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Micro SD - slow speeds, help!!

Hi guys
i recently received my Sandisk Class 4 16gb micro sd card, but im getting pretty slow speeds with it.
Its currently in FAT32 format.
When transferring files from my computer to the card via the usb cable, im getting 3mbps, which is much slower than what ive seen others get with a class 2 sandisk microsd card.
Also when i test the card using 'SD tools' in the app market it says it should have write 5.7, read 10.4, which is not what im getting and still slower than results ive seen others get with class 2 sandisk microsd cards.
I also have an old 2gb Verbatim card (with no class markings), which is currently in FAT format (not FAT32), that came free with an old phone, that seems very quick when transferring files, much quicker, and in SD Tools it gets - write speed 2mbs, read speed 17 mbps.
Questions -
What format should i set the card to maximize performance (not using app2sd)?
Is a smaller capacity card of the same class faster?
(is a class 4 8gb faster than class 4 16 gb?)
Is FAT faster than FAT32?
Is my card defective?
Should i return it for a class 2 as they seem to be faster?
Hope you can help

For starters, which of those 2 file system is really faster don't matter because you cannot use FAT16 on your 16GB card. FAT16 only supports up to 2GB.
Also, class 4 is suppose to be faster than class 2.

sounds like you got a fake Sandisk Class 4 16gb, a knockoff market imitation with low quality component
what is the actual speed test result of the write?

AllGamer said:
sounds like you got a fake Sandisk Class 4 16gb, a knockoff market imitation with low quality component
what is the actual speed test result of the write?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply allgamer, I've seen many of your posts on these boards and your very helpful
My actual write speeds are 3mbps, when transferring from my pc to the phone via usb cable.
I got the card from play.com so I didn't expect it to be fake. Are there any other tests I could do to confirm its authenticity?
Should I try different file systems like ext2 or fat etc?

3MB/s for a class 2 card is pretty good. I don't what you can expect more from that.
I have an Kingston 16Gb Class 4 and the writing speed from pc -> phone is like 2MB/s, much slower then it should. But in SD Tools its shows 4 or 4.8 MB/s writing speed.

dukuletz said:
3MB/s for a class 2 card is pretty good. I don't what you can expect more from that.
I have an Kingston 16Gb Class 4 and the writing speed from pc -> phone is like 2MB/s, much slower then it should. But in SD Tools its shows 4 or 4.8 MB/s writing speed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The card I got is a class 4, and being a san disk I expected better write speeds.
What is really confusing is why the 2gb card (with no class markings) I got free with an old phone is much faster at transferring files via usb despite it getting a much lower score in SD tools.
Can anyone explain that?

Recommendation SD Card

Hello,
I'm totally sad about my situation with my SD Card. I have a SanDisk Mobile Ultra microSD Class 6 16GB Card for my HTC Desire. I used it with MIUI Gingerbread and MIUI ICS and I'm installing Sandvolds ICS yet to look if I have trouble with MIUI only.
My problem is that I get always FC and Crashes. I have my old SD Card from PNY Class 10 with 8Gig and I it seems that I haven't any problems with this card. But there is a disadvantage with this SD Card: it is totally slow. I have to wait always some seconds until the app starts and this is really annoying if you want to look fastin the browser or something like that.
So, can you recommend any good SD Cards with 8-16GB memory? I don't know why this SanDisk Card makes so much trouble. I thought Sandisk is one of the best companies in memory cards?
Thanks
Greets,
Burak

I bought a Hama 16GB Class 10 micro SD. Haven't had any problems with that.
http://www.hama.de/00108088/hama-mi...-+-adapter-photo?bySearch=108088&searchMode=1
Regarding slow app starts. Are you using some sort of A2SD and have you moved APPDATA to SD?

--

I never had any problems with SanDisk, too.
Maybe Your SD-Card is broken?
Just try another Class10 SD-Card from SanDisk...

Try to format sd card with gparted (ubuntu) or partition magic (windows 7)
then
try to look for bad drive sectors (scan disk or every defrag tool).
Execute a microsd stress test for 1 hour at least.
If everything is ok, try to partitioning with Clockworkmod recovery.

What are you guys buying class 10 cards for? Those are designed for high definition video recording. You should be using class 4 or 6 with android phones, always. Any apps that need to read and write small chunks of data at high speed will get choked by class 10.
Sent from a galaxy far, far away

SJAirWolf said:
If everything is ok, try to partitioning with Clockworkmod recovery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
dont use CWM its pretty bad at partitioning. u recommended gparted so u shoulda just left it at that. 4ext recovery is the best recovery for partitioning sdcards and the best recovery
Sent from my HTC Desire

I'm using a Samsung 16GB Class 10 micro SD...i have no problem..realy fast!

CrystalDiskMark
Hello,
have you tried 'CrystalDiskMark' for benchmarking the MicroSD-Card? It runs under Windows and has a benchmark for 4k blocks (which are important for ext3/ext4 file systems).
Yesterday, my new SanDisk MicroSD card arrived and i tested all of my Cards. The results (all values in MB/s, the 4K entries are the interesting ones) are
SanDisk 16G Ultra Class 10 Micro SDHC (my new card)
Read: 18.76
Write: 11.92
Read 4K: 3.2
Write 4K: 1.54
SanDisk 4G Class 4 Micro SD (this card was originally delivered with my HTC Desire)
Read: 10.59
Write: 3.05
Read 4K: 0.9
Write 4K: 0.47
Tanscend 16G Class 4 Micro SDHC
Read: 18.65
Write: 4.85
Read 4K: 2.64
Write 4K: 1.26
Tanscend 16G Class 10 Micro SDHC (my actual used card)
Read: 16.47
Write: 16.07
Read 4K: 3.4
Write 4K: 0.027
As you can see on the last card, writing can be very slow on small blocks. I think, the internal block size on the most bigger class 10 cards is not optimized for small, but for big blocks. These behaviour is also documented here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=29365127&postcount=6827
Also, the partitions must be aligned to 4k. I did this by using the Linux fdisk for partitioning directly (sorry, all in german)
# fdisk /dev/sdf
Befehl (m für Hilfe): p
Disk /dev/sdf: 15.9 GB, 15931539456 bytes
64 Köpfe, 32 Sektoren/Spur, 15193 Zylinder, zusammen 31116288 Sektoren
Einheiten = Sektoren von 1 × 512 = 512 Bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000
Gerät boot. Anfang Ende Blöcke Id System
/dev/sdf1 2048 28494847 14246400 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sdf2 28494848 31116287 1310720 83 Linux
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As you can see, the sector size is 512 Byte, so for a 4K alignment, the sector number must be divisible by 8.
Simon

I'm using sandisk 16GB class 6 and still okay for desire

Currently i'm using a "16 GB Poppstar Micro SDHC Class6" and it's working fine as a sd-ext in ext3. Cheap and good value for the money.

Samsung Class10 Micro Sd, partitioning with 4ext recovery. Everithing went fine and fast.

Transcend 16gb class 6 do the best job for me but I usually format the card with 4ext before flash new rom

Hello,
I'm sorry that I answer only now. I forgot this problem with my sd card totally . Thanks for the recommendation, I will look for a Samsung SD Card or another SanDisk SD Card Class 4. Maybe it has some problem with this Ultra MicroSDHC cards....
I use 4ext recovery touch and did the partition with it. I checked the alignment too. I tried to partition the sd card with GParted by myself, but it failed as I wanted to install the ROM. I don't know what matter was.
Thanks.

vBurak said:
Hello,
I'm sorry that I answer only now. I forgot this problem with my sd card totally . Thanks for the recommendation, I will look for a Samsung SD Card or another SanDisk SD Card Class 4. Maybe it has some problem with this Ultra MicroSDHC cards....
I use 4ext recovery touch and did the partition with it. I checked the alignment too. I tried to partition the sd card with GParted by myself, but it failed as I wanted to install the ROM. I don't know what matter was.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should look for a Class 10 (x150, up to 20MB/s read and up to 15MB/s write), mine emtec 8GB has been bought for $15 with adapter and 5 years manufacturers warranty. Working great in Desire

I have some Kingston 16 Gb class 4 micro SDHC and it's ok even if I use data2sd, int2ext and such.

nonline said:
You should look for a Class 10 (x150, up to 20MB/s read and up to 15MB/s write), mine emtec 8GB has been bought for $15 with adapter and 5 years manufacturers warranty. Working great in Desire
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, class 10 is designed for recording high definition video. Class 4 and 6 are the most compatible with the Android operating system, and the apps used by it.
Try reading the thread, or actually doing some research before you attempt to make recommendations.
Sent from a galaxy far, far away

I have now Samsung Class 10 16GB Micro SD Card and it works well. I use some modded a2sd script (lx2sd or something i don't know) and everything is on the sd card except dalvik cache. If I open some apps I have to wait 2-3 seconds but it's no big deal.
I didn't find any class 6 sd card from samsung, so I took the class 10. random 4 write was really low like 0,03 mb/s but now i have it and I don't care anymore .

captain67 said:
No, class 10 is designed for recording high definition video. Class 4 and 6 are the most compatible with the Android operating system, and the apps used by it.
Try reading the thread, or actually doing some research before you attempt to make recommendations.
Sent from a galaxy far, far away
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is not entirely true. That random 4k read/write speed is just a benchmark. Who told you that the .dex files are scattered in random blocks on the sd-ext? 99% of the time they are not. That's where the sequential speed kicks in and that's why anyone who uses a class10 over a class 4 sees a huge improvement in responsiveness.
Plus, no lag on 720p recording with sense roms. That's just a bonus.

I'm using a Transcend 16 GB class 10 card. The card is working very good as sd-ext with ext4 partition

Apps on SD card in "merged storage" lag

Hi,
I have my SD card (class 6) merged with my internal storage. Every app I move to the SD card lags like hell! They work perfect when on the internal storage. My storage is starting to fill though as it's only an 8GB device. Any ideas? I've been thinking that if I get a class 3 uhc SD card (they reckon they're up to 60 MB/s) but I'm not sure is that the problem?
Thanks for your advice.

Class 10 should be bare minimum. I am pretty sure the class 6 card is the cause. Uhs 3 is recommended.
Broadcasted from Zeta Reticuli

I would concur with @Gravemind2015 your card is too slow... Although I think a minimum UHS1 card is required to make it usable due to the higher write speed than a Class 10, but I do agree a UHS3 is recommended.
A Class 6 card is just too slow for use as adopted storage, I would convert it back to portable until you can get a new card or it will constantly lag on you.

Thank you for your help
I've bought a UHS Class 3 card, installed it and it's solved the problem.

acejavelin said:
I would concur with @Gravemind2015 your card is too slow... Although I think a minimum UHS1 card is required to make it usable due to the higher write speed than a Class 10, but I do agree a UHS3 is recommended.
A Class 6 card is just too slow for use as adopted storage, I would convert it back to portable until you can get a new card or it will constantly lag on you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sir can i ask? i got same problem here, now i used sandisk micro SDHC UHS-I Class 10 16GB speed up to 48mb/s. but i still got lag, that laggy was from my phone or my sd card? if it cause by sd card, and than i'll buy UHS-3 class 10 speed up to 90mb/s. it will solved my laggy? i used Moto g4 plus 2/16 run with MM 6.0.1

jincuriki said:
sir can i ask? i got same problem here, now i used sandisk micro SDHC UHS-I Class 10 16GB speed up to 48mb/s. but i still got lag, that laggy was from my phone or my sd card? if it cause by sd card, and than i'll buy UHS-3 class 10 speed up to 90mb/s. it will solved my laggy? i used Moto g4 plus 2/16 run with MM 6.0.1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The card reader in the 3rd and 4th generation G devices is UHS-1, it's write speed is limited in real world use is limited to about 45mbps, or about 1/2 to 1/3 of the embedded storage chip... You will always have some lag by comparison. Will a U3 card be better? I can't answer that definitively since it would vary based on your specific usage.

Is a UHS1 card REALLY faster in this device?

So after a few users have claimed that a Class 10 card is the same as a UHS1 card, and thus you really don't need a faster card like a UHS1 or UHS3 card, because they all have a minimum sustained write 10MB/s per the SD specs... I decided to do some testing and benchmarking to determine if that is the case because I was bored.
I started with A1 SD Benchmark and I also did some comparison of adopted storage vs portable storage with SD cards and found little difference in speed in the benchmarks, so I testing everything as portable storage because the point was to see if the card rating made a real difference in THIS device. I also discarded any test results that had cache hits. The Moto G 2015 used is a purely stock XT1540 2/16GB version, no apps are installed besides the benchmark app, SD Insight, and what came on the phone, and it was given a fresh reboot just before starting and allowed to sit for 10 minutes or so before starting. Each card was freshly formatted as FAT32 in my computer's card reader before being inserted into the G. Unfortunately I do not have a UHS3 card to test with.
Test Results
Internal 16GB storage: 98.60MB/s read - 42.69MB/s write
Samsung EVO+ 32GB UHS1 Card: 44.81MB/s read - 19.45MB/s write
Samsung EVO 64GB UHS1 Card: 38.44MB/s read - 19.45MB/s write
MicroCenter (generic) 16GB Class 10 Card: 21.11MB/s read - 11.22MB/s write
PNY 16GB Class 10 Card: 20.32MB/s read - 11.58MB/s write
Sandisk 6GB Class 6 Card: 20.64MB/s read - 14.18MB/s write
Toshiba 4GB Class 4 Card: 22.80MB/s - 9.68MB/s
And just for grins... My Moto X Pure edition's 32GB internal storage was able to do 101.59MB/s reads and 45.89MB/s writes, so not much different the Moto G 2015's internal storage, meaning that the eMMC chip is probably the limiting factor. SD Insight says the G3 uses Micron internal eMMC chip, and the Moto X uses a Toshiba storage chip.
So looking at the results, there is a significant difference in both read and write speed between the Class 10 and UHS1 cards. I just threw the others in there for for fun, although it was interesting to see the Class 6 Sandisk card put up impressive write speeds, although I am not sure why it was so high but subsequent tests were similar. The PNY card is the "normal" card installed in this phone, but the phone thinks it is a Lexar card and SD Insight says it is a Barun Electronics storage chip, which matches up with both PNY and Lexar. Also, every single test with the UHS1 cards yielded a 19.45MB/s write speed, so I am guessing that is the limit of the card reader chipset to be able to write data in the phone, but I can not substantiate that as of yet.
Take it how you want... I was bored, but a UHS1 card is clearly faster in this device.

Can the FileSystem affect read/write speeds? I am using a SanDisk 64GB Ultra UHS-1 card. While doing backup in TWRP, the write speed was 7-8 MB/sec with FAT32 and 3 MB/sec with ExFAT.
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Thanks.
Broadcasted from Zeta Reticuli

Gravemind2015 said:
Can the FileSystem affect read/write speeds? I am using a SanDisk 64GB Ultra UHS-1 card. While doing backup in TWRP, the write speed was 7-8 MB/sec with FAT32 and 3 MB/sec with ExFAT.
A screenshot -
Thanks.
Broadcasted from Zeta Reticuli
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Possibly... I will test it when I get home Thursday night, but it could have more to do with a simultaneous read/write that is occurring or something else in TWRP though.
Sent from my Motorola XT1575 using XDA Labs

I used the same program (with the Long Test) to see what results I would get on my UHS-1 card. I chose the Sandisk Extreme when I bought the phone because I wanted to get a UHS-1 card per the recommendations, it had really good speed test results at the time on the various web SD card test sites, and the jump in price from the Ultra version wasn't too bad. Now in my case I have a lot of apps installed on the internal memory and a bunch of music on the portable storage, so it isn't an apples vs apples test compared to yours, but the results are still similar; this is probably what is hurting my internal memory write speed. I turned off WiFi and Cell service to at least cut down on traffic accessing storage. I also have a 16GB main storage Moto-G 3rd gen with external memory set up as portable storage. I ran the test twice with the same results.
EXTERNAL MEMORY CARD BRAND= SanDisk Extreme 32GB microSDHC UHS-1 Card with Adapter (SDSQXNE-032G-GN6MA). Ordered from Amazon, $17.19 back in January of 2016.
INTERNAL MEMORY = read 113.73MB/s Write 30.25 MB/s
EXTERNAL MEMORY = Read 48.04MB/s Write 24.15MB/s

What speeds are you all getting on your MicroSD cards? Are my speeds super slow?

I've gone through three of these now, and they're supposed to be super-fast cards. Every time I get one, the first thing I do is test it on my phone using A1 SD Bench, and my speeds are abysmal.
Samsung 256GB 100MB/s (U3) MicroSDXC EVO Select Memory Card with Adapter (MB-ME256GA/AM)
I'm getting around 14MB/s for read speeds and 18MB/s for write speeds. I've also noticed that it takes forever to transfer files to the phone's sd card from the computer.
Is this normal?

fachadick said:
I've gone through three of these now, and they're supposed to be super-fast cards. Every time I get one, the first thing I do is test it on my phone using A1 SD Bench, and my speeds are abysmal.
Samsung 256GB 100MB/s (U3) MicroSDXC EVO Select Memory Card with Adapter (MB-ME256GA/AM)
I'm getting around 14MB/s for read speeds and 18MB/s for write speeds. I've also noticed that it takes forever to transfer files to the phone's sd card from the computer.
Is this normal?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like you might have a faulty card ? As that's pathetic minimum speed should be 30MB/s
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true. my Pro+ on computer reach atleast 60/60 but on my phone write max only 20 and read max about 40

N1NJATH3ORY said:
Sounds like you might have a faulty card ? As that's pathetic minimum speed should be 30MB/s
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's what I was thinking, but 3 faulty cards in a row? All giving the same results? What do you get running a1 sd bench on the phone?

Samsung cards have issues in Samsung phones. Go through all the samsung mobile xda forums, S7, S7 edge, S8 S8 plus, they will all have threads with issues with Samsung cards.
In fact, every phone i've had has had complaints about Samsung cards.
Personally I think they're junk.
Just run a1 sd benchmark on a sandisk class 10 sd card in mine, nothing special and dirt cheap and get 58.72 read and 18 write

I don't own Samsung 256GB 100MB/s (U3) MicroSDXC EVO card at the moment can't you try some other benchmarking software ? Also have you got other capacity Micro sd cards what speed are they performing at ?

I'm using this card:
http://www.samsung.com/us/computing...vo-256gb-memory-card-w-adapter-mb-mc256da-am/

Sure the cards are authentic and not fakes? There are a lot of fake Samsung SD cards out there that look surprisingly real. Do a Google search and you will see how to tell the difference.
(Edit) I just downloaded and tested A1 SD Bench and the speed reported for my Samsung Pro card is WAY OFF from what the card actually does. In a PC USB 3 reader writer I get around 90 mbps, SD Bench only shows about 30 mbps. Huge difference.

Salval said:
I'm using this card:
http://www.samsung.com/us/computing...vo-256gb-memory-card-w-adapter-mb-mc256da-am/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm pretty sure androbench doesn't test sdcards. Did you try in a1 sd bench also?

N1NJATH3ORY said:
I don't own Samsung 256GB 100MB/s (U3) MicroSDXC EVO card at the moment can't you try some other benchmarking software ? Also have you got other capacity Micro sd cards what speed are they performing at ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Also tested with crystalmark (or whatever it's called) with us 3 adapter and got same speeds. Using a SanDisk ultra in here now, and it's testing at about 60mb/s read and 17 mb/s write. This was the first card I tested other than those samsungs, so it looks like the issue is with the cards.

Jonathan-H said:
Samsung cards have issues in Samsung phones. Go through all the samsung mobile xda forums, S7, S7 edge, S8 S8 plus, they will all have threads with issues with Samsung cards.
In fact, every phone i've had has had complaints about Samsung cards.
Personally I think they're junk.
Just run a1 sd benchmark on a sandisk class 10 sd card in mine, nothing special and dirt cheap and get 58.72 read and 18 write
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have that same card (the 200 fb one?) in the phone now, and I'm getting the same results as you. I saw all the comments about Samsung cards but no actual scores, so I didn't know if it was just me. I wasn't expecting it to be close to 100mb/s read and write, but I was expecting hell of a lot more than 18. Samsung's going to send me a replacement without going through Amazon, we'll see how that one works out.

A1

Write: 45mb/s
Read: 65mb/s
Just tested 5 mins ago.

hinnn said:
Write: 45mb/s
Read: 65mb/s
Just tested 5 mins ago.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here's mine, just tested. I think my Evo+ card is faulty, same as OP. However, i have no tool to benchmark it on PC to make sure...

Michael4407 said:
Here's mine, just tested. I think my Evo+ card is faulty, same as OP. However, i have no tool to benchmark it on PC to make sure...
View attachment 4352726
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you try to register this card with samsung website?
I can register my card same as my note 8, so could be real one.

Try this card in another phone (a phone from a friend) and see if you get the same speeds. If so, then the card is faulty.
However, if the same card has higher speeds when used with another phone, then the issue might be with your phone.

Samsung MicroSD card fraud!!! tyty much
I never respond to forum posted I read, but how you say..I felt compelled to after your shared knowledge led me down the path to refund in the works. My Samsung 256GB EVO Plus UHS-I U3 Class 10 microSDXC card got a read of 13mb/s and write of 14mb/s with the A1 SD Bench. After some investigation, I found out the card was made in Taiwan, not Korea. Meaning, yep, FRAUD.
Bit Banger said:
Sure the cards are authentic and not fakes? There are a lot of fake Samsung SD cards out there that look surprisingly real. Do a Google search and you will see how to tell the difference.
(Edit) I just downloaded and tested A1 SD Bench and the speed reported for my Samsung Pro card is WAY OFF from what the card actually does. In a PC USB 3 reader writer I get around 90 mbps, SD Bench only shows about 30 mbps. Huge difference.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse