MacOS – Can you use a Thunderbolt 3 cable to connect two Macbook 12-inch in target disk mode

macostarget-disk-modethunderboltusb

I'm working as a technician and would like to learn the capabilities of these cables.

I know a USB-C 3.1 gen. 2 can do it, but I'd like to know if a Thunderbolt-3 cable would do it.

I know that you cannot use the thunderbolt 3 cable to connect a Macbook 12-inch to a Mac with Thunderbolt-3 port, as Thunderbolt ports seem to only accept Thunderbolt cables for data transfer (and I tried to and didn't work).

Can you use a Thunderbolt 3 cable to connect two Macbook 12-inch in target disk mode?

Best Answer

The Macbooks connector is only USB-C (USB 3.1 Gen 1), which is not Thunderbolt 3.

  • You can't connect in target disk mode via a thunderbolt 3 cable.
  • You can use USB-C data cable to connect in USB target disk mode.

(Not that this helps, but the Macbook Pro has native thunderbolt 3 support, and would work in this manner.)

You also can use migration assistant over ethernet if you have a usb-c ethernet on both ends or WiFi, if moving accounts is your ultimate goal.

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