iPhone 15 Pro Max File transfer speed results for iPhone 15 Pro series - much lower than advertised

[vertsix]

Hello,

These are my results from short testing file transfer speeds on my new iPhone 15 Pro Max using Windows. Surprisingly, no reviewers covered this in their reviews.

Setup: ThinkPad T480 (Windows)
Cable: Anker USB-C USB 3.2 Gen 2 Cable
Port: Thunderbolt 3 Port (40 Gbps rated)
SSD: Samsung 990 Pro 1TB through NVMe (Read peaks at 1.4 GB/s)
iPhone model: iPhone 15 Pro Max 1TB

Test #1: Transferring 20,000 songs through iTunes
Speed: 35-50 MB/s

Test #2: Restoring iPhone through DFU and IPSW
Speed: 20-120 MB/s

Test #3: Transferring a 4GB MKV file through iTunes File Sharing
Speed: 90-110 MB/s

It's important to note the USB 3.1 Gen 2 port of the iPhone 15 Pros are able to do 10 Gbps (which is around 1.2 GB/s), and this is not reflected in this testing. This around 10x slower.

Anyone with a Mac that can test these speeds through Finder?

Thanks!

 

[hovscorpion12]

I'm trying to look deeper into this.

 

[vertsix]

I'm trying to look deeper into this.

Thanks! For me the speeds to be quite variable too. Let us know what you get.

 

[Xian Zhu Xuande]

You may want to find tests that do not involve signifiant unrelated processing overhead. It is not uncommon for high potential transfer speeds to not be the greatest bottleneck in a process. And it would be ideal to be able to compare with another cable.

 

[Ryan P]

I'm trying to look deeper into this.

I’m curious why they limited ProRes 4K60 to only external recorders. The data rate isn’t that high. So either the internal storage is slow, the didn’t want people to fill up their phones and iCloud accounts super quickly, or was a thermal issue.

 

[hovscorpion12]

I’m curious why they limited ProRes 4K60 to only external recorders. The data rate isn’t that high. So either the internal storage is slow, the didn’t want people to fill up their phones and iCloud accounts super quickly, or was a thermal issue.

As far I know, its intended to keep the Files off the internal storage and allow for easy editing off the SSD in either FCP, DaVinci Resole or Premier Pro.

 

[vertsix]

You may want to find tests that do not involve signifiant unrelated processing overhead. It is not uncommon for high potential transfer speeds to not be the greatest bottleneck in a process. And it would be ideal to be able to compare with another cable.

So, you mean doing it without iTunes and just through file explorer? Is that even possible on Windows or macOS? IIRC, you can only get direct filesystem access to folders using external storage drives on iOS, not through a Mac or PC.

 

[Ryan P]

As far I know, its intended to keep the Files off the internal storage and allow for easy editing off the SSD in either FCP, DaVinci Resole or Premier Pro.

Just odd that 4K 30P ProRes is fine. It has all of those needs, except has half the bitrate of 4K 60P.

 

[Xian Zhu Xuande]

So, you mean doing it without iTunes and just through file explorer? Is that even possible on Windows or macOS? IIRC, you can only get direct filesystem access to folders using external storage drives on iOS, not through a Mac or PC.

It’s a tricky one because most file transfer purposes presently involve a lot of behind-the-scenes processing, and it seems as though you have made selections this may be pertinent for. These sorts of transfers will be very different from those which are solely based on transferring data (as opposed to involving other steps like gathering, organizing, processing, preparing). It would be easy if the iPhone could be mounted as a storage device and managed directly as such in the operating system. If you want to test capabilities you really need circumstances that are designed specifically for the testing (e.g. a benchmark app) or some circumstance that is much more single-mindedly interested in file transfer rather than the other considerations.

 

[mrochester]

I presume the primary function the faster USB protocol is designed to speed up is getting your high resolution/frame rate content off your iPhone from the DCIM folder.

 

[Nik73]

This is in no way a scientific test, but I transferred about 100gb of music from my 2019 iMac onto my 15PM with a USB 3.2 cable and it took about 10 minutes tops. Frankly I was amazed compared to doing it over lightning.

 

[vertsix]

This is in no way a scientific test, but I transferred about 100gb of music from my 2019 iMac onto my 15PM with a USB 3.2 cable and it took about 10 minutes tops. Frankly I was amazed compared to doing it over lightning.

Through Finder?

 

[Nik73]

Through Finder?

Yep. I was watching something on YouTube and not paying attention to it, but noticed the progress bar was about 80% done and the video timer was at 7:49. Next time I looked at around 11:00, it was done.

 

[hovscorpion12]

Now I’m curious if Windows is hindering the transfer Vs MacOS

 

[vinegarshots]

Super slow for me on Windows as well

 

[vertsix]

Super slow for me on Windows as well

Honestly, I think its just iTunes. Can you try any of the Apple devices apps from the Microsoft Store to see if its any better?

Apple Devices - Free download and install on Windows | Microsoft Store

Manage Apple devices from your Windows PC using the Apple Devices app.

apps.microsoft.com

 

[vinegarshots]

Honestly, I think its just iTunes. Can you try any of the Apple devices apps from the Microsoft Store to see if its any better?

Apple Devices - Free download and install on Windows | Microsoft Store

Manage Apple devices from your Windows PC using the Apple Devices app.

apps.microsoft.com

I dont transfer files with iTunes.

One thing that just helped improve my speeds:
Settings > Photos > Transfer to Mac or PC > Keep Originals.

Previously had it set to automatic. For some reason, changing to Keep Originals has sped things up a bit. 4GB in 23 seconds, which still isnt 10Gb, but it's still much faster than USB 2.

 

[840quadra]

Your testing, and need to know speeds in that situation is valid, but really only to that situation. I think iTunes is not the way to go for reasons others have stated, too much processing overhead and other variables.

For my tests I typically use an external storage device such as an SD Card, or now that we have USB-C, a NVME blade drive within a good enclosure + cable.

I intend to test the phone against my iPad Mini 6, as well as my 11” iPad Pro with such items.

 

[maratus]

This is in no way a scientific test, but I transferred about 100gb of music from my 2019 iMac onto my 15PM with a USB 3.2 cable and it took about 10 minutes tops. Frankly I was amazed compared to doing it over lightning.

That’s 160-170 MB/s, which is still a fraction of iPhone internal SSD speed and USB 3.0 interface. It should be possible to reach speeds 5-6 times faster. Does your iMac have a HDD for storage? That could be the bottleneck.

 

[Fooh]

I was initially disappointed with the transfer speeds between the finder in macOS on my M1 Max MacBook Pro, and my iPhone 15 pro max Using a thunderbolt 4 cable. But when I connected the phone to an SSD and transferred a 10 GP file using the files app in iOS it did it in about 10 seconds. There must be an issue with MacOS.

 

[vertsix]

Your testing, and need to know speeds in that situation is valid, but really only to that situation. I think iTunes is not the way to go for reasons others have stated, too much processing overhead and other variables.

For my tests I typically use an external storage device such as an SD Card, or now that we have USB-C, a NVME blade drive within a good enclosure + cable.

I intend to test the phone against my iPad Mini 6, as well as my 11” iPad Pro with such items.

Thanks for your reply, looking forward to your results!

 

[vertsix]

Update: I have done further testing. I transfered the same file to my iPhone using iTunes File Sharing and iMazing, and get similar speeds.

Same cable and port as mentioned in the OP.

Only a measly 50 MB/s.

 

[maverick786us]

I’m curious why they limited ProRes 4K60 to only external recorders. The data rate isn’t that high. So either the internal storage is slow, the didn’t want people to fill up their phones and iCloud accounts super quickly, or was a thermal issue.

I saw a video in YT in which a guy demonstrated storing Pro Res 4K60 on a 1TB external SSD drive. On the camera interface it showed that he could only record 75 minutes of video in 1TB, 148 Minutes in 2TB and 289 Minutes in 4TB. With 256 GB iPhone storage it will record mere 18.75 minutes of Pro Res 4K video @ 60FPS. Maybe that's the reason apple disabled it.

 

[vertsix]

Update: I have done further testing. I transfered the same file to my iPhone using iTunes File Sharing and iMazing, and get similar speeds.

What's more staggering is the amount of CPU resources used. There's so much overhead. The culprit seems to be 'MobileDeviceProcess' which I believe is an iTunes binary from who knows what year.

 

[yamatokoushi]

So I did a simple iPhone backup to computer, it fluctuates from 20MBps to 215MBps so round 160Mbps to 1.72Gbps, I have iPhone 15 Pro with an Apple Thunderbolt 3 cable, running MacOS Ventura 13.4 on a Macbook Pro 16 inch 2019.

edit: specify what computer I'm using