My late 2015 iMac will not mount my 2018 MacBook Pro.

How can I mount my 2018 MacBook Pro as a target disk so that I can access its files via my desktop iMac (late 2015)? I'm using Mojave 10.14.4

I have tried a Thunderbolt 3 (USB-c) to Thunderbolt 2 adapter. I also tried a Belkin USBC-C to USB-A cable. But I can't see the contents of my laptop from my desktop. I am a photographer and need to upload thousands of large photos from laptop after several weeks in the field. Wifi too slow. I used to do this regularly with my old mid 2010 laptop and it worked fine. But when I upgraded at the end of 2018 to a new laptop, I could not successfully link the two. Apple tech support does not have the talent to help. I have worked with several people so far.

MacBook Pro 13”, macOS 10.14

Posted on Jun 17, 2019 2:55 PM

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Posted on Jun 17, 2019 4:40 PM

Just to be clear, you are booting up your 2018 MacBook Pro holding down the T key on startup to get it into Target Disk Mode, yes? Do you see a screen like this:



If so, on your Late-2015 iMac you should be able to plug it in with either of those cables you have and Disk Utility should see the drive that you can then mount. Though you can try with either cable, the Thunderbolt 3->Thunderbolt 2 one would definitely be faster.


If you get to the point where it's mounted and you put in your username/password for your MacBook Pro user account you should be able to right-click on that mounted drive and select Open In Finder and drill down into the /Users folder and find your files.


I haven't done this in ages honestly (and definitely not with a USB-C based Mac), but I don't believe this has changed at all. Let me know if this is not happening.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jun 17, 2019 4:40 PM in response to lindaruthe

Just to be clear, you are booting up your 2018 MacBook Pro holding down the T key on startup to get it into Target Disk Mode, yes? Do you see a screen like this:



If so, on your Late-2015 iMac you should be able to plug it in with either of those cables you have and Disk Utility should see the drive that you can then mount. Though you can try with either cable, the Thunderbolt 3->Thunderbolt 2 one would definitely be faster.


If you get to the point where it's mounted and you put in your username/password for your MacBook Pro user account you should be able to right-click on that mounted drive and select Open In Finder and drill down into the /Users folder and find your files.


I haven't done this in ages honestly (and definitely not with a USB-C based Mac), but I don't believe this has changed at all. Let me know if this is not happening.

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My late 2015 iMac will not mount my 2018 MacBook Pro.

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