Connect external Thunderbolt 3 drive to iMac Thunderbolt 2 port?

Question

Level 1

84 points

Connect external Thunderbolt 3 drive to iMac Thunderbolt 2 port?

I have an external (LaCie) hard drive with Thunderbolt 3 port. Is it possible to connect that drive through some combination of cables and/or adapters to one of the Thunderbolt 2 ports on my late 2015 iMac?

Note that Apple's "Thunderbolt 2 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter" does NOT do this: it seems to have a female Thunderbolt 2 port on one end and a male Thunderbolt 3 jack on the other end -- which is just the opposite of the way I need to go!

iMac, macOS High Sierra (10.13.4), 4.0GHz Corei7, 32GB, 3Tb Fusion

Posted on Jun 23, 2018 3:16 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

Malcolm J. Rayfield

Level 7

22,945 points

Jun 24, 2018 2:50 PM in response to murrayE

Plug the adapter's Thunderbolt-3 male connector into the LaCie drive and use a Thunderbolt cable to connect the adapters Thunderbolt-2 port to the iMac.

https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MD861LL/A/apple-thunderbolt-cable-20-m

Reply

Answer 2

murrayE Author

Level 1

84 points

Jun 25, 2018 6:31 AM in response to Malcolm J. Rayfield

Thanks for that solution! What had confused me was the incomplete information on the LaCie web site: it said simply, "Apple's Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter...provides easy connection between LaCie Thunderbolt 3 solutions and Macs with earlier generations of Thunderbolt technology." And except for the Thunderbolt 3 - to - Thunderbolt 3 cable that came with the drive, there was no Thunderbolt-to-Thunderbolt cable, which was the missing component to make the connection.

(I've written now to LaCie telling them of this annoying, material omission!)

Reply

Connect external Thunderbolt 3 drive to iMac Thunderbolt 2 port?

Similar questions