A phone collection usually takes 1 to 1.5 hours. This article covers what to check when it is taking longer than that and when it has stopped at 99%. If you see an error message instead, see Troubleshooting phone collection errors.
Taking a long time
It is normal for the first few percent to go slowly. The phone and computer are establishing the connection and preparing the data. This part almost always speeds up once the transfer gets going.
The timer should be counting up, the progress bar should be moving, and the data transfer numbers should be updating. As long as any of those are moving, the collection is running. Large files like photos and videos can make it look frozen while a big chunk transfers. In that case, keep the phone connected and give it more time.
A few things affect how fast it goes: the amount of data on the phone, the USB cable's transfer speed, the computer's performance, and the type of storage you are saving to. Plan for about 1 to 1.5 hours for most phones. Phones with a lot of photos, videos, or 150GB+ of data can take longer. Large iPhones that connect with a Lightning cable are a lot slower than phones that connect over USB-C.
Standard flash drives and external hard drives (HDDs) have much slower write speeds than an SSD. If you have access to an SSD, you can stop the current collection by unplugging the phone, switch to the SSD, and start again. See How to prepare for a phone collection for recommended drives.
Keep the phone plugged in and the Hearsay Extractor open until the collection finishes.
Stuck at 99%
At 99%, the Extractor is organizing and processing everything it collected from the phone. This is the final stage and it can take a while, depending on how much data there is and the speed of the computer, especially if you are saving to a flash drive. Give it 30 minutes in total before troubleshooting. You can tell it is still working if the Extractor window is responsive (not grayed out) and has not shown an error message.
If it is still at 99% after 30 minutes, check whether the Extractor is responding. If the title bar says Not Responding (Windows) or the screen is frozen and unclickable (Mac), the app may have stalled. Close and reopen the Extractor, then start the collection again using the same extraction code. Your previous progress will not carry over, but the new attempt often completes faster.
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