iPhone 15 Pro Recording to SSD: Is it reliable?

[Macalicious2011]

Who here has recorded video directly on to an SSD? If so, what is your experience?
Today I recorded test footage to my Samsung T7. During inspection I noticed that there was 3 seconds of Sutter in the video. This has now made me wary of recording to an SSD and instead sticking to the iPhone's internal storage.

There are plenty of 10gbps SSD drives on the market. However are any of them actually designed for the use case of recording video directly on to?

 

[sack_peak]

Reliable enough for Apple to enable it.

 

[Shirasaki]

The reliability comes from the connection between your iPhone and your SSD. Mind you that you can only record log video from iPhone 15 pro max directly to external ssd. Internal storage wont work.
The stutter you see probably comes from intermittent connection between iPhone and ssd. Not enough to corrupt the video but enough to cause those few frames missing from the final footage.

 

[Slartibart]

What file system are you using on the T7?

 

[Macalicious2011]

What file system are you using on the T7?

Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

Do you recommend a different format?

 

[Slartibart]

APFS. It is much faster at basically everything on SSDs —data handling, copying, whatever are quicker.

 

[AlecEdworthy]

Apple support APFS or exFAT - https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT212832

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

I get flawless results using Sandisk Extreme 2TB, formatted exFAT.

Does the Samsung T7 use any type of encryption? Cause I know some models have a finger sensor.

 

[Slartibart]

I get flawless results using Sandisk Extreme 2TB, formatted exFAT.

Then you are clearly lucky so far. The Sandisk SSDs seem to have quite some problems; if your use does not require moving data between different OSs, APFS is the best choice on a SSD for the use with iOS/iPadOS; there is a long running thread here on MR about file corruption and other problems, as well as how to avoid/minimize these, when using external storage with iOS/iPadOS. Very short summary of it: if possible use APFS on a SSD, use FileBrowser (Pro) instead of Apple Files when copying or moving files around.
Otherwise: if you must use Exfat on a SSD, have some computer at hand to fix file system inconsistency iOS/iPadOS will introduce at some point in time.

Does the Samsung T7 use any type of encryption? Cause I know some models have a finger sensor.

1.) Samsung includes a separate program with their SSDs which you can use to encrypt them under macOS and Window. Personally I do not use it. 2.) If you use macOS' Disk Utility to encrypt a storage device, e.g. a APFS container, the effect on latencies is negligible in the OP’s scenario.

 

[Macalicious2011]

APFS. It is much faster at basically everything on SSDs —data handling, copying, whatever are quicker.

Is that format good for recording and for using the ssd as an editing drive for final cut pro?

 

[Macalicious2011]

I get flawless results using Sandisk Extreme 2TB, formatted exFAT.

Does the Samsung T7 use any type of encryption? Cause I know some models have a finger sensor.

It does have encryption but I am not using it.

 

[Ariel32]

Thank you for starting this thread. I have just purchased T7 Shield during Prime Days and have no idea how to get started. I have downloaded the software for MacOS, but all the program seems to do is let you change settings for whether you want a password or not. What am I missing? How do you format this thing?

 

[unrigestered]

never used it since i prefer using the native solution so i don't need to install additional software that might break in future OS updates or will be abandoned.

my uneducated guess though, is that if that App won't allow you to format your drives, the way to do this is to format your drives with macOS's Disk Util and then run that encryption program on it

 

[Slartibart]

How do you format this thing?

Just use Disk Utility on your Mac.

 

[JPack]

How much free space was on the drive? With a TLC drive, you want to have at least 1/3 free space to serve as cache.

Try using a different drive. These drives are bus-powered and iPhone can only pump out 4.5W. Older drives like T7 use a bridge chip which means more power. Newer ones like Crucial X6 and X9 Pro don’t.

 

[bradman83]

Who here has recorded video directly on to an SSD? If so, what is your experience?
Today I recorded test footage to my Samsung T7. During inspection I noticed that there was 3 seconds of Sutter in the video. This has now made me wary of recording to an SSD and instead sticking to the iPhone's internal storage.

There are plenty of 10gbps SSD drives on the market. However are any of them actually designed for the use case of recording video directly on to?

On Apple silicon not all 10Gpbs drives are created equal. There's a known issue with the built-in USB controller inside the M1 and M2 (and their Pro/Max/Ultra variants) where certain drives are only recognized at 5Gbps instead of their full 10Gbps potential (it has to do with some drives implementing USB 3.1 in a dual lane configuration and the M1/M2's controller only supporting one lane). The Samsung T7 is one such drive that reports being speed limited on Apple silicon Macs; it works at full 10Gbps on Intel Macs.

I have no idea if Apple finally addressed this with the USB controller in the A17 but it's also possible your drive isn't performing at its full potential.

 

[MarkNewton2023]

Who here has recorded video directly on to an SSD? If so, what is your experience?
Today I recorded test footage to my Samsung T7. During inspection I noticed that there was 3 seconds of Sutter in the video. This has now made me wary of recording to an SSD and instead sticking to the iPhone's internal storage.

There are plenty of 10gbps SSD drives on the market. However are any of them actually designed for the use case of recording video directly on to?

I would record any videos directly in the iPhone internal storage. Transmitting the recording directly while happening to external devices has a risk that it might be compromised. Your choice to record directly to the phone storage is a great one👍 😊

 

[baddogmax]

I have not had any problems in limited testing so far. I am using a Crucial X9 Pro with its included cable.

 

[Dirty Mac]

The reliability comes from the connection between your iPhone and your SSD. Mind you that you can only record log video from iPhone 15 pro max directly to external ssd. Internal storage wont work.
The stutter you see probably comes from intermittent connection between iPhone and ssd. Not enough to corrupt the video but enough to cause those few frames missing from the final footage.

I do believe you can record log to iphone storage with the Black Magic camera app. I know you can record prores and it has a setting to use apple log in color space settings but whether it actually does log or just uses rec2020 I don't know for sure.

 

[Shirasaki]

I do believe you can record log to iphone storage with the Black Magic camera app. I know you can record prores and it has a setting to use apple log in color space settings but whether it actually does log or just uses rec2020 I don't know for sure.

But for people using built in camera app, they can’t, unless Apple changes their mind for 1TB storage iPhone later with software update.

As for third party apps, I have no idea.

 

[Dirty Mac]

Black Magic app is free so no biggie to try. Does way more than the built in app. And they offer a free rival to Final Cut Pro/Adobe Premiere, Davinci Resolve 18.

 

[A.R.E.A.M.]

sadly at this time bm does not record to external ssd -- if it does enlighten me because i saw no option to select external.

im using a samsung 990 pro 4tb gen 4 ssd. ive two - one formatted exfat and the other apfs for the apple universe. enclosed in dockcase enclosures.
ive seen some people online state the gen 4 ssds wont be recognized by iphone and this is just not true.