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Why are there like no thunderbolt 3 splitters I can find?

iemcj

iemcj

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 31, 2015
488
173
I'm on an Imac and I'm tired of having to constantly swap out all my external drives that use t3. I have a 40 dollar adapter for regular USB that I can have 8 different devices plugged into it but I cannot for the life of me find anything online that does that with thunderbolt 3 devices.

Am I missing a way to search for them on amazon or something? All I need is a basic 1 male to 2 (or hopefully more) female ends.
 
Last edited:
There's no such thing as a Thunderbolt "hub" - it doesn't work that way.

Instead, most thunderbolt devices should have two ports, to allow "daisy chaining" (i.e. connected in series to each other, rather than in parallel to a "hub" like with USB).
 
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Stephen.R said:
There's no such thing as a Thunderbolt "hub" - it doesn't work that way.

Instead, most thunderbolt devices should have two ports, to allow "daisy chaining" (i.e. connected in series to each other, rather than in parallel to a "hub" like with USB).
Click to expand...
>doesn't work like that

Really? That's a huge bummer, I've been doing USB hubs for over a decade. How could it be that a new technology would take such a huge step backwards? Everything from usb to HDMI cables have hubs and splitters available.

And I have several external SSD and HDD drives that use t3 and none of them have an external port like that.
 
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iemcj said:
I've been doing USB hubs for over a decade. How could it be that a new technology would take such a huge step backwards? Everything from usb to HDMI cables have hubs and splitters available.
Click to expand...

Pretty much all technologies have trade-offs to make.

USB uses a "hub" concept, Thunderbolt uses the "daisy chain" concept that Firewire and SCSI used.

Out of interest, what TB3 drives do you have, that don't have downstream TB3 ports on them? It's only usually portable devices or very high bandwidth devices (like eGPU cases) that don't provide the chaining port.
 
iemcj said:
>doesn't work like that

Really? That's a huge bummer, I've been doing USB hubs for over a decade. How could it be that a new technology would take such a huge step backwards? Everything from usb to HDMI cables have hubs and splitters available.

And I have several external SSD and HDD drives that use t3 and none of them have an external port like that.
Click to expand...
Thunderbolt ≠ USB

No version of Thunderbolt supports a hub topography. Thunderbolt is more like PCI bus; not really like USB. The confusing factor is that Thunderbolt 3 uses the same connector (but not cables) as USB-C.

Thunderbolt 1 and 2 used the same connector (but, again, not cables) as mini-DisplayPort, FYI.

There are, however, USB-C docks which have multiple USB-C ports on them, by the way.

Are your drives truly Thunderbolt 3 or are they USB-C??
 
phorim said:
www.owcdigital.com

OWC Thunderbolt Hub: More Ports, More Power, More Creativity

Enhance your setup with 3 Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) and 1 USB 3.2 port. Perfect for creatives needing seamless access to storage, displays, and accessories.
www.owcdigital.com www.owcdigital.com

It only took a year since you posted for someone to make something specifically for what you want.
Click to expand...
Awesome! Any idea when it'll be available? Doesn't look like you can actually buy it there unfortunately.

System Requirements
  • Works with any Thunderbolt 4 PC
    • Windows 10 or later

Oh. That's a problem.
 
iemcj said:
Awesome! Any idea when it'll be available? Doesn't look like you can actually buy it there unfortunately.

System Requirements
  • Works with any Thunderbolt 4 PC
    • Windows 10 or later
Oh. That's a problem.
Click to expand...
Look at the link I posted in the post above yours. OWC states that the hub will work with any Thunderbolt 3 equipped Mac that’s running 11.1 or later.
 
chrfr said:
This page mentions the Mac compatibility: https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/owc-thunderbolt-hub
Of course, this is still a vaporware product, so there's always the possibility of issues coming up.
Click to expand...
One of the big changes for thunderbolt 4 is support for hub-style connections. This is new and the OWC hub is one of just a few that are out now for this.

the Caldigit is another
www.macrumors.com

CalDigit's Latest Dock Features Four Thunderbolt 4 Ports and Four USB-A Ports

CalDigit today introduced a new "Element Hub" dock, equipped with four Thunderbolt 4 ports and four USB-A ports for connecting external...
www.macrumors.com www.macrumors.com
 
iemcj said:
>doesn't work like that

Really? That's a huge bummer, I've been doing USB hubs for over a decade. How could it be that a new technology would take such a huge step backwards? Everything from usb to HDMI cables have hubs and splitters available.

And I have several external SSD and HDD drives that use t3 and none of them have an external port like that.
Click to expand...
Yea, I agree. Just found this post. I have a top of the line Wavlink $80 Thunderbolt NVMe drive enclosure, and it only has one port. So now that port on my iMac is burned. I have a bunch of other drives, too, and now I don't know what I'm going to do.
 
main_ori_2d0ef533-274a-432c-900f-65bbf9c9ae9e.jpg
https://plugable.com/products/usb4-hub3a

Probably late for the party, but this also might be what you were looking for 3 years ago lol
 
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