“Would this adaptor work to connect a usb-c hard drive cable to a thunderbolt 2 MacBook port , by adding a small bidirectional thunderbolt 2 to thunderbolt 2 cable from the adaptor to the laptop port?”
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Unfortunately it did not work in my case. I have a Macbook Pro with USB 3,0 and Thunderbolt 2 ports. I purchased a 1 TB Samsung SSD T5 drive and this converter. I plugged the male end of the converter into my Thunderbolt 2 Macbook port and used a male to male USB-C cable between the other end of this converter and the SSD T5. Physically the connections worked perfectly but the MacBook never "saw" the drive. I tried each of the Thunderbolt ports on my MB. I hadn't used the TB ports for a couple of years so I took the connected drive to my wife's slightly newer MacBook to see if it worked with hers - nothing. The SSD came with two cables - a type C to type C connector and a USB 3.0 to type C connector. So I connected the SSD T5 to my MacBook's USB 3.0 port with the cable that came with the drive and noticed for the first time that the hard drive has a light that indicates it's being powered and the Mac recognized and mounted the drive. I went back to using this converter and sure enough, no light on the drive. I dug another converter out of my bottom drawer that converts the thunderbolt 2 to a VGA connector and connected that to the VGA port on my monitor - worked like a champ (just, again, verifying that the thunderbolt port was functioning correctly). I then made sure the Thunderbolt drivers were up to date - they were. After doing tons of web searching and reading forums tried all sorts of thing on the Mac - deleting the drivers and reinstalling, changing things in the system files, etc. all at no avail. Why all the fuss since the SSD works with the supplied USB 3.0 to type-C cable you ask? The hard drive is capable of 540 gbps data transfer, the Thunderbolt port can provide 20 gbps and the usb 3.0 port only 5gpbs. So while the thunderbolt 2 is still MUCH slower than the drive can support (the whole reason for spending the dough on an SSD drive) the USB 3.0 is only 25% as fast as that. So I made an appointment with the GEEK squad - strapped on my covid mask like a sheep and went to the store. These guys were CLUELESS about Macs. They tried tellingi me that the drive wasn't formatted correctly for a MAC. I showed them with the USB cable that I had already put 250GB of photos on the drive. Then they told me the Thunderbolt port on the Mac is only meant for displays. How can someone who calls himself a GEEK be so ignorant of the best computer in the world?!! I see people telling you that this converter works for exactly what I'm trying to do but I'm telling you it does not. My GUESS is that if you're using it for the data transfer and the device that you're plugging it into has an external power source of its own it will work fine but if this connection is for both data and to supply power to the device as in this case that you're out of luck. I returned the converter and use the SSB with the USB 3.0 connector. The 5 GBPS xfer rate is not what I had hoped for but still much faster than a platter spinning hard would give me.
Sorry, there was a problem. Please try again later.Yes, you would connect the usb-c end of the adapter into the hard drive. I use this configuration on my Apollo Twin X audio interface which has a usb-c port, then I connect a thunderbolt 2 cable to the adapter, then plug that into my macbook’s thunderbolt 2 port. You max out at thunderbolt 2 speeds.
Sorry, there was a problem. Please try again later.This adapter will not pass power to attached devices. it will work only if your attached storage or devices are powered on their own
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