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I have a OnePlus 10 Pro device with USB Type C 3.1 (according to gsmarena).

I am trying to transfer huge files from it to my pc using the USB cable, but the speed is only 45MB/s which is the max speed of USB 2.0 as I know (My pc also has USB 3 and fast SSD M.2).

Can I know how I can benefit from having USB 3.1 on my device and make the transfer faster?

Ramhound
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Tharwat Mella
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  • Are these files compressable? https://community.oneplus.com/thread/1571776 – Gantendo Apr 13 '23 at 03:11
  • would using the WIFI be faster than USB? – Gantendo Apr 13 '23 at 03:12
  • @Gantendo these file are already compressed – Tharwat Mella Apr 13 '23 at 03:14
  • using wifi should not be faster than cable as I know – Tharwat Mella Apr 13 '23 at 03:15
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    This question should include more details and clarify the problem. – Ramhound Apr 13 '23 at 03:28
  • @RohitGupta - The user is using a Type-C port. – Ramhound Apr 13 '23 at 04:24
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    On the OnePlus home page is mentioned that you need a special data cable (sold separately). The "standard data cable" (was one included?) only supports USB 2.0. https://www.oneplus.com/global/10-pro/specs – Robert Apr 13 '23 at 07:28
  • @Ramhound thakns for being that honest with me – Tharwat Mella Apr 13 '23 at 08:38
  • @Ramhound acually my question is more simple than what I discribed. the question is why I am not getting the speed of USB ver 3 even though I have it connected on both sides. – Tharwat Mella Apr 13 '23 at 08:40
  • @Robert that must be the reason. – Tharwat Mella Apr 13 '23 at 08:48
  • @Robert do you know any good cable I can buy in amazon which is Type C and 3.1? it doesn't matter if it is type C to type C or type C to type A I have both socket on my laptop – Tharwat Mella Apr 13 '23 at 09:04
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    Have you checked on the PC if the USB connection to the OnePlus device is enumerating as USB 3 or USB 2? The way of checking that depends upon the Operating System and I'm not sure which Operating System your PC is running. – Chester Gillon Apr 13 '23 at 12:47
  • Related with some alternative approaches listed in the answers (the phone there was locked to USB 2.0 though, but might be worth a try anyways): https://superuser.com/q/1724799/633792 – Arsenal Apr 14 '23 at 09:03
  • Also note that you should identify which of your PCs USB sockets is the fastest. My Lenovo notebook has different USB-C Ports with different capabilities and the USB-A 3.0 is much slower than the USB-C ports, but I'm not sure if you run into these limitations with a phone. – Arsenal Apr 14 '23 at 09:26
  • @ChesterGillon I am acually using Windows 11 and couldn't know how to check the properties of the connection between the device and PC – Tharwat Mella Apr 14 '23 at 16:30
  • @Arsenal My laptop is lenovo legion 5 which has all the ports marked SS (SuperSpeed) all of them are USB 3.2 – Tharwat Mella Apr 14 '23 at 16:32
  • https://superuser.com/a/700326/1731245 has a link to [USB Device Tree Viewer](https://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbtreeview_e.html) which works under Windows 11 to show USB connection speed information - just tried it. – Chester Gillon Apr 14 '23 at 17:05
  • the overhead is from the mtp protocol. not from usb 2.0 or the flash storage on the phone. to reach the fastest speeds you need to use adb – theggputest55 Apr 20 '23 at 20:16

3 Answers3

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According to the OnePlus web-site the factory supplied USB cable is USB 2.0 only (even though it has a USB-C connector at the end).
(This is mentioned in the small print at the bottom of the specs page.)

So using a 3rd party cable that is a proper USB3.1 cable should in theory give you higher speeds.

Still... If the transfer is MTP based (not sure of this is the case for this phone) it will usually be 3x to 4x slower than the speed you would get from a USB memory stick. (MTP just is a less efficient and thus slower protocol.)
Another thing is the speed of the phones internal storage. If that is a slow form of memory it may also limit the maximum throughput on the cable.

So there is no telling what speed is actually achievable. It depends on more than just the cable.

Tonny
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  • Thanks for this detailed explaination. how to make sure if my device is using mtp or not? another small question my laptop has 3.2 gen 2 and my smartphone is 3.1 gen 1 if I bought a cable which version should I buy? also will that make the connection between them not compatible to be version 3 and forcing them to back to version 2 ? – Tharwat Mella Apr 13 '23 at 10:36
  • @TharwatMella Either cable should work just fine. All USB 3/4 protocols/cables are compatible. (USB2 only cables may have USB 3 connectors, but not all wires will be connected internally as USB2 uses less wires than 3 and up...). MTP devices show in Windows Explorer as a media folder, but don't have a drive-letter,. And Disk Administrator doesn't see them as a "disk". – Tonny Apr 13 '23 at 11:48
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    It is using MTP. Android has been using MTP for ages because exposing internal storage as mass storage is like opening a Pandora's box. – gronostaj Apr 14 '23 at 15:02
  • @gronostaj Actually, Android used to do exactly that (expose the SD card as mass storage) in the olden days (up to maybe Android 4, roughly a decade ago). They then managed to _close_ that Pandora's box by switching to MTP. – TooTea Apr 14 '23 at 21:18
  • @TooTea I'll take your word for it. I don't even own a smartphone myself (never have) and the one I get from work has always been an iPhone, so I wouldn't know about Android. iPhones are MTP as well if you don't use iTunes. iTunes uses some Apple proprietary way to connect which is my experience about twice as fast as MTP for file-transfer. – Tonny Apr 15 '23 at 12:47
  • the overhead is from the mtp protocol. not from usb 2.0 or the flash storage on the phone. to reach the fastest speeds you need to use adb – theggputest55 Apr 20 '23 at 20:16
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To suggest a potential solution which has worked in prior instances I've experienced the same issue - try using a different / better / newer USB cable for the connection between your phone and the PC.

While I realize this doesn't strike confidence that it would work - or it didn't for me at first - but I was shocked to realize that, in fact, that was exactly what the problem was. And just as a fair warning, I have a dozen cords around here... and had to try quite a few before I discovered it was actually the cause.

Regardless, I assure you this is at least a potential solution.

TrexxæBytez
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  • I am using the cable came with the device it is the best cable I could try – Tharwat Mella Apr 13 '23 at 03:42
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    @TharwatMella According to the OnePlus home page the cable that comes with the phone only supports USB 2.0. – Robert Apr 13 '23 at 07:28
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    @Robert is it really normal to buy a device supporting USB ver 3 and not giving the USB ver 3 Cable? – Tharwat Mella Apr 13 '23 at 08:41
  • @TharwatMella USB 3 cables have more data cables and can transmit higher current, this means more copper has to be used and thus the cable may cost may be 1 USD more in production. – Robert Apr 13 '23 at 08:44
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    @TharwatMella from the vendor's point of view, only charging is the basic need that they have *some* responsibility to fulfill. (`USB 3 cables have more data cables and can transmit higher current` while usb 3 devices more or less mandates a usb 3 (type-a) host to at least give 0.4A more than a usb 2 port, type-c / pd charging cable can be usb 2.0 while supports 60w pd (or even 100w), and normally an in-terms-of-fast-charging-nice-enough-cable will be shipped with the phone) – Tom Yan Apr 13 '23 at 09:43
  • While a note like this does not always mean it is actually the case with the content, but [note 6: `The USB 3.1 GEN1 function requires a data cable that supports USB 3.1 GEN1 (non-standard configuration, sold separately). The standard data cable supports USB 2.0.`](https://www.oneplus.com/us/10-pro/specs), so I have no idea why @Ramhound casually and seemingly confidently stated that `The cable isn’t the problem`. (Although, MTP is indeed lame and in my impression, slow.) – Tom Yan Apr 13 '23 at 09:46
  • Guys what's the theoretical USB 3.0 file transfer speed? Just here to learn. – Dong Li Apr 13 '23 at 10:01
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    @DongLi The theoretical baseline for classic USB 3.0 (currently officially called ‘USB 3.2 Gen 1x1), factoring in encoding and protocol overhead, is roughly 400 MB/s. However, in practice that’s sufficiently fast that you won’t see that kind of performance unless you’re copying particularly large files (or using a UAS device and copying things in parallel). In my own experience, for USB MSC devices (most flash drives) it works out to something around 250-350 MB/s depending on the size of the files, and for MTP devices (most Android phones) it’s closer to 150 MB/s (MTP is pretty inefficient). – Austin Hemmelgarn Apr 14 '23 at 01:44
  • @AustinHemmelgarn Wow that's pretty fast. The speed gets better with each USB upgrade. Nice – Dong Li Apr 14 '23 at 02:27
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If your copy goes as fast as 45 MB/s over USB 2.0, then you are very lucky. In theory it can go up to 60 MB/s, but in practice it's closer to 20 MB/s, and sometimes it's as slow as 10 MB/s.

I was able to do 90 MB/s copies between an Android phone and a PC, using USB 3.0 and ADB. I haven't seen anything faster in practice, but maybe I have a slow phone or slow PC.

In addition to buying a faster cable, you may want to use a protocol faster than MTP. Such a protocol is the one used by the adb push and adb pull commands run on the PC. To set it up:

  1. Enable developer mode on the phone.

  2. Enable USB debugging in the developer options on the phone.

  3. Install ADB (the adb command) to the PC.

  4. Connect the phone to the PC using USB. Make sure that you use an USB 3 cable, an USB 3.x port on the PC, and nothing (e.g. USB hubs, USB adaptors, docking stations) other than the cable between the phone and the PC.

  5. At the command prompt, run adb devices, allow it within the notification window on the phone.

  6. Use adb pull (+ folder names) to copy from the phone to the PC. For example, to copy all photos and videos taken by the phone: adb pull -a /sdcard/DCIM DCIM_from_phone.

  7. Use adb push (+ folder names) to copy from the PC to the phone.

Follow tutorials on the web for more specific instructions depending on the operating system on the PC and the phone model.

Even after doing so, your copy may be slower than expected because:

  • The phone (e.g. built-in flash storage or CPU) is slow.

  • The storage on the PC (e.g. old HDD) is slow.

  • The PC (e.g. CPU) is slow or busy running other programs.

  • The antivirus software on the PC makes the copy slow, because it is checking all copied files one-by-one.

  • The operating system on the PC has a broken or suboptimal USB stack or drivers.

pts
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