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I have more than one Mac Book Pro, and need to transfer large files between them.

Can I repurpose the USBC cable for power to transfer between Mac Books?

Is there a better/faster cable, or way to transfer files between MacBooks?

makerofthings7
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1 Answers1

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The charger included with the 2016 MacBook Pro is a standard USB Type C cable. It should achieve speeds of up to 10gbps. If you'd like speeds of up to 40gbps, I'd buy an official thunderbolt 3 cable from Apple. These should have the highest speeds.

NOTE: My bad, I looked into it and the cable is a standard USB C cable, not thunderbolt. Answer has been changed to reflect that.

jacksonwelsh
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  • I thought I read somewhere that not all USBC cables themselves are equal. – makerofthings7 Feb 10 '17 at 20:17
  • @LamonteCristo well how big is the file you're moving? There are some sizes where it really won't matter. – jacksonwelsh Feb 10 '17 at 22:29
  • @LamonteCristo I noticed that the cable is actually USB c, not thunderbolt. The answer now reflects that. – jacksonwelsh Feb 10 '17 at 22:32
  • Thanks. This is the article that confused me earlier http://blog.fosketts.net/2016/10/29/total-nightmare-usb-c-thunderbolt-3/ – makerofthings7 Feb 10 '17 at 22:42
  • @LamonteCristo it confused me too :). From what it seems, USB c is capped at 5, not 10. SSUSB (blue ports) are capped at 5. For maximum throughput, you'll want any thunderbolt 3 port – jacksonwelsh Feb 10 '17 at 22:46
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    From https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/321159/use-the-bundled-usb-c-cable-with-target-mode, it seems to be just USB 2.0 speed. – Kenston Choi Mar 01 '20 at 08:31
  • I do not agree with your claim that "It should achieve speeds of up to 10gbps". As is said in https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208368 - The Apple USB-C Charge Cable is longer (2m) and also supports charging, but data-transfer speed is limited to 480Mbps (USB 2.0) and it doesn't support video. You only expect 480Mbps there at best. – aafulei Jul 16 '23 at 03:39