Hi all - thanks in advance for any help here. This post is related to: Cannot upgrade Thunderbolt firmware on mid-2011 iMac. That post was about Target Display Mode, but it turns out that this isn't a TDM issue, it's a Thunderbolt cable connectivity issue.
When I connect two Macs with a Thunderbolt cable & then go to the Thunderbolt entry in System Report, it says "No device connected"
Here's the quick situation:
- I'm trying to connect a late 2013 MacBook Pro Retina to a mid-2011 iMac 21.5" - both are running the latest version of Yosemite
-- I also have a mid 2013 MacBook Air running Mavericks - it has the same behavior
- When I connect the two machines with a Thunderbolt cable & then go to the Thunderbolt entry in System Report for either machine, it says "No device connected"
- If I connect an older MacBook Air (say mid-2011), both the Air and the iMac see the cable connection & Target Display Mode works
- If I connect my late 2013 MacBook Pro to a newer iMac, everything (e.g. Target Display Mode) also works
| Laptop | IMac | Thunderbolt Mac-Mac Connection Works*? |
|---|
| mid-2011 | mid-2011 | yes |
| mid-2013 (Air or MBPr) | mid-2011 | no |
| mid-2013 (Air or MBPr) | current | yes |
* "Works" means that both machines recognize that there's a Thunderbolt device connected.
So, here's the quick summary:
- Thunderbolt ports seem to work on all machines
-- TDM works on all machines... sometimes
-- Thunderbolt Ethernet adapter works on all machines
- Thunderbolt ports don't seem to work when specific combinations of Macs are connected with a Tbolt cable
Does anyone have any insight or experience here?
I'm getting help from the Genius Bar in parallel to this (they're being very helpful, which is great!) and I'll let the community know how that goes. I just wanted to see if anyone here had had a similar experience and been able to solve it.
Thanks in advance for any help!
