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AppleFanBoy888

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 17, 2010
110
30
Hello,

I have an M1 iPad Pro and a 16" M1 Max MacBook Pro and I wanted them to sync faster so I bought a Thunderbolt 4 cable from Cable Matters but unfortunately, it's not being detected by my MacBook Pro (according to the System Information app), it only charges the iPad Pro. At first, I thought the cable was faulty but it works fine with my External USB-C SSD. Not sure what's going on since they both have a Thunderbolt port. Has anybody here successfully connected their iPad Pro via Thunderbolt to their Macs?

Thanks
 

AppleFanBoy888

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 17, 2010
110
30
I use Caldigit TB4 cable. No problem with MBP 16" 2019 and iPP M1 12.9.
Thanks for the input! Looks like I'm gonna exchange the Cable Matters with a Caldigit cable. I thought all the certified TB4 cables were all the same but I guess not?
 

andrewj

macrumors regular
Sep 4, 2008
234
37
I also had a similar issue where the iPad Pro was not recognized by the MBP with either the T3 or T4 cable. However, an older USB-C cable does work.
 

andrewj

macrumors regular
Sep 4, 2008
234
37
Thanks for the input! Looks like I'm gonna exchange the Cable Matters with a Caldigit cable. I thought all the certified TB4 cables were all the same but I guess not?
To clarify, I think the difference is that you have the new M1 Max, whereas the other poster who wasn't having an issue with the Thunderbolt cable is using an older 2019 MBP. I have the same problem with connecting the iPad Pro with the M1 Max MBP with a Thunderbolt cable.
 

andrewj

macrumors regular
Sep 4, 2008
234
37
To follow up, I think this is an issue related to Monterey and/or the new Macbook Pro M1 Max. I tried the same Thunderbolt 4 cable with a 2019 Macbook Pro running Big Sur 11.3.1. With the older MBP, the iPad Pro shows up in the finder, and Sidecar will connect to the iPad Pro without WiFi.
 

bilbo--baggins

macrumors 6502a
Jan 6, 2006
766
109
UK
My M1 iPad Pro isn’t recognised by my 2019 Intel iMac when connected with the Apple Thunderbolt 3 cable. My local Apple Store did some testing and they also found that M1 iPad Pro’s didn’t connect to Intel Macs with this cable, but did connect to M1 MacBook Pro’s (that was before the launch of the M1 Pro / M1 Max models). I wonder if a Thunderbolt 4 cable would work - any recommendations : ideally has anyone successfully got Thunderbolt speeds connecting M1 iPad Pro to an Intel iMac?
 

4np

macrumors 6502a
Feb 23, 2005
972
2
The Netherlands
Using the CalDigit Thunderbolt 4 cable (supports TB 4, TB 3, USB-C 4/3.2/3.0/2.0 and 100W PD), my iPad Pro 12.9" M1 is reported in System Profiler as using a USB 3.1 connection (10GB/s) to my MacBook Pro 15" mid 2018 (which has four TB 3 ports) rather than using an -expected- TB 3 connection. The same happens when connected to my M1 MacMini, which supports USB 4 / TB 3 (40GB/s). Strange though, as iPad Pro M1 also has Thunderbolt 3 / USB 4 connectivity so I would expect it to use TB 3 / USB 4 (40GB/s) connections rather than USB 3.1 (10GB/s) in both cases? It's probably fast enough for Sidecar, but I still wonder why this happens?

CalDigit TB4 Cable.jpg
 
Last edited:

gnomeisland

macrumors 65816
Jul 30, 2008
1,097
833
New York, NY
No idea if this helps, but I had ongoing SideCar-over-USB problems with my 2018 iPP (yes, I realize it wasn't TB/USB4). What finally worked was a DFU reset. I appears I had some firmware glitch. The iPad would show up in system profiler and behaved fine, could even transfer files, but SideCar refused to see it over USB.

Anyway, might be worth a try if your iPad is fully backed up.
 
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