Android Thoughts: Use a microSD Card Reader to Transfer Lots of Files Faster than a Direct Connection

I've been really enjoying my HTC Inspire since getting it last week, and wanted to load it up with some music. It came with an 8 GB microSD card, but unlike other platforms (cough, cough) Android is designed with easy user-replaceable storage in mind. Being able to remove the 8 GB card and pop in a 32 GB microSD card is fantastic. Devices that lack user-accessible storage card slots irk me <stares at iPad>.

I connected the HTC Inspire to my computer and transferred over a couple of files. It wasn't immediately obvious where I should put the music (comon' HTC, help a brother out and put a Music folder at the root level) but I realized after a moment that the software scans the entire microSD card for music and it doesn't matter where you put it. I was surprised at how slow the transfer was when I grabbed a few MP3s and dragged them over.

How slow was it? As a test, I grabbed an album with 14 songs (256kbps MP3s) that was 98.4 MB in total. First I dragged and dropped it onto the phone via USB; it took 55 seconds for the transfer, which works out to 1.78 MB per second. Next I removed the microSD card from the phone and put it into my SanDisk memory card reader that's hooked up to a USB 2.0 port on my computer. The transfer took 29 seconds, which works out to 3.93 MB per second. Using the card reader is just over twice as fast as a direct connect method.

Doing a direct-connect transfer of a few songs or albums is still going to be faster than un-mounting the microSD card via software, prying open your phone, taking out the microSD card, putting it in a memory card reader, and reversing the process when you're done. But if you're loading up a big memory card with a lot of music, it's worth the added effort for the time you'll save on the transfer.

Jason Dunn owns and operates Thoughts Media Inc., a company dedicated to creating the best in online communities. He enjoys photography, mobile devices, blogging, digital media content creation/editing, and pretty much all technology. He lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada with his lovely wife, his wonderful son Logan, and his sometimes obedient dog. He's enjoying learning how to use Android.

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