USB Type C to Type A cable won't work on Mac A4 Mini

As you will be familiar with given your sixty years’ experience, hardware integration usually involves testing and verification, particularly when establishing a new configuration. And sometimes swapping a cable or scrapping a cable is necessary.

Check with the tech specs and then with the vendors of the adapters and cables.

Some (all) of the cables here can be (are) directional, and purpose-intended, such as cables intended for charging USB-A device only from a USB-C socket.

There are also cable-testing tools around, and those can potentially spot wiring limits, issues, and some other faults.

As you will undoubtedly be aware, being a “letter” in the USB world, USB-C is not a protocol spec, it is a connector spec. Same as USB-B and USB-A. Different devices can use different communications protocols via USB-C, and different devices can have different power limits, such as the differences in available power from USB-A with 5W, 10A, and 12W options.

In this case, I’d wonder if those were purpose-built charging cables, without even USB communications. In years past, with a serial cable providing just comms, or a cable with limited modem control, or a cable with full modem control. All of which should be familiar.

A USB extender is going to be even more sensitive to these details too, just as serial muxes had issues with serial lines and serial cables thirty and forty years ago. More recently, we had trouble getting slightly-long USB runs to work with some devices with no extenders, and the same wiring worked fine with other devices. Same getting longer serial wiring runs working, some vendors’ gear was over-built and worked, other.vendors’ gear could be closer to the official spec and didn’t work with out-of-spec cable run lengths.

Depending on what you’re connecting via that USB extender, there may be an alternative to using a USB extender, too. Whether that’s Bluetooth or Wi-Fi or a connection to some RPi-like device? Or using an extender with a USB-C connector.

The 1960s had (many) similar messes with vendor cabling (standard DB25, DE9, etc connectors with all sorts of different signaling and pin-outs) and even getting same-vendor memory modules to work together in same-vendor computers requiring what amounted to module-level mastermind, and even into the 1980s there were differing SCSI buses that could fry mismatched gear (HVD, LVD, etc), so all of this integration and testing work should be quite familiar to you.

Your description lacks information as to what devices you are actually attempting to interconnect - this being significant to comprehension of precisely what you are attempting to achieve.

Interconnecting USB devices is not simply a case of finding a combination of cable and/or adapters that appear to connect together. USB-C ports and connections are, perhaps contrary to expectations, not universal. USB-C defines the physical connector - not the wiring or the services (of which there are many) that are supported by the connection. USB Type-A device connections (that by definition will incorporate a USB Root Hub/Controller) must always connect to a USB Type-B connection - or with an appropriate cable, to a USB-C device or accessory.

I think apple screwed up with the mini or is protecting so we have to buy overpriced peripherals. Wish I could help, but this community seems void of anything constructive. I will keep checking your feed to see if you get any useful results and wish you the best of luck!

I am having similar problems with webcams and other devices. A few times the keyboard via usb didn't respond but that seems to be fixed. The biggest problem has been with my webcams. I am using my iPhone but that is an expensive cam. I bought 3 moderately priced webcams. The first said it was Mac compatible and didn't work. The others work fine on other Macs but have bad connection from the C ports with adapters, I have bought and used 4 different A-C adapters with no luck or fix. Even after I bought a base there are still connection issues.

JAFO1985 wrote:

I think apple screwed up with the mini or is protecting so we have to buy overpriced peripherals. Wish I could help, but this community seems void of anything constructive. I will keep checking your feed to see if you get any useful results and wish you the best of luck!

I am having similar problems with webcams and other devices…

Please start your own thread for your own gear, and with details of your own configuration, as you’re probably not trying to get a USB extender working via some adapters. In particular, whether the webcams are USB-C or Bluetooth, or are USB-A with adapters, or otherwise.

And if you are using adapters akin to part of the discussion in this thread, and your webcam needs lots of power for some reason, check that the USB-C to USB-A adapter can provide enough power.

Also check with the webcam vendors’ support, as they can be familiar with issues involving their products.

Why a new thread? Mixed-questions threads tend to get confusing, particularly when the configuration details diverge.

Opened a thread with no results, this was similar and thought I would let him know he is not alone. My adapter works fine for iPhone but the others don't. Work for webcam and on/off for ssd which isn't as important to me. I will look at specs more, was looking at high speed data earlier. But I may have to buy an earlier iPhone to use. Jokes on me, yes wrong thread but I got more information here than I did with my actual question.