I thought the new M4 iPad Pro was supposed to be USB4/Thunderbolt. When I connect it to my computer (after selecting "Trust"), System Information shows that the iPad is connected using the USB 3.1 bus. I have it connected to my Mac Studio M1 Ultra Thunderbolt 4 port. What gives?
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iPad Pro M4 iPad Pro on Thunderbolt
- Thread starter solardudesf
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iPads have never connected to Macs for syncing over Thunderbolt- it’s always a USB connection. Thunderbolt connectivity is for devices like docks and network adapters.
This intercepts a question I had about cables. So even though the spec's say it is a Thunderbolt/USB 4 port on the M4 Pro it connects even to a Mac Studio Thunderbolt port as a regular USB connection. I can connect it to a Thunderbolt hub would that make any difference. I have certified cables in both Thunderbolt and USB-4.
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Syncing with a computer will always happen as a USB connection regardless of the cable you use. Adding a dock in between won't change that.
It still does not make sense to me that the connection is a USB 3.1 connection. The specs indicate Thunderbolt/USB4 for the new iPad Pros. Even if the support is for a USB connection to the computer it should be USB4 then shouldn't it?
It's not how any of the M1/M2/M4 iPads with Thunderbolt/USB4 have worked, so presumably this is intentional on Apple's part.
Thanks...was hoping for much faster transfer speeds. I guess USB 3.1 will have to do.
Tested Thunderbolt 4 transfer Speeds using the $140 Thunderbolt 4 genuine cables. And it’s 800MB/sec well below the Thunderbolt Spec.
Besides as a person who grew up buying 100 CD’s at a time and burning “back up” CD’s to save my Data.
I’ll gladly just Restore my iPad Pro from a previous back up.
Besides as a person who grew up buying 100 CD’s at a time and burning “back up” CD’s to save my Data.
I’ll gladly just Restore my iPad Pro from a previous back up.
Even when you connect two TB4 equipped Macs, you still have to tell at least one of them to do something before they are really connected with anything Thunderbolt. I am talking about target disk mode which turns the Mac into a dumb drive, or Thunderbolt bridge networking.
To my knowledge the iPadOS can do neither of these, so connecting it to a Macs will fallback to a USB3.1 (10Gbps) instead. I myself have been backing up my M1 12.9" to Macs since the beginning, always used a TB4 cable, the speed is more than fine, especially when compared to Lightning (USB2.0 480Mbps...). I imagine for most usage the 10Gbps is fine.
Then I think a TB4 speed out of the iPadPro starts to be meaningfully useful when transferring video file frequently, which should happen quite often for people who uses FCPX on iPad, or shoot with the iPad camera and wants to transfer the files back on a Mac.
To my knowledge the iPadOS can do neither of these, so connecting it to a Macs will fallback to a USB3.1 (10Gbps) instead. I myself have been backing up my M1 12.9" to Macs since the beginning, always used a TB4 cable, the speed is more than fine, especially when compared to Lightning (USB2.0 480Mbps...). I imagine for most usage the 10Gbps is fine.
Then I think a TB4 speed out of the iPadPro starts to be meaningfully useful when transferring video file frequently, which should happen quite often for people who uses FCPX on iPad, or shoot with the iPad camera and wants to transfer the files back on a Mac.
I did a test recently with a M4 ipad and a TB 3 enclosure with a JHL7440 controller and Samsung 980PRO NVMe blade. DiskIO reported 2000 MB/s write speed. I am not sure if this result is accurate. Unfortunately, Blackmagic and Amorphous Disk Mark do not have iPad apps.
Hi all - joining this convo as I was trying to find out why my iPad Pro M1 (3rd gen) could not do 40Gbps - so I understand 10GBps is the max it can do with my Mac Mini M4. Which is better than nothing.
Using a Thunderbolt 4 cable, macOS does indeed show the iPad connected at 10Gbps - but the actual speed is not there. I made a large video file on the iPad and I transferred it on the mac mini via "files", Wifi turned off. I see an actual transfer rate (using a stopwatch) of 0.6Gbps.
What am I missing?
Thanks!
Using a Thunderbolt 4 cable, macOS does indeed show the iPad connected at 10Gbps - but the actual speed is not there. I made a large video file on the iPad and I transferred it on the mac mini via "files", Wifi turned off. I see an actual transfer rate (using a stopwatch) of 0.6Gbps.
What am I missing?
Thanks!
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The USB port on the iPad Pro only supports USB 4 at 10 Gbps. I use a Thunderbolt 4 on my M4 iPad Pro, not for any speed increase, but because the cables have built-in security.
That's the transfer capability of the pipeline between the devices - the real bottleneck is the read/write of the file transfer on both ends.
I can only see 600Mbps actual transfer speed. The mac mini can definitely write faster than that. I’m not sure about the iPad’s read capabilities but I’d hope it can read a file faster than that? That’s just a bit more than SATA!