Thunderbolt 3 Mac Pro in Target Disk Mode with Older Mac?

Question

Thunderbolt 3 Mac Pro in Target Disk Mode with Older Mac?

The display on my son's 1-year old Macbook Pro has gone kaput. He hasn't taken a backup of it in over a month. So, we're putting it into target disk mode and trying to connect it to a 2015 MBP to run a backup. The thing is, I don't have any Thunderbolt 3 - Thunderbolt 2 adapters. I do have gazillions of USB 3.0 - 3.1 cables.

Is there any way I can do this via USB? When I connect the two computers, the 2015 MBP delivers a message that I must connect them via Thunderbolt. Now, that MBP is running Sierra. If I update it to run something more current, would that make it work?

Thanks!

MacBook Pro 15", macOS 10.12

Posted on Oct 18, 2019 5:03 PM

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Answer 1

Oct 19, 2019 8:07 AM in response to Gary Beberman

Those articles are written and reviewed by mathematical thinkers. You must read them literally, and read nothing into them atet is not explicitly stated.

Connect your computers with the correct cable:

Identify the ports on both Mac computers so that you can choose the correct cable. Target disk mode works when your computers are connected to each other using any of these ports:

Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C)
USB-C
Thunderbolt 2
FireWire

No listing of USB-A ports there. USB-A has NEVER worked in older computers, even if USB3-capable.

I expect they are showing that Belkin cable for use with a Thunderbolt3-capable computer, which uses its USB more interchangeably with ThunderBolt than any computer that came before.

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Answer 2

Oct 19, 2019 5:47 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Thanks Grant. So, I discovered! Did I misread that page from Apple? Why do you think they say that if we want "To connect a USB-C port to a USB-A port, use a USB-A to USB-C cable that supports USB 3.0 or USB 3.1, such as the Belkin USB-A to USB-C Cable (USB 3.1)."?

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