2022-09-29T17:41:58+01:00 Zend_Feed_Writer https://www.augwessex.org.uk/discussions/view/2091 AUGW info@augwessex.org.uk https://www.augwessex.org.uk/ 2022-09-28T16:11:28+01:00 https://www.augwessex.org.uk/discussions/view/2091#10411 Lionel Ogden info@augwessex.org.uk https://www.augwessex.org.uk/ I have a caddy with an external HD fitted which purports to be Thunderbolt compatible. So I bought a thunderbolt lead to connect it to my iMac, bu on checking System Information no device is shown to be connected to the thunderbolt port. Is it necessary to Initialise a Thunderbolt device or do some suppliers use the term thunderbolt when they should mean USB C? 2022-09-28T23:11:08+01:00 https://www.augwessex.org.uk/discussions/view/2091#10412 Tony Still info@augwessex.org.uk https://www.augwessex.org.uk/ Can you see the device connected on a USB bus somewhere? That would give you a clue what it was actually doing. USB-C describes a physical connector and most modern Thunderbolt ports use it. That socket/cable/plug can carry a variety of services including Thunderbolt and Thunderbolt can carry USB format data. I guess that some less scrupulous suppliers might therefore claim Thunderbolt-compatible for devices that you and I would not consider merited that. I have a USB-3.1 cable and a Thunderbolt 3 cable here, each having USB-C connectors on each end. I was moved to write on each of them what they were because they are so subtly labelled! 2022-09-28T23:57:31+01:00 https://www.augwessex.org.uk/discussions/view/2091#10413 Andrew Kemp info@augwessex.org.uk https://www.augwessex.org.uk/ Is the socket that it is plugged into on the Mac definitely a Thunderbolt port? The 2021 iMac has two USB-C sockets that are Thunderbolt 3 ports, and two USB-C sockets that only do USB 3. 2022-09-29T10:39:59+01:00 https://www.augwessex.org.uk/discussions/view/2091#10414 Lionel Ogden info@augwessex.org.uk https://www.augwessex.org.uk/ It is a 2017 iMac with two Thunderbolt ports which are shown on system information but with nothing connected. However the caddy is shown to be connected via USB3. 2022-09-29T17:41:58+01:00 https://www.augwessex.org.uk/discussions/view/2091#10416 Tony Still info@augwessex.org.uk https://www.augwessex.org.uk/ Just to expand on my previous comment (that reads a little cryptically a day later): A Thunderbolt port (through its USB-C connector) will automatically configure itself as a USB port if it detects a USB device being connected. That is presumably what you're seeing. An unscrupulous vendor could say "it connects correctly to a Thunderbolt port so it is Thunderbolt compatible"; that just isn't what the majority of us would expect the words to mean. It would be a bit like Zoom's original claim that it provided end-to-end encryption of video calls: when caught out they effectively said that they had a different definition of what 'end-to-end encryption' actually means than the rest of the industry.