Considering Mac mini upgrade from iMac Pro. Are Thunderbolt 4 ports compatible with USB-C connectors?

Thunderbolt 3/4 and USB-C share the same port on the new Mac's.

Sadly going from FireWire 800 to USB-C requires two expensive adapters. A FireWire to Thunderbolt 2 adapter (that Apple no longer sales) and a Thunderbolt 2 to Thunderbolt/USB-C adapter.

What old obsolete FireWire 800 devices do you have? If they are combo external drives that have both FireWire and USB connections. Then your best bet, is to set aside the FireWire cables and use the USB cables that came with the external drives.

OnTheRez wrote:

Have searched this in detail w/o a definite answer, re: current MacMini with 'Thunderbolt 4' ports. It seems earlier TBolt ports (firewire 800) weren't compatible with anything else. It also appears - from some sources - that the two now accept the same shape connector. I fell into the trap of TB-1/2 which was compatible only with Apple products. Don't want to make the same mistake again.

Firewire is also known as IEEE 1394 – after the standard that defines it. Firewire has several types of connectors – the 4 and 6 pin Firewire 400 ones; and the Firewire 800 ones. None of them are Thunderbolt connectors.

Thunderbolt 1 and 2 piggybacked on the Mini DIsplayPort connector. Windows PC makers could have chosen to include Thunderbolt 1 and 2 ports. By and large, they chose not to, Still, nobody put a gun to their head and said "You can't".

When Intel was working on Thunderbolt 3, they saw what was going on with USB-C development and decided that Thunderbolt would have a brighter future on the USB-C connector. This proved correct. However, at the time that Thunderbolt 1 came out, there was no USB-C connector that Thunderbolt could have piggybacked on.

lanstrad1 wrote:

In case you use firewire-bassd audio interface, be aware that even if you end up finding those expensive adapters (TB to FW), you may lose important features. This is how i ended up selling an expensive RME interface 3 years ago.

There are reports elsewhere in these forums that current versions of macOS do not have Core Audio support for Firewire devices.

This means that Firewire audio devices without their own drivers – ones that operated in "plug and play" fashion before – now will not work on the affected versions of macOS.

In case you use firewire-bassd audio interface, be aware that even if you end up finding those expensive adapters (TB to FW), you may lose important features. This is how i ended up selling an expensive RME interface 3 years ago.