I have a 2015 mac with 4 USB and 2 thunderbolt ports. I recently bought a samsung T5 SSD to expand my storage.
The T5 works fine with the USB ports but when I plug it into the Thunderbolt 2 port using a USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 to thunderbolt 2 adapter the mac doesnt recognized the drive.
Thoughts?
iMac Line (2012 and Later)
The reason it does not work with Thunderbolt is that it is a USB drive and not Thunderbolt.
From the spec page:
https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/product/portable/t5/
If this is the adapter you have:
Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter - Apple
it only works with a Thunderbolt3 computer and a Thunderbolt 2 device.
On your machine, what you need is a very simple USB-C to USB-A adapter
so you can plug into a USB port. Even if you were to find a Thunderbolt2 ->USB
adapter, it will likely only at best the max speed of thunderbolt2 but more
likely will support the older USB3 speeds.
Try the other port or find an adapter that works. Apple's adapter is supposed to work properly. Akito, I believe, makes a working adapter that I have used.
Thunderbolt 2 port not reading my samsung SSD T5
