Extremely slow external SSD’s and HDD‘s on MacBook Pro 16 M1 Max

[osplo]

As mentioned I made some benchmarks comparing Monterey 12.6 and Ventura 13.4 on the same machine, MacBook Air M1.

Most show that Ventura is slightly faster but my external HDD access is slightly slower but not significantly slower at all (in fact, some accesses are a bit faster). Opening directories is immediate.

Nothing to complain at all. Maybe I am just lucky, I don't know.


Internal SSD (1TB): Ventura 13.4:

Internal SSD (1TB): Monterrey 12.6:

NAS from MacBookAir (over WiFi): Ventura 13.4:

NAS from MacBookAir (over WiFi): Monterrey 12.6:

Lacie external 5TB HDD: Ventura 12.4:

Lacie external 5TB HDD: Monterrey 12.6:

The external HDD is connected directly through the USB-C port. No hubs in between. I ran the test a few times to check for consistency and there is not much variation, either on battery or plugged.

 

[StruckbyLight]

Well, both are on par, at least for me. Benchmarks follow.

Thanks!
Did you upgrade from Monterey to Ventrua? Or did you do a clean installation?
What's the file format of your external drives? Are they all APFS?

 

[osplo]

Did you upgrade from Monterey to Ventura? Or did you do a clean installation?
What's the file format of your external drives? Are they all APFS?

I upgraded from Monterey. No clean install.

There are two volumes in the external HDD, both APFS.

 

[StruckbyLight]

Any updates after 13.4.1?

 

[The_No10]

Any updates after 13.4.1?

Can confirm NO!

Had no idea of this issue until today. Needed to save a bunch of RAW photos onto a brand new T7 and it’s literally taking HOURS. Reformatted to APFS and zero difference. And to be clear, I’m going from files on my MacBook M1 Pro 14” to the SSD. I moved some files from an SD card to the T7 with zero problems.

And something I also didn’t know about is the DUPLICATED files in the cache Library for One Drive. So if you have 300GB of duplicated storage…..yeah, that also was not fixed in the update.

Seriously, people spend $3k on laptops and it’s a complete s-show. How this company has the stock price it does is mind boggling based on the things I encounter with their products ALL.THE.TIME. Now. They better get their act together because it’s only a matter of time before people catch on that Apple aren’t the kings of R&D anymore (to justify their pricing strategy)…and they are really a big cluster that is rolling out straight trash lately.

This is a PROFESSIONAL GRADE laptop, and I can't even do a bare minimum function of moving files?!!? Seriously, WTH is happening here?

****UPDATE***** This update is an absolute CLUSTER F. Every one of my files in my One Drive destination are corrupted. AGAIN, WTF IS APPLE DOING?!!!!

 

[bpcoelho]

Taking 12 hours to copy 200GB between two external USB 3.0 HDs on my Mac Mini 2018 (Intel), running Ventura 13.4.1. Both HDs use Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

 

[HDFan]

Needed to save a bunch of RAW photos onto a brand new T7 and it’s literally taking HOURS.

Taking 12 hours to copy 200GB

If you want this to get fixed then file a bug with Apple feedback and/or call support. They likely read MacRumors but there is no way to confirm that so posting here isn't going to get it fixed.

 

[The_No10]

If you want this to get fixed then file a bug with Apple feedback and/or call support. They likely read MacRumors but there is no way to confirm that so posting here isn't going to get it fixed.

Dude, I get it for small issues, but this is a known issue happening since the LAST update. This is a bare minimum function that CREATIVE PROFESSIONALS do on a daily basis. It’s inexcusable and people shouldn’t even need to be opening any ticket when it’s been going on for this long. People pay a HUGE premium for Apple products and this kind of stuff is becoming way too common.

 

[osplo]

Dude, I get it for small issues, but this is a known issue happening since the LAST update. This is a bare minimum function that CREATIVE PROFESSIONALS do on a daily basis. It’s inexcusable and people shouldn’t even need to be opening any ticket when it’s been going on for this long. People pay a HUGE premium for Apple products and this kind of stuff is becoming way too common.

I understand your frustration. I would be angry too.

However, I don't think this is a widespread issue, based on the number of members posting about this thing. I posted my access times to internal, NAS and external disks above; Ventura is fine for me and probably for most users. It could be possible that you are experiencing a hardware failure. In any case, reporting it to Apple will only make getting the fix for your nasty problem faster.

 

[HDFan]

Dude, I get it for small issues, but this is a known issue happening since the LAST update.

It is not just an issue of being known, assuming that is the case, it is a case of prioritization. The greater the number of reports the higher it goes on the "to do list". Small issues become big ones when there are massive numbers of problem reports. Particularly important when only certain people experience the problem:

Ventura is fine for me and probably for most users.

 

[hoopyfrube1968]

I'm having the same issue on my Studio M1 Max. I have a Thunderbolt 3 Sabrent dual enclosure NVME with 4TB of SSD. Since upgrading to Ventura, Finder spins for seconds before displaying folders and files.

I have a similar situation.
External thunderbolt enclosure with 2tb NVME....

On iMac Pro with Ventura.
Boot is fine.
But its login where it all goes wrong.
Takes 1-2 minutes to get to the desktop.
Once logged in its all ok...

Did you get any solution, or are we all waiting on Apple to pull their collective fingers out?

Oh, and one more update.. This is quite intermittent.. so I fiddle with various things... reset PRAM, SMC, change some folder groups.. and then I test... by rebooting.. and logging in and it all appears to be fine.. (Yay... I think I'll post my findings.. and then boom 3rd boot, and then login is slow again)..

(I should say that my documents are one the external drive, and I have a symlink from the documents in the user)..

The intermittent nature of this makes this awkward to diagnose.. I have used other NVME enclosures and they exhibited problems too... but in that case the desktop would appear (but the disks wouldn't show up on the desktop for 3 minutes).. whereas on the enclosure I am now, the beachball appears after I put my password in to login.. so it does manifest differently.

 

[hoopyfrube1968]

I have a similar situation.
External thunderbolt enclosure with 2tb NVME....

On iMac Pro with Ventura.
Boot is fine.
But its login where it all goes wrong.
Takes 1-2 minutes to get to the desktop.
Once logged in its all ok...

Did you get any solution, or are we all waiting on Apple to pull their collective fingers out?

Oh, and one more update.. This is quite intermittent.. so I fiddle with various things... reset PRAM, SMC, change some folder groups.. and then I test... by rebooting.. and logging in and it all appears to be fine.. (Yay... I think I'll post my findings.. and then boom 3rd boot, and then login is slow again)..

(I should say that my documents are one the external drive, and I have a symlink from the documents in the user)..

The intermittent nature of this makes this awkward to diagnose.. I have used other NVME enclosures and they exhibited problems too... but in that case the desktop would appear (but the disks wouldn't show up on the desktop for 3 minutes).. whereas on the enclosure I am now, the beachball appears after I put my password in to login.. so it does manifest differently.

From another thread it suggests copying the contents of your misbehaving disk to somewhere safe.. then reformat the disk (I reformatted mine as APFS again.. (as it was previously APFS)... then I copied the saved contents back on.
It has definitely fixed it. Why? I have no idea. It's formatted exactly the same as it was originally... all that has happened is I have copied its contents.. reformatted it.. and copied its contents on again. This suggests that there is a bug in disk utility that occasionally formats disks in a way that makes them play up like this. The solution... reformat.

Hope this helps someone.

 

[EddRadcliffe]

I think I have found a solution:

I had two external SSD drives slow to a crawl (30Mbs ish).

After much wrangling and 2 hrs on the phone with support, I found the solution that has worked for me so far.

When I was reviewing the hard drive in disk utility (see attached), the blue bar at the very top level was in fact red. A detail I had glossed over on the support call but revisited on my own. I was still able to read and write to the drive, so without looking here, there was no indication to say something was wrong. I have now rebuilt the drive with a new GUID map, and the issues have disappeared on both drives.

This was a happy accident.

Please check your drives to see if the very top level (above mounted APFS volume and above APFS container, ensure 'show all devices' is checked as per screenshot.) Perform the drive erase at that top level. WARNING, your data will be erased.

I can't verify if this works outside of my own system, but I would be happy to know if this works for others.

Edd

 

[EddRadcliffe]

I think I have found a solution:

I had two external SSD drives slow to a crawl (30Mbs ish).

After much wrangling and 2 hrs on the phone with support, I found the solution that has worked for me so far.

When I was reviewing the hard drive in disk utility (see attached), the blue bar at the very top level was in fact red. A detail I had glossed over on the support call but revisited on my own. I was still able to read and write to the drive, so without looking here, there was no indication to say something was wrong. I have now rebuilt the drive with a new GUID map, and the issues have disappeared on both drives.

This was a happy accident.

Please check your drives to see if the very top level (above mounted APFS volume and above APFS container, ensure 'show all devices' is checked as per screenshot.) Perform the drive erase at that top level. WARNING, your data will be erased.

I can't verify if this works outside of my own system, but I would be happy to know if this works for others.

Edd

I spoke too soon.... its started happening again but leaving this up as its as much part of the trouble shooting as anything else.

 

[ryanfritzsche]

I've been having weird versions of this issue since getting an M1 Ultra Mac Studio 2 weeks ago, that came w/ Ventura. Had a Thunderbolt 3 G-RAID, that was already formatted APFS, that was behaving very strangely - hanging, then recovering and operating just fine. The issues seemed to persist whether it was connected via TB or USB-C. When connected via USB-C, the system profiler showed it as having only 480 Mb/s connection speed. Turned out that the problems all went away when I unplugged a different, small, bus-powered Samsung HFS+ USB drive that I was using as a time machine backup. I plugged in a fresh LaCie Rugged bus-powered USB drive, formatted it as APFS in Ventura, and now use it as my time machine backup. So it seems that the presence of an old HFS+ USB drive on the system was causing issues with the G-RAID. That said, I have a G-Speed XL 8-bay RAID, Thunderbolt 2, that is HFS+, and is connected via TB2 to TB3 adapter, and it hasn't given me any trouble at all.

Anyway... my conclusion is that even if it is not the true or ultimate fix to this issue, that reformatting any attached USB drives into APFS on the Ventura system seems to eliminate these issues. It also seems that while it mostly only impacts drives connected by USB, there seemed to be some impact on the G-RAID connected via TB3, which makes no sense with the rest of the symptoms, and/or the fact that my other TB2 and TB3 devices are behaving fine.

 

[StruckbyLight]

Any fixes in 13.5?
Anyone?

 

[ryanfritzsche]

All of my issues have been in 13.5, as I updated my machine to 13.5 as soon as I got it. For all I know, 13.5 could be causing it.

 

[thomasjans]

I have the same problem, I takes a few seconds to display the contents of a drive after clicking the folder, but I noticed the drive isn't lighting up while waiting for the files to appear, so it's not the drive, but how OSX handles the info that takes longer.

 

[StruckbyLight]

I spoke too soon.... its started happening again but leaving this up as its as much part of the trouble shooting as anything else.

Did you upgrade to 13.5?
Is that making a difference?

 

[petedv]

hi, did anyone find a fix for this issue, I'm running 13.5 and still have this problem.

 

[darthaddie]

I have the same problem in Ventura and the latest Sonoma Beta 5. Did anyone find a solution?

 

[StruckbyLight]

New 13.5.2 is out with a new logo as well!
Any updates people?

 

[StruckbyLight]

latest Sonoma Beta 5

That is frightening !!

 

[petedv]

I have just upgraded to 13.5.2 and still slow transfer, the only work around I have found is that if you copy your material to the internal hard drive and then copy to external its much faster, however I think its still noticeably slower when you do this

 

[monokakata]

I had the same problem -- Finder agonizingly slow to bring up files on my 4-day TB3 enclosure. With Monterey/iMac Pro all was well but with M2 Studio / Ventura it wasn't. In another thread somebody suggested switching to Forklift, which I did. Problem instantly disappeared. I'll swap a few bucks for a useful Finder replacement for talking on the phone to Apple or surfing around the net looking for solutions, any day.