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storkslair Author

Level 1

11 points

target mode mac pro 2019 not working

Hi,

I am trying to speed up a transfer to my new mac pro using target disk mode as gigbit ethernet will take hours. I got a thunderbolt 2 to 3 connection working but for whatever reason (and i've read this happening elsewhere), the speed was slower than gigabit ethernet.

I finally broke down and put the mac pro into target mode. In target mode, none of its drives mounted for either my mac mini (with a thunderbolt 3 to thunderbolt 2 adapter+ apple thunderbolt cable Nor with a new macbookair with thunderbolt 3 connected directly by thunderbolt 3 cable. In both cases I connected to each in turn of the two top thunderbolt 3 (usb c sized) holes.

It is feeling like it doesn't work. I do indeed get the moving thunderbolt icon on the screen.

Potential variables (I don't want to mess with):

-There is a bootcamp drive. I don't think this hurt me in the past

-I have the Promise R4i in there with about 5 volumes; at least one of those is ExFAT.

Thanks for any help.

Mac Pro, macOS 10.15

Posted on Jan 25, 2021 1:55 AM

Top-ranking reply

Grant Bennet-Alder

Level 10

133,231 points

Posted on Jan 25, 2021 7:03 AM

be sure you are religiously following the steps in this article:

Transfer files between two Mac computers using target disk mode - Apple Support

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My experience with Gigabit Ethernet is that it provides "near hard drive" speeds when used with jumbo frames and NO portion Is over Wi-Fi.

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target mode mac pro 2019 not working

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