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which cable to use to connect two thunderbolt4 Mac book pros

I need to transfer some files from my 2015 MacBook Pro to my 2020 MacBook Pro. Which cable would I need to do that? Thank you.

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 12.7

Posted on Nov 30, 2023 4:15 PM

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Posted on Nov 30, 2023 4:38 PM

It might make more sense to buy a USB 3 flash drive, hard drive, or SSD, and use that to move the files.


Just the other week, for instance, a local store had credit-card-sized 1 TB SSDs on sale for ~$60. USB flash drives with 32 – 128 GB of storage can go for under $20 on sale.


With the Thunderbolt adapters and cabling, if you only use those once, you might be kicking yourself for spending $80 for that one-time transfer.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Nov 30, 2023 4:38 PM in response to hecat65

It might make more sense to buy a USB 3 flash drive, hard drive, or SSD, and use that to move the files.


Just the other week, for instance, a local store had credit-card-sized 1 TB SSDs on sale for ~$60. USB flash drives with 32 – 128 GB of storage can go for under $20 on sale.


With the Thunderbolt adapters and cabling, if you only use those once, you might be kicking yourself for spending $80 for that one-time transfer.

Nov 30, 2023 4:25 PM in response to hecat65

2015 MacBook Pros have Thunderbolt 2 ports. Those used Mini DisplayPort connectors. Thunderbolt 3 and 4 live on USB-C connectors.


So if you were trying to make a Thunderbolt connection – to use Thunderbolt Target Disk Mode, or to set up an IP-over-Thunderbolt network (Thunderbolt Bridge) and do network file sharing over that, you would need roughly $80 in Thunderbolt connection hardware:


  • Apple Thunderbolt 3-to-2 adapter ($50)
  • Thunderbolt 1/2 cable ($30?)

which cable to use to connect two thunderbolt4 Mac book pros

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