I have a slightly silly question, but I'm genuinely curious. I expected the file size of music copied from my phone to a USB drive to be the same, but I noticed a difference. For example, one file went from 17.74MB to 16.92MB. I'm not really familiar with how drives work, and I'm wondering whether this change affects the quality of the music at all. Also, could the fact that I'm checking the copied file on a laptop instead of the original phone be influencing what I'm seeing? I've come across sources saying quality should be identical, but I'm still a bit confused. Thanks for any insights!
4 Answers
You're not alone in wondering about this! Many people think the file should be exactly the same size. With different devices and file systems, there can be minor discrepancies, but rest assured, a copy is a copy—your music quality should not be impacted.
No problem! Glad to help clear things up.
When you copy a file from your computer to a USB drive, it can sometimes show a different file size due to variations in the file system used by both devices. Essentially, files are stored in clusters, which means the size can get rounded. If one device has a different cluster size setting than another, the reported size may vary a bit, but the actual file stays the same in terms of quality. Check out this article for a deeper dive: [Why is the same file a different size in different places?](https://askleo.com/why-is-the-same-file-a-different-size-in-different-places/).
Just a heads up, the USB drive weight doesn’t actually change based on the files you copy to it. That stays the same regardless! So you don’t have to worry about the 'weight' of the drive affecting your music quality or anything.
You're likely seeing size differences due to the different file systems in use, like FAT32 or exFAT. As long as you copied it correctly, the music quality remains the same, regardless of the size showing on the drive. It's just a technicality with how files are stored!
Thanks for clarifying that! I thought there might be a more technical reason behind it.