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smitty1228 Author

Level 1

8 points

How to connect my 2013 Macbook Air (that has a Thunderbolt 2 port) to docking station

I have a 2013 MacBook Air that has a Thunderbolt 2 port, and two USB (not USB-C though) ports. My husband has a docking station for his Surface Pro (which is compatible with Macs too). The docking station connects with a USB-C port on the back of it, but the cable from that port to his laptop has a USB 3.0 connector on the other end. So the cable between the dock and his surface pro has USB-C on one end (which plugs into the docking station) and USB 3.0 (which plugs into his Surface Pro). The docking station has an external monitor plugged into it via HDMI.

When I plug the connector cable from the docking station into the USB port on my 2013 MacBook, it does not work - my MacBook does not find the monitor.

I cannot find an adapter that converts TB 2 (male) to TB 3 (female).

Any ideas on how to make this work?

Posted on Aug 16, 2020 4:14 PM

Top-ranking reply

Axel Foley

Level 10

149,736 points

Posted on Aug 18, 2020 6:07 PM

How about connecting your MacBook Air directly to the external display with a HDMI cable and bypassing the Docking station all together? You can try using the ➔ ThunderBolt (MiniDisplay Port) to HDMI Cable and connect the MacBook Air directly to your external display. The item shown in the link above is just an example.

NOTE as a FYI - Whether you have a USB port speed which USB 1, 2 or 3, the USB connector itself is the same. Of course the connector changes when USB-C gets in the picture.

Axel F.

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How to connect my 2013 Macbook Air (that has a Thunderbolt 2 port) to docking station

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