Slow moving files on external SD

[libb]

Hi, I have significant performance issues when I'm working with external SD card. When I move files or folders from one location to another on the same SD card it seems like the files are copied and deleted instead directly moved. Moving 1 300MB big file gets 1 minute. When I use system application it is fast.
Any idea how increase speed of moving files?

Phone: Samsung Galaxy S7
Android version: 6.0.1
SD card: Sandisk 128GB
Root: no

[ghisler(Author)]

This is unfortunately a misfeature of Android 5/6, not a bug in Total Commander: Google simply forgot to include a function to move files! There is copy, rename, and delete, but no move. Therefore TC has to copy the file and then delete the original.

The system application is preinstalled on the device and therefore not subject of these stupid Google restrictions.

[Heineken]

Maybe the filename includes the path and thus rename can be used to move a file by changing the path?
Just googling and guessing while waiting for the move operation to complete...

[ghisler(Author)]

I have tried that, it doesn't work, sorry.

[BudCord]

Did the function to move files return with Android 7 / Nougat?

[ghisler(Author)]

Indeed there seems to be a new moveDocument() function added in API level 24 (7.0 Nougat) to the DocumentsProvider. I will try it!

[BudCord]

I got a phone with nougat in the hands.
With 2.80b7, moving files is still extremely slow there.
So you have to implement it in a future version?

[ghisler(Author)]

Yes, I haven't yet implemented it, but I'm working on it.

[BudCord]

Added: Android N: Use new function moveDocument to move files to other folder on secondary storage (SD-Cards, USB-Sticks etc.)

Sorry, there is no improvement to the previous versions.
Moving files to a subdirectory is as fast / slow as before.
The global progress bar stops after moving the first file.

LG G5, Android 7.0, unrooted, 128GB-SD-Card FAT32 external Storage

[ghisler(Author)]

Could you try moving between two subdirectories? Moving from/to the root doesn't work yet, this will be fixed soon. I tried with two 700MB files. The old method took several minutes, the new is almost instantaneous.

[BudCord]

2 Files of ~700MB move:
/storage/nnnn-nnnn/tmp1 -> /storage/nnnn-nnnn/tmp2 - fast!
/storage/nnnn-nnnn/tmp1 -> /storage/nnnn-nnnn/tmp1/aaa - fast!

662 Files of ~3,5MB (2,3GB) move:
/storage/nnnn-nnnn/tmp1 -> /storage/nnnn-nnnn/tmp2 - very slow!
/storage/nnnn-nnnn/tmp1 -> /storage/nnnn-nnnn/tmp1/aaa - very slow!
Only upper progress-bar works, lower progress-bar stays at 0%

[ghisler(Author)]

Sadly, moving many small files is indeed very slow when using these official Android interfaces. The only way to makeit faster would be to root the device. Or use the Samsung file manger, it doesn't need to go through all these restricted interfaces...

[BudCord]

Moving lots of small files was very quick with Total Commander and a rooted Phone up to Kitkat.
With Marshmallow (never had Lollipop), these small files can only be moved very slowly, even though the phone was rooted.
You mentioned that the move function is missing/broken in Marshmallow.

Under Nougat, moving of small files would again be fast with TC because of "moveDocument", but it needs root to work?
Samsung file manager won't work for LG ...

[BudCord]

An Update to TC 2.80b9 and an Android-7-OTA-Update didn't change anything compared to my tests 3 postings before.

[ghisler(Author)]

Sorry, I cannot make the moveDocument function any faster, it's built into the system. For large files it is a lot faster than copy+delete, but for small files you will not see any improvements.