off the minimag to an external HD speeds were CRAWLING.... like 2 hours for 120 gb - usually takes about 20 minutes. Transfers between 2 external drives work fine. Something to do with how the red reader/minimag are seen by the OS?

ANy Ideas?

Thanks,

[Jarred Land]

try a different cable. looks like its reverting to USB 2. You can check this by clicking on the apple logo / about this mac / system report / scroll down to USB and then look at the mag reader, if it says 12Mb under speed then thats the case

[Matt Hardy]

Thanks Jarred. I check and attached my screenshot. It says up to 5 g/b. Is there anyway to see live transfer speed. Using reds Usb c to usb 3 cable on the newer reader model.

[Anthony Berenato Jr]

Thanks Jarred. I check and attached my screenshot. It says up to 5 g/b. Is there anyway to see live transfer speed. Using reds Usb c to usb 3 cable on the newer reader model.

If you use Hedge (an offloading app that I definitely recommend) or Forklift (a Mac file-transfer app that uses rsync), you'll be able to see the transfer speed.

Hedge: https://hedge.video
Forklift: https://binarynights.com

[Matt Hardy]

If you use Hedge (an offloading app that I definitely recommend) or Forklift (a Mac file-transfer app that uses rsync), you'll be able to see the transfer speed.

Hedge: https://hedge.video
Forklift: https://binarynights.com

I use shotput pro. I tested via finder and shotput pro and speeds were the same. Both super slow. Any way to check current speed in shotput pro?

[Med D]

Unless I am mistaken that upgrade probably took you to an APFS system. I had some issues when I first upgraded to APFS for Mojave. Is your external HD an SSD or a spinning drive? My issues were all with SSDs as some SSD controllers had some APFS compatibility issues. I think these were all cleared up though, as my Mojave suddenly started working fine after a month or so, I believe after a series of updates to the OS.

You may want to test with a different external drive or better yet do your testing to your main drive.

[Matt Hardy]

Unless I am mistaken that upgrade probably took you to an APFS system. I had some issues when I first upgraded to APFS for Mojave. Is your external HD an SSD or a spinning drive? My issues were all with SSDs as some SSD controllers had some APFS compatibility issues. I think these were all cleared up though, as my Mojave suddenly started working fine after a month or so, I believe after a series of updates to the OS.

You may want to test with a different external drive or better yet do your testing to your main drive.

This sounds right. I tested other drives and things were fine. It seems to be having issues with the red minimag ssd’s. Spinning external to spinning external works fine.

[Med D]

To be clear, I did not have trouble with any RED media as I don't own any currently. It was specific external SSDs. For sure though I would make sure your OS has all updates. I would think all the APFS bugs would be worked out by now but who knows.

[Tom Gleeson]

On every MAC OS in the "Utilities" folder there is an App called "Activity Monitor" that can reveal quite a few performance parameters including transfer speeds. I often check this as occasionally a spinning drive just seems to transfer data at half the rate of another identical drive. If so a cable swap and a reboot can sometimes fix it although clients keep turning up with crappy cheap HDDs to record their valuable projects.

[Matt Hardy]

Still no luck on speeding things up. I have tried different reader and different cables. When I check "activity monitor" I get around 35-70mb/sec read and 10-55mb/sec write. Average write is probably around 40mb/sec which is slow. I do think this is an issue with APFS on the new Catalina update. Possible the Red Mini Mags aren't talking correctly to APFS? Any way to update firmware on these cards? These cards are the grey 120GB minimags.

Also I noticed that the red light on the minimag reader blinks then goes solid, then blinks, then goes solid.... repeating this. I don't remember it doing this in the past?